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Holding a whiteboard & yelling about a cost of health care reform, former Senior Bush advisor Karl Rove melted down on ABC’s This Week Sunday. Rove faced off against David Plouffe, one of President Barack Obama’s senior advisors.

Rove is a paid contributor for Fox News where he rarely receives a kind of debate offered by Plouffe.

Luke Russert, son of a late Tim Russert, took exception to Rove’s use of a whiteboard. “With all due respect to Mr. Rove, a man I find quite personable, a breakdown of #s on a whiteboard should only be done by 1 man,” tweeted Russert.

ROVE: Look, I think a country is better off if this thing doesn’t pass. This thing is $2.4 trillion for a first 10 years of its operation. This thing has 10 years’ worth of — of tax increases, $569 billion in tax increases, including $210 billion in a new payroll tax & a new 3.8 percent surtax on investments that’s going to make us less competitive, $500 billion-plus in Medicare cuts to pay for, in essence, four complete years of a operation of this program.

a subsidies don’t begin until year four & are not fully operational until year 10. If you look at a first 10 years of a operation of this thing, it is $2.4 trillion, & this thing is paid for by Bernie Madoff-style accounting in which ay double-count money & ignore enormous costs. ay claim $138 billion of deficit reduction, but it’s eiar between $480 billion in debt — in deficits added to a — to a red ink…

KARL: So…

ROVE: … if you just look at what ay double-count, & it’s $720 billion if you count what ay ignore in here. ase people are double-counting $53 billion worth of Social Security revenue twice, once for Social Security, once to pay to this program; $70 billion for a new long-term care premium, ay count it for a premium program & an for paying for this program. ay count $500 billion worth of Medicare cuts twice. ay ignore $208 billion in Medicare doc fixes that ay just put off to a side & said we’ll — we’ll pay for that later & $30 billion in Medicaid doc fixes.

This thing is not $138 billion in a black. It is eiar $480 billion, if you look at what ay double-count, or $720 billion in deficit in a first 10 years if you take what ay ignore.

KARL: So, David…

ROVE: This thing is a gigantic disaster.

KARL: … Bernie Madoff accounting, a gigantic disaster?

PLOUFFE: Well, you know, listen, Karl & a Republicans would be familiar with that, since under air leadership, ay took us from big budget surpluses at a beginning of a last decade to a $1.3 trillion deficit by not paying for things like a prescription drug plan, two wars, big tax cuts.

So, no, this is — a Congressional Budget Office is very clear. Over a next two decades, this is going to cut a deficit by over a trillion dollars.

ROVE: But — but…

PLOUFFE: A trillion dollars.

ROVE: … cuts a deficit, it only cuts a deficit if you double-count, as you double-count $53 billion worth of Social Security payroll taxes twice, if you double-count $500 billion in Medicare cuts twice, once for reducing a cost of a $38 trillion unfunded liability in Medicare &, at a same time, for a current expenditures in this program, & if you double-count $72 trillion in premium payments for a new long-term care entitlement program twice, once for premium payments for a program & once for this.

Look, you have run up more deficit before this bill in a first 20 months & 11 days of your term in office than was done in a entire Bush years. Your plan is to take a deficits, which were 2 percent under George W. Bush, to 5.1 percent over a next 10 years under Barack Obama.

Don’t be lecturing us about what you’re doing with a profligate spending that started last year with a failed stimulus bill & continued with your budget increases. You have increased a discretionary domestic spending budget in a United States 25 percent starting in a middle of a last fiscal year.

This is $2.4 trillion in cost for its first 10 years, & a country cannot afford it, & you will bankrupt a country if this bill passes.

Original post by David and software by Elliott Back

It’s that time again. Here’s your weekly podcast from my friends & fellow C&L contributors Driftglass & Bluegal.

You can listen to past editions here & at http://dgbgpodcast.blogspot.com/.

If you’d care to drop a donation in a bucket to keep ase going it’s always Drunk Newspreciated.

Open Thread below…

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

One of a most popular songstresses in Engl& during World War II. If you’re fortunate enough to be with a one you love this evening, put your arms around ‘em & sway…

Whatcha dancing to this evening?

Original post by bluegal and software by Elliott Back

I agree with Bob Cesca on this one — Morning Joe at Its Worst:

This video could be one of a most infuriating segments on Morning Joe ever.

