Health Insurance Reform

Apparently, this television ad really rattled Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, one of the Democrats who is trying to kill health insurance reform:



Nelson called the Nebraska businessman cited in the ad, Michael Snider, to explain his position:

"He said if we went with a full public option -- which he called a government plan -- it would drive the price down and hurt private companies. I said, 'you mean competition.' And he replied that it would force people off the private plan and onto the government plan."

Of course, no one would be "forced" off the private plan by the availability of a government plan. What's forcing people off private plans is their cost!

When you take $2 million+ from insurance company lobbyists, you have to be prepared to have people suspect you're putting insurance company interests ahead of your constituents'.

Page two.

Keep a close eye on television news in the next few days. The Teabagger Movement, those folks who were screaming about fascism just a month or two ago, has set its sights on disrupting Congressional town hall meetings, shouting down people who disagree with them. Talking Points Memo has been chronicling their activities.

Our eagle-eye press, on the other hand, is reporting this as some sort of grass-roots reaction to health insurance reform, as though these brownshirts had wandered into the meetings independently of one another.

Kevin Drum quotes Marc Kleiman on the best tactic for handling these goons:

If I were a Member of Congress threatened by this nonsense, I wouldn't stop holding town meetings; I'd start out each meeting by welcoming my constituents and warning them that there's an organized group in the hall planning to disrupt the proceedings. Never pass up an opportunity to portray your opponents as extremists, especially when they are.

Will our wonderful Washington press wise up to what's happening? Don't bet on it.

Update: Credit where credit is due. Not 10 minutes after this was posted, ABC News carried a story about how the disruptions were being organized by low-lifes from the Bush Administration. They didn't actually use the word "low-lifes", I think. It would have been redundant.

Update: Publius at Obsidian Wings isn't concerned about the brownshirts. He's (She's?) concerned about the lies.