Dean: Bush would have loved Senate Democrat’s health care bill

By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 -- 8:54 am
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howarddeansmiles Dean: Bush would have loved Senate Democrats health care billThe health care bill drawn up by Sen. Max Baucus and the Senate Finance Committee is a "terrible mistake" that George W. Bush "would have loved" because it is a massive giveaway of taxpayers' money to the health insurance industry, former chair of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean, told MSNBC Monday night.

Dean also said he believes there is a very slim majority in the Senate that would support a health care bill that includes a public option.

"This is a bill that George Bush would love, it's a massive redistribution of government taxpayers' money to the insurance industry, exactly the same thing that was going on with the banking industry and other industries on Wall Street," Dean told Countdown guest host Lawrence O'Donnell. "It is a bad bill, this Finance Committee bill, it doesn't insure people, and it spends an awful lot of money and it gives it away to the insurance companies. So I do think ultimately the bill will have a public option in it, because I don't think the Democratic Party will stand for this."

Asked by O'Donnell how the public option would make it into a Senate bill, given the level of opposition to it, Dean said that "we think there are 51 or 52 Democratic senators who will vote for some sort of public option."

Dean's assertion challenges the conventional Beltway wisdom thus far about the public option's chances. While it appears the public option has the votes necessary to pass the House of Representatives, it has been assumed that the votes aren't there for a public option in the Senate.

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But Dean was insistent on the need for one: "If you don't have a public option, you are wasting nearly a trillion dollars of government money and giving it to the health insurance industry. I think that is a terrible mistake, and I know very well it is not what President Obama planned on when he was campaigning."

And Dean issued a warning to Democrats on the matter. "Every Democrat is going to sink or swim together on this," he said. "If we pass a bill that's just a big giveaway to the insurance industry, every Democrat will suffer."

This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast Sept. 28, 2009.



Download video via RawReplay.com

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Story comments are below...

  • chabuka
    The Blue Dogs, "moderate Democrats" voted with Bush on most every thing he wanted....they should be called Bush-Dog Democrats..and we need to get rid of them...as they say, a Democrat who votes like a Republican will (not soon enough) loose their next election.......
  • zentrails
    I hope the repubs fall for this ruse.
  • asiliveandbreathe
    So one plan gives away tax payer money to the big pharma and the other gives it away to big insurance. One kills with bad untested drugs, the other kills by refusal of treatment. We're paying to kill ourselves both ways.
  • the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill will smoothly sail through Congress today, squandering $128.2 billion of our tax dollars for next year's continuing occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, a billionaire's club scheme to secure oil contracts by killing and maiming impoverished goat herders of whom Americans know nothing about, and of no benefit at all for the majority of Americans. the least-crappy version of health band-aid being scuffled over with unsurpassed rage, tightly knotted panties and spittle by the same legislative clowns is being cut down to $90 billion/yr. this, my fellow sheep, is how our Shining City Upon A Hill proudly claims it's role in global leadership.

    http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/policy/missile...
  • donofcali
    Dean's correct. Without a strong public option this bill is pure shit; absolutely worse than no bill at all.

    The republicons are trying to poison-pill the public option by writing in legislation that raises $4 billion worth of tax increases on medical device manufacturers to pay for it. More republicon bullshit. Take the $4 billion dollars out of the $644 billion dollar 2010 defense budget the swine just passed at the behest of their plutocrat masters.
  • conservatve
    I ask that all congressmen who have taken money from medical insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and hospital management companies should recuse themselves from voting in the matter of health care reform.
    It is clearly a perfect act of corruption to take money from the regulated then vote on their regulations. If a black mayor did this he would see prison time.
    We are seeing another round of well organized theft. I think the savings and loan scandal was an early example of this system. War contractors like blackwater and haliburton are more recent examples. We have become a watering trough. As the consumer falls to this depression, it is a symptom of the trough running low, but the milkers keep milking us and will until the last cent is gone.
  • bayside
    I know why obama did not want dean in his adminsistration, because dean would stand up for the people...
  • eileenkennedy
    Word count: 580
    September 29, 2009
    Open Letter to Senator Baucus
    I agree with the young Billings family man with the congenital heart program. Whose side are you on?

    Who are you there to serve?

    Who are you to declare that you are more important than I, and therefore deserve the hideous perks you’ve awarded yourselves for doing us the favor of becoming public servants? Have you forgotten that you started out by declaring your desire to be a public servant? Was that a lie then, or just something that eroded with the temptations of pharmaceutical millions and health care millions, lobbyists with lollipops, jaunts, and cash?

    How dare you offer to penalize those who don’t afford the options your bosses have so generously provided in their bill which you presented? My social security check is 6.5% less every month because there is an automatic withdrawal for health insurance. So, in spite of the garbage and rhetoric, I do have insurance and pay for it. You remember social security? It’s a Government run program. Oh, that’s right; we must not have the government involved. HUH?
    \getting us out of the most hideous mess in United States history—a mess that has included the nation being perceived (and rightly so) as a nation of torturers—a mess that has included the Constitution on which this nation is founded being totally ignored—a mess that completely ignored the Geneva Convention—a mess where leaders have broken the laws and are not being held responsible—a mess where a man inherited an almost bankrupt nation financially, emotionally, and spiritually—a mess that has allowed violence and vitriol to be trumpeted throughout the air waves, espousing such hatred that one prays constantly for the safety of those threatened by the leaders of the right-wing party: Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, et al..
    When did honesty, honor, and integrity take a vacation? You stood behind President Bush, to his right, and smiled a self-satisfied smile, as he signed a bill custom tailored for the pharmaceutical industry so that, without having to negotiate prices with us (the people), they promptly raised all the prices. Then, they proudly shout from the skies how wonderful they are to have a charity bus to help people who cannot afford prescription drugs.

    Wait a minute. They set the prices for prescription drugs without fear of reprimand, then they boast of their generosity as they help those who cannot afford the prices they set, and then they glean all that approval and public acknowledgement????? Wouldn’t there be less of a problem if they made less of a gouging profit so that those people could afford the medicines?
    Do we need health care reform? Oh, possibly not.

    Congressman Rehberg was recently in a boating accident, broke his ankle apparently, and went to hospital for a few days. X-rays, tests, and all that goes with entering a hospital… Hmm. How much debt do you think he incurred personally for all that care? Now, you figure it, Max, how much debt would I be in with the same experience? Want to know the story of my broken wrist? Of course not. I’m not an elected official.

    Patriotism or politics? Dollars or democracy? Pharmaceutical profits or health care for a young Billings, Montana family man?
    You made your choice. What a shame.
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