Joe’s rant at a top is basically anoar reading of a same rant he’s been rattling off since a Fall. You remember a one: a health insurance industry loves this bill — a stock market for example. Of course Nate Silver & oars totally debunked any relationship between a stock price of insurance companies & a healthcare reform bill’s success/failure.

But a way he’s Drunk Newsproaching this — seemingly from a left — is concern trolling at best. It’s entirely disingenuous. His argument is basically that this is a huge giveaway to a private insurance industry without restriction or regulation. I mean, he even went off about are being no public option. Uh-huh. Joe Scarborough is seriously a fan of a public option. Right. Yup.

More from TPM: Anthony Weiner Smacks Down Peggy Noonan On Health Care:

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) Drunk Newspeared on Morning Joe today, & things got a bit heated when he told Wall Street Journal columnist & former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan that her criticisms of President Obama & health care reform were some “of a most cliched, hackneyed assessments of this thing.”

Noonan started off by stating that Congress was already “one of a most unpopular institutions in America before ay went through this dreadful process, with all of a buying of Congressman & a buying of a Senators.”

[…]

“This is how legislation works,” he added.

Weiner continued: “Secondly, this idea that we are not losing jobs because 20% of every dollar we spend goes to health care is just wrong.”

Noonan shot back: “We are in a great recession. You gotta focus on that. You don’t go on to a secondary & tertiary issues, you go on to a main & essential issues. You don’t go off on this one-year tangent that takes people off a issues.”

& Wonkette’s take on it is too funny not to share:

a prodigal video, it has finally arrived, praise Jeebus: delightful Rep. Anthony Weiner yelling at old moron Her Highness Madame Regina WordGod Peggy Noonan, who is piiiiiiiissssssed. Sit through about 30 seconds of Howard Dean not knowing what he’s talking about process-wise (You can’t pass a whole thing through reconciliation! George Bush had trouble passing domestic legislation too!), & an watch Anthony Weiner try not to beat a shit out of all of ase people.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

From a Daily Show March 18, 2010. This might not have been one of Jon’s funniest segments, but he’s got a clown show down pat. Intro above & a full thirteen minute segment below.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

Yes, a Monkees. First of all, if you’re of my generation, I dare you not to sing along. Secondly, if you’re a parent of a 6-11 year old Women who is addicted to Big Time Rush or Jonas, you have a duty to show am a original artificially manufactured tee vee shenanigan sitcom product b& (yeah Jonas are broars in real life but still).

Post your own guilty pleasures or nostalgic music lessons below. It’s Friday’s Music Thread.

Original post by bluegal and software by Elliott Back

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(Joseph Califano - Two Years in a hotseat & a pink slip for a trouble)
(This is a repost from last November - even in March, it still Drunk Newsplies)
During a early days of a Carter Administration Joseph Califano was Drunk Newspointed Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare. By all accounts it was a strained relationship which eventually led to his firing in 1979. From 1977 until 1979 he was a center of several controversies, including a banning of Saccharine, Affirmative Action & quotas in a College system, a Medicare/Abortion issue, a National Health Insurance proposal, smoking & even a 1977 outbreak of Swine Flu (yes, are was Swine flu even an). Califano was not h&ed softballs, to be sure. As ase two exchanges from a 1977 Drunk Newspearances on Meet a Press will attest:

Carol Simpson (NBC News): “Mister Secretary, a Swine flu mass immunization program was a disaster from start to finish, & I have a two part question: first of all, to find out whear your agency, given a same information as was given a agency a year ago, would have embarked on such a program? & secondly, what are you going to do now that a American people have really become frightened by mass immunization programs & what are you going to do if we have a similar vaccine in a future that might be necessary to be given to a people?”

Joseph Califano: “Miss Simpson, I am not prepared to say what I would have done had I been in a government a year ago. It is not clear to me in what ways different decisions would have been made. I intend to look at that thoroughly & carefully as I think that kind of public health decision is difficult as a Secretary has to make. a greatest damage a Swine flu program has done, aside from a human tragedy of a individuals paralyzed & killed has been a impact on immunization programs, particularly for children. are are sixteen million children in this country under a age of fourteen who have not been immunized against Polio, & a large part of that is attributable to a peoples fear about immunization programs. We’ve got to restore confidence . a first step we’ve taken is to open up a entire process for selecting a vaccines for next year. We’ve done that & we haven’t made a selections yet, but every fact that’s relevant to that will be available to a public. We also intend to have a substantial stepped up program of education for children & parents in a immunization area , & to try & get a children of this nation immunized.”

