Matt Davies for December 15, 2009

Kick joe in his cocoanuts.

Thank you Matt! Well done!

Thanks for pointing that out. The only thing is that he forgot to draw in was the republicans and the blue nose dems.

Let’s ask millions of Americans how they’ve benefited from their insurance agent standing between them and their doctors.

Dead on! Selfish little egomaniac twit. He gives my home state a bad name.

ANandy, Your comment is totally off the mark. Too bad this great toon was too deep for you!!!

he can’t seem to stand solidly on his ideals until he changes them again

i think it’s time for him to get embarrassed about forgetting what he promised

I tried to send Lieberman an e-mail to the effect that he is a disgrace, but his Senate website says that because of the volume of e-mail he is only accepting from Connecticut residents. Hmmm.

Joe ain’t the only one.

they’re all running and more of us are chasing even if we disagree at times……these guys are creating unity

The widely claimed number of uninsured Americans is dishonest and misleading. A study released by the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) on June 23, 2009 shows that 43 percent of the claimed 47 million uninsured Americans can afford medical insurance and elect to remain “voluntarily uninsured.”

At least 18 million of the uninsured are under the age of 35 and earn more than enough to purchase health insurance that would cost less than $100 per month. Many of the uninsured qualify for health care coverage through SCHIP, Medicaid or other existing government programs but for whatever reason, about 11 million simply refuse to take advantage of these taxpayer-funded programs. About 2 million of the remaining Americans receive health care as inmates in our prison system since they use jail, penitentiary or prison mailing addresses. Many of the remaining uninsured would never obtain insurance even if it were offered; they are illegal residents, prostitutes and drug addicts. All of these residents currently receive good medical care in emergency rooms or free clinics.

The actual number of Americans who desire and cannot obtain health insurance is estimated to be about 8 million. By law, emergency rooms must provide health care to patients; not differentiating between legal or illegal and these patients receive the same high quality health care as those who have insurance. Being without health insurance does not mean being without health care.

For those of you hating Lieberman for standing on principle I have a hypo for you. A right wing Republican majority has 60 votes in the senate and is trying to pass a very very strong anti-abortion law. How would you feel if 1 member who was pro choice stood in the way of passage? Oh, then it is OK.

The number of uninsured has been way overblown. 10 million= undocumented workers (illegal aliens) 10 million who are eligible for Medicaid (thus could be insured) but have chosen not to sign up and another 9 million who earn >$75,000/year but are young and healthy and gladly willing to gamble.

Being without health care means constant risk of bankruptcy. Not to mention those who are denied coverage from their paid for insurance plan because of one excuse or another drummed up to sweeten the for profit health care industry. Just because you can receive care does not remove the spectre of financial ruin especially if you have a family. Again I state it is every citizen’s right to have affordable health care.

How do people like Joe Lieberman keep getting elected over and over again? People in CT recognize his name, so they vote for him? All the money in the world won’t matter if the votes are not cast, which is why we need paper ballots or voting machines at least as good as an ATM.

^As long as the Dems keep a blind eye to the voting machine issue it will only be a matter of time before we elect Bush III.

Insurance bureaucrats stand between you and your doctor. Case in points:

1) CA passed a law in the ’90s to prohibit “drive-by birthing” after hospitals started routinely discharging new mothers and their babies after 12 hours. Why did hospitals do that? Because that’s all that the insurance cos. would pay for. The state prohibited it after the “12-hour birth” practices resulted in harm to the health of the women AND the babies. (Please note these are the BABIES the neocons are so concerned about up until the moment they’re born.)

2) A “Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act” has been introduced in Congress for more than 10 years. It specifies that women cannot be discharged less than 48 hours after undergoing a mastectomy. Why is it necessary? Because some insurers won’t pay for more than one night in hospital after a woman undergoes mastectomy. Before “managed care,” women were in hospitals several days after mastectomies, which can be a major surgery removing muscles and lymph nodes as well as breasts. This is a debilitating surgery, not just a disfiguring surgery, which oftentimes requires physical therapy just for a woman to be able to lift her arms.

Insurers have usurped the judgment of physicians simply by limiting what they will pay. Hospitals responded to insurers’ payment rates by discharging much too early, The result has been harm to the woman, prolonged recovery times, unnecessary hospital readmissions. Sheesh, it takes more than 48 hours for the frigging anesthesia to wear off. This is a clear and undeniable case of insurers setting medical protocols.

And the bill? Gets defeated every year, unfortunately, although it receives bipartisan support from female legislators. Hey, it’s only chicks, why not? Not like somebody’s gonna mess with the hallowed djicks of the male legislators.

^ except there’s only 58 Dems and it takes 60 to prevent filibuster. Lieberman should go try out for Broadway since he loves the limelight so much.

RV, yes, it takes 60 votes to stop filibuster and keep a bill moving forward. Lieberman has ended up being critical to Dems on this because the GOP is sticking together. I believe the Dems tried, vainly, to develop a bipartisan bill and I believe Obama thought they could develop a bipartisan bill. (I think Snowe has made it clear she opposes now too)

I don’t really disagree with what you say except that the stark reality has come down to the GOP won’t support this bill no matter what, even after many GOP amendments were adopted in committees, significant elements of bill have been discarded, etc. My guess is individual GOP members are equally fearful of what happens in the Repub primary as they are what happens in the general election. This bill is now so watered down, it SHOULD be picking up moderate GOP votes.

Have you noted the GOP’s playbook says the bill will KILL jobs.? Have yet to hear one actually explain that charge, they just say it ad nauseam on the Senate floor.