Mar 23 2010

Biden: big fucking deal.

Here’s the big fucking deal:

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Decline of the empire is unimpressed by “a rounding error in the right direction:”

Although the bill solves most of the coverage problem, it accounts for a mere fraction of the cost problem. A report by the centrist policy group Third Way estimated that the Senate legislation would save more than $800 billion over the next 15 years. That’s consistent with the CBO’s expectation that the Senate legislation and the reconciliation fixes would save more than a trillion dollars over the next 20 years.

…. But the savings amount to no more than a rounding error given the tens of trillions of dollars we’re going to spend over that period. It’s half of 1 percent of expected GDP.

Never mind all the dead babies.

Also, never mind the phrase “expected GDP.”  So, yeah, big fucking deal.

8 comments

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  2. lite u on fire……

    piss on u……

    and charge u for saving u from burning to death……

    pretty slick….

    • banger on March 24, 2010 at 00:23
    • #

    HC spending will be over 20% share of GDP from 17.2 % now. This is stunning! Yet the intellectual class in America shuts its clam. The financial criminality that is our banking system is one thing but fucking around with peoples health is another.

    We need an alternative health system.

    From Wikipedia:

    Barefoot doctors acted as a primary health-care provider at the grass-roots level. They were given a set of medicines, Western and Chinese that they would dispense. Often they grew their own herbs in the backyard. As Mao had called for, they tried to integrate both Western and Chinese medicine, like acupuncture and moxibustion. An important feature was that they were still involved in farm work, often spending as much as 50% of their time on this – this meant that the rural farmers perceived them as peers, and respected their advice more.[citation needed] They were integrated in a system where they could refer seriously ill people to township and county hospitals.

    Barefoot doctors provided mostly primary health care services, and focused on prevention rather than treatment.[1] They provided immunizations, delivery for pregnant women, and improvement of sanitation.[1] The income of the barefoot doctors was calculated as if it were agricultural work; they were paid roughly half of what a classically trained doctor made.[1] This funding came from collective welfare funds as well as from local farmer contributions (from 0.5% to 2% of their annual incomes).[2] This program was successful in part because the doctors were selected and paid by their own villages. By the 1960s, there were RCMS programs in 90% of China’s rural villages.[1]

    The work of the barefoot doctors effectively reduced health care costs in the People’s Republic of China, and provided primary care treatment to the rural farming population.[1] The World Health Organization regarded RCMS as a “successful example of solving shortages or medical services in rural areas”.

  4. the suffering would end up in convoluted, corporate boilerplate contracts for the benefit of management and shareholders at costs that will force people to work till they drop just to make enough money to see a doctor [after they drop]. What a brilliant way to reintroduce feudalism: Not only will the king tax you for your grain, but if you want continued water rights, you better pay the lord.  

    • Edger on March 25, 2010 at 03:47
    • #

    WASHINGTON, D.C.  Vice President Joseph Biden was rushed to Walter Reed Hospital for a brain scan today at the request of President Obama after Biden cast a pall over the signing of the health care reform bill by referring to it as a “big deal,” adding a vulgar word that means sexual intercourse.  “Joe is exhausted as we all are,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.  “He gets brain cramps around microphones.”

    “The tests showed that I do not have a brain or even any of its symptoms.”

    Biden passed the test with flying colors as the brain scan yielded only a “false positive.”  “For critics who have been sniping at me behind and in some cases in front of my back, I say to you-phooey!” Biden declared to cheering supporters before adjourning to a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant.

    More and better at open.salon

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