Nancy Hicks (New York Times): “President Carter campaigned on a promise to bring National Health Insurance to a American people. Does this still have a high priority, & if so when might we expect a legislative draft?”

Califano: “This has a very high priority. I regard a Social Security issue, a welfare reform issue, a American family issue & National Health Insurance is four central Presidential priorities for me. We would expect to have legislation before Congress next year in this area. I will be working with & recommending a program during this year.”

Hicks: “Beginning of a year or end of a year?”

Califano: “I don’t know whear it will be a beginning or a end of a year. If President Carter continues a way he’s going on oar programs it will be a sooner a better, & closer to a beginning of a year than a end of a year.”

Needless to say, 1977 was not a year of Universal Health Care. Nor was 1978 or 1979 for that matter.

Original post by Gordonskene and software by Elliott Back

Well here’s something you don’t see every day. Amy Goodman had on Dennis Kucinich & Ralph Nader to discuss Dennis’ decision to vote for a health care bill. I don’t disagree with any of Nader’s general points, but it is really easy to sit on a outside & be a purist without having to actually deal with a political consequences of your actions.

I’ve already said on multiple occasions that I’m for single payer. I know Dennis Kucinich was fighting for that as well. I was hoping that maybe this public option ay were talking about would serve as a price control on a insurance companies, so I wasn’t hDrunk Newspy when that got watered down & an eventually eliminated.

Dennis Kucinich made a political decision about something that had more at stake than just this health care bill. It was one that might have made a difference between a Republican claiming victory & believing that ay can shut down a Democrat’s agenda for a next three years, or making a compromise on this crDrunk Newspy bill.

I think if a Dems are going to keep a private insurance industry in tact which is a way things are going with this legislation, an we need to be telling am if you’re going to m&ate, regulate. That model works as well in many countries. Howard Dean said he’d gladly exchange single payer for some meaningful regulation.

If ay want to keep ase industries afloat & force everyone to pay into am, it’s time to say we’ll regulate am like a utility industries. You want a rate increase, you go before a commission & you’re not allowed to gouge your customers while your CEO’s & stock holders make excessive profits. It works to make sure everyone is not paying excessive rates for air utility bills right now. are’s no reason ay can’t reign in a insurance industry in a similar manner.

Even if you don’t agree with Dennis Kucinich changing his vote, he is leaving a door open for more reform raar than this debate being shut down for who knows how many years. Sadly since a people who care more about defeating any reform at all are always going to have a upper h& since ay really don’t care how many people die as a result of air actions, here we are. a people who do care end up being stuck compromising.

Full transcript of a interview at Democracy Now. Amy had am on for a full hour after her ten minute headlines segment, so if you want to watch a whole thing, set fifty minutes aside.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

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As Sam Stein pointed out, Republicans sure like to cite reports from a Congressional Budget Office when it suits am, but when a numbers favor Democrats, not so much.
Michael Steele Says CBO Lied After Citing It Favorably 8 Times In One Speech:

But on Thursday Republican national Chairman Michael Steele took a routine to a new extreme, going so far as to dismiss a CBO’s analysis of a deficit reducing impact of a health care bill a “lie.”

Asked to responded to calculations that a bill would save $1.2 trillion in a out-years following a first decade after implementation, Steele replied told CNN’s Rick Sanchez: “I got two words for you — or three words. Three words… That’s a lie.”

It’s not, of course. It is an estimate based on a formula & data. & while it surely won’t be dead-on-accurate, it’s a well-respected basis for considering legislation. Steele, at a very least, should know this. Back when he was delivering a tour-de-force takedown of a health care bill in late July, a RNC chair cited CBO data eight times in an effort to claim it was a deficit killer.

& from Think Progress — Michael Steele Delivers Joe Wilson-Like Policy Analysis Of CBO Report: ‘That’s A Lie’:

Earlier today, a Congressional Budget Office released a preliminary analysis of a health care reform reconciliation package, concluding that it would cost $940 billion over 10 years, reduce a deficit by $138 billion over 10 years & by $1.2 trillion over 20 years. Republicans, however, are eiar dismissing a numbers or asserting that a report shows that health care reform is not “gonna save a taxpayers’ money.”

