Announcer: Welcome back to The David Pakman Show.
David: Welcome back to the show. David Pakman here. Today on the bonus show, we'll be talking
about new information in Donald Rumsfeld's book "Known and Unknown", talking about the
context under which we went to Iraq and conversations with George W. Bush. It's fascinating, we'll
be talking about it later. Also, some for-profit college recruiters are using some incredible
recruiting tactics that you will not believe. Plenty more, we'll also hear from Louis about,
well, I won't even mention what, because it's just, it's quite the story. www.DavidPakman.com/membership.
I was thinking yesterday, what has been, after all of the hubbub and promises during the
campaign, what has actually been on the agenda of Republicans since taking over in the House
just a few weeks ago? And it's pretty shocking, actually, if you think about it, and it's
amazing that individually, some of these pieces are getting coverage in the media, but as
a whole, they are not.
And let's step back for a second and think about what has been the Republican priority.
Number one, over 10 attempts to repeal the health care bill, which is not going to go
anywhere, by the way, we know that. Redefining rape, John Boehner considered the redefining
of rape as only forcible rape would qualify women for Medicaid-funded safe, legal abortions.
John Boehner said that's a priority, OK? Claiming that they need more transparency but at the
same time choosing to keep cameras out of the House of Representatives, John Boehner,
probably because he doesn't want to be on-camera handing out those tobacco checks from a few
years ago. Creating birther laws. These have been some of the major initiatives of the
Republican Party.
And all the cutting spending stuff, yeah, we got a proposal. Many-- some components
were completely absurd, and the others were as expected, taking shots at arts, taking
shots at development for high-speed rail, Amtrak, and not really taking an honest look
at this war obsession that we have in this country, the military-industrial complex with
countless bases sprawling, and when I say countless, I don't mean five, sprawling across
the world, bases we don't need. No, the focus has really been quite disappointing, I think
is fair to say.
Louis: That and the majority of the legislation they're trying to pass really has no shot
at passing.
David: A lot of it is political posturing, absolutely.
Louis: So, yeah, it's just sad.
David: And again, not necessarily a question of left or right. The Republicans were the
ones who said we are taking over and now we are going to do great things, and it just
isn't happening. There's a lot of time being wasted reading the Constitution on the floor
of the House. Now, with regard to health care, specifically, remember, ladies and gentlemen,
Republicans, culture of life, all about life, except let's actually put lives at risk by
restricting access to legal and safe abortions, let's not cover people for pre-existing conditions,
let's make it incredibly difficult to obtain health care and let's put that up to a for-profit
system, I think we know at this point the culture of life is a complete sham.
Number one, the Obama administration fortunately has scored a legal victory on health care
in terms of the constitutionality. That was the new idea, it's unconstitutional to mandate
that people have health care. Well, not the case. A U.S. District Court judge, Keith Starrett,
in the Southern District of Mississippi, said that the individual mandate is not going to
warrant a repeal of the health care bill, it is not unconstitutional, and that's fantastic.
But then let's actually hear from some of these Republicans who want to repeal and replace
the whole thing. The irony is that a lot of freshman Republicans in the House are now
in health care hell, for lack of a better term. Politico interviewed several of these
GOP congressmen and congresswomen who opted out of congressional health care plans. Remember,
they opted out because they don't want any health care that the government is involved
in. They're all having second thoughts. And it's obvious. This is... it was written on
the wall. They're venturing into free-market health care, they were swept into office with
this Tea Party anger over the health care law, now some of them are facing $1200-a-month
premiums, significant rate hikes.
Here's a quote from Richard Nugent, Florida representative. "I have a neice who has pre-existing
conditions, and I worry about her if she ever has to lose her job." Every single House Republican,
remember, voted to repeal the health care law last month. The wife of another member
of Congress: "A pre-existing condition is held by his wife, she will need a procedure
in the coming months, but because he declined federal benefits, they're paying for it out
of pocket. Meanwhile, he's contributing to one of those famed health savings accounts
that we hear much about." You surprised about any of this, Louis?
Louis: I'm surprised that anyone would turn down the health care that the government offers
its employees.
David: It's the principle. It's the principle. And apparently, and listen, don't get too
sad. They still make $174,000 a year, much more... almost four times the average individual
salary in the U.S. But still, $1200 a month out of that is not insignificant. It is not
insignificant at all.
And some are now coming, some of these Republicans are saying well, the pre-existing conditions
thing I still want covered after what I've learned now since rejecting the congressional
health insurance and going into the free market. Don't be fooled by that, ladies and gentlemen.
Many Republicans, their best plan for people with pre-existing conditions is put them into
the high-risk pool, where their rate is 10 times that of the base rate. Does that seem
fair to you? Certainly not to me.
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