Obama Healthcare Reform Meeting

It was just political theater. I learned a few things about Republican fantasy-land rhetoric.

All businesses are small businesses. No big businesses exist.

The vast majority of people don't want the Senate bill... don't mention the popularity of the more liberal House bill.

You're against fraud, therefore, Democrats and O-Man are for fraud. (oops, guess not.)

Thick legislation looks intimidating, and you have to act like it is confusing, um... without looking stupid.

Call it "federal takeover" and not "national standards".

Even when the O-Man takes your side, you have to pretend it didn't happen, and keep talking.

Competition in a market fixes everything.

They don't want government in control; they want people in control. (i.e. every man is an insurance commissioner.)

And a few points about Democrat rhetoric:

Tell stories about constituents; use a lot of numbers.

Don't mention "the working class."

Tom Harkin's analogizing preexisting conditions to racial segregation... WTF?

You don't try to out-grandstand the O-man.

And a few things I liked:

Mike Enzi crammed a lot of information into one short speech. I didn't like his big idea, but liked the delivery.

David Plouffe is a theatrical genius.

And, the funny thing that may not have been raised enough, is that insurance is really finance. It's not health care. They just pay for healthcare. It's like a savings service that you draw out of to pay for services - and if there's a catastrophe, all the other people help pay for your catastrophe. It's a financing scheme.

All finance businesses are heavily regulated. The regulations define the businesses. You have credit unions, banks, stock brokerages, etc. Each type of business is narrowly defined. Insurance is the same thing.

Jon Stewart, Feb 26

He had an interesting take on it:
Jon Stewart on the Health Care Summit.