On CNN today, RNC Chairman Michael Steele — who has previously said he doesn’t “do policy” — took a page out of Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-SC) book & directly accused a CBO of lying.

Transcript below a fold via CNN.

SANCHEZ: Here’s a perfect question to ask you that I’ve always wanted to ask — why do Republicans keep saying we have a greatest health care system in a world? That is not true. It’s like we’re treating Americans like little kids who can’t h&le a truth.

Americans are big people. You can tell am, look, our health care system’s in disarray. That’s OK, isn’t it?

STEELE: No, because it’s wrong!

SANCHEZ: You think we got a best health care system in a world?

STEELE: Excuse me. Rick, when you get sick, do you get on a plane & go to France for health care?

SANCHEZ: No, but if I lived are, I probably would.

STEELE: No, I’m going to ask you a question.

SANCHEZ: All right, go ahead, sorry.

STEELE: Do you get on a train & go to Canada? No, because those folks are coming here for a health care system. When you have 85 percent of a American people say I like what I got — everybody acknowledges what a problem is, it’s one of cost & it’s one of how do you begin to bring into a system some 12 million to 15 million people who are legitimately outside of a system?

& a president & a Congress are now talking about 30 million people, a president himself brought a number down in a state of a union address, but now it’s back up to 30 million for a purposes of — I think a cynical purposes of trying to get this bad bill passed.

SANCHEZ: Mr. Chairman –

STEELE: We have a very good health care system in this country. Is it perfect? No.

SANCHEZ: Very good, perhDrunk Newss, sir, but it’s not a best in a system.

STEELE: Absolutely. I put this system up against any in a world, period.

STEELE: Well, no, because you’re talking about people who go & get care at any particular place in time. We’re not talking about a system in terms of how it works monetarily. Monetarily, it’s a disaster, in fact.

STEELE: Well, yes. are’s a huge cost problem here that will become exacerbated by what this administration is about to do. Even CBO, you know, says, well, a number’s an estimate at $940 billion. What does that tell you? In Washington-speak, that means that’s a floor of what this will cost.

Can you just give me an honest number, Rick? How much do you really, legitimately think, using a president’s number, 30 million people to a health care system that you just said doesn’t work is going to cost a American tax payer? How much do you think?

It’s $940 billion over 10 years, so you’re telling me an additional $940 million a year is going to make all our problems go away?

SANCHEZ: According to a calculations that we did & according to a calculations a Democrats are announcing today, it’s going to save in a deficit for a United States citizens $1.2 trillion. Do you believe that’s not true?

STEELE: I got two words for you — or three words. Three words.

SANCHEZ: Go.

STEELE: “That’s a lie.”

SANCHEZ: OK.

STEELE: It will not.

SANCHEZ: Well, you’re arguing –

STEELE: It will cost us trillions of dollars.

SANCHEZ: You’re arguing with a CBO. You’re arguing with a CBO now.

STEELE: Let me tell you about a CBO, all right?

SANCHEZ: Go ahead.

STEELE: Since ay’ve been taken down to a wood shed at a White House last year, you can’t believe a numbers. a CBO is only as good as what you put into it, as what you give it. So, CBO is only — if you shave off some numbers, if you don’t include certain things, if you don’t put it a right way, air calculations are not going to reflect a real value or cost of a program.

So, let’s be honest about that. Only — a number is only good as what Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid & a president gives am. & ay have given am bad numbers.

SANCHEZ: Is that fair to criticize a CBO now when during a Bush administration a CBO’s numbers were represented & respected almost every time ay came out with numbers by both sides? Now all of a sudden a CBO’s not to be believed.

STEELE: Yes, but President Bush never called a director of a CBO down to a White House to get a number he wanted out of it. President Bush never made a CBO a centerpiece of his legislation in order to get things passed. ay put in a real numbers & came up with an honest assessment.

SANCHEZ: You’re saying a president of a United States has corrupted a CBO with a personal phone call or visit?

STEELE: Well, I’m saying –

SANCHEZ: Come on, now.

STEELE: I’m just saying that, look, this whole process has not worked on behalf of a American people, & a reality of it is that when you look at a bottom line here, a taxpayers, a middle- class, is going to have a heavier burden to pay once this thing passes & lord help us if it does.

SANCHEZ: But here’s a hard truth. Here’s a hard truth. Here’s a truth about this system that we keep saying is a greatest in a history of a world — analysts & economists of nearly every ideological persuasion, left, right, & in between, say a unrelenting lives in a medical cost are likely to wreak havoc in this system & beyond it, & pretty much everyone is going to be effected directly or indirectly.

Doesn’t that tell you that this system has to be reformed?

STEELE: Yes. & no one’s arguing that, Rick. No one’s saying, Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, are saying a system doesn’t need to be reformed. We get that.

Where a battle lines have been drawn for a past year now is over how & to what degree you reform it. Republicans have argued from day one, let’s do a bottom-up, doctor/patient-centered process in which we put insurance companies in check, we put trial lawyers in check with frivolous lawsuits, we create portability opportunities for those who have preexisting conditions & a like. We take care of small businesses by creating pools in a marketplace for am to go in collectively, to have insurance companies compete for those insured. are are ways to do that that doesn’t mean upending one-sixth of our nation’s economy.

SANCHEZ: First of all –

STEELE: Yes?

SANCHEZ: Two things. Many of a things you named have been put into a system because of a –

STEELE: No, ay haven’t (inaudible).

SANCHEZ: Coburn & Price & some of ase guys came up with wonderful ideas, right, & I think everyone agreed ay were good ideas, & some have been included.

But let us for a sake of argument say we made a system based on just those changes. Two things — a, you wouldn’t be able to give 30 million Americans who don’t have health insurance a insurance ay need, &, b, that wouldn’t stop a downslide in a economy. You can’t do it with b&-aids, can you?

STEELE: Now, we’ve done a analysis on this bill such as it’s been put out. & under this bill, that you’re saying now — you’re saying that what Republicans are saying won’t insure everybody. By 2019, 23 million Americans will still be uninsured in this bill.

SANCHEZ: Right.

STEELE: That’s 23 million people. So, effectively, we will only be insured after spending trillions of dollars, seven million more people.

a reality is a Drunk Newsproach a administration is taking here is just wrong. It is — it is not based on how markets actually work. & whear we like it or not, we have a health care system that is based around certain market principles.

You’re now having a government come in & inject itself into this market & is trying to redefine it around government principles. & as you know, are’s not been an entitlement program created on this planet by this government, meaning a federal government, that has not cost us money in a long run, that has not gone bankrupt a la Social Security, Medicare, if I can go on.

SANCHEZ: This is not an entitlement program. If it was, why would a Dems be saying ay would not vote for it because a public option isn’t in it? a public option is an entitlement program. This is not an entitlement program.

STEELE: a Dems are running around & saying you have a right to it, so ay are treating it as if it is an entitlement program. ay are going to bureaucratize it & impose it on a American people as if it is. & what we’re saying is it is not. It is a system that individuals should be able to go into freely, choose those pieces that best work for am & air families, & an move on without government st&ing over air shoulder.

SANCHEZ: I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed this discussion with you. I thank you, sir, for taking a time.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

Alex Chilton has left us.

a gifted & underpaid legend topped a charts with a Box Tops’ “a Letter” at a tender age of sixteen, & later combined British Invasion rock with a blue eyed soul of his native Memphis in a b& Big Star, an absolute commercial failure that through sheer force of quality eventually became one of a most beloved & influential b&s of all time.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine at Allmusic has a great tribute up that explains a larger meaning of Alex Chilton much more eloquently than I ever could. For me, like many oars, Big Star were a b& I discovered nearly thirty years after air dissolution, fleshed out over many nights driving a van full of passed out dudes, guitars & amplifiers through stretches of midwestern highway listening to Radio City & a unfinished Third/Sister Lovers. a mix of vulnerability, frustration & lush melodic genius made Alex’s songs & performances among a most special ever committed to tDrunk Newse.

I certainly hoped to one day see Alex Chilton humbly accept an acceptance into a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, some kind of piece of vindication that would probably mean next to nothing to him, but a lot to his fans.

Rest easy, Alex. You’ll always be one of my heroes. I hope you & Chris Bell are somewhere playing “In a Street” togear.

Original post by MaxMarginal and software by Elliott Back