Pat Oliphant by Pat Oliphant
- October 21, 2009
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About Pat Oliphant
Called "the most influential cartoonist now working" by The New York Times, Pat Oliphant occupies a unique position among today’s editorial cartoonists: Widely considered the dean of the profession, he is one of its sharpest, most daring practitioners.
© 2009 Universal Press Syndicate - All Rights Reserved.
Comments (42) Jump to Comments Form
believecommonsense
said,
about 1 month ago
Another very razor sharp toon from Oliphant. Put the public option back in!
blackash said, about 1 month ago
“Put the public option back in! ”
NO, NO, NO. Leave it out…………..forever.
Jase99 said, about 1 month ago
No, put it back in and keep it there. A well run, low cost public option will force the insurance companies to actually compete for your business. Companies that want to stay in business will lower their prices and offer better policies. It’s not as if they don’t have copious fat to trim. Just look at executive saleries.
If you don’t want to use the public option, then don’t. That’s why it’s called an option.
scottfreitas
said,
about 1 month ago
Except the public “option” will be funded by a bankrupt thuggish government which will structure the laws in such a way that everyone will wind up on it within 10 years like it or not and by then the dollar will be the world’s laughingstock and a can of Spaghettios will cost $17.49 and good luck seeing a doctor when there’s 121 total for YOUR state (which voted GOP) versus the 19,289 doctors over in Michigan which you can’t afford to drive to especially since the govt is taxing private auto use by $12 per mile as part of its fight against “climate change”…
ray32648 said, about 1 month ago
Uh-oh. Scott’s back off the anit-paranoia meds again.
Kylop said, about 1 month ago
“….funded by a bankrupt thuggish government …..”
No, George W Bush’s administration is over.
Jim said, about 1 month ago
What instrument , is she playing ?
Anyol'tomcat
said,
about 1 month ago
Clarinet or oboe?
BOB HASTY
said,
about 1 month ago
Earth to Scott,
There is no public option paid for by the government!!! Get this straight. The public option on every bill is premium supported. A subsidy will be available to the working porr. Otherwise, the public option has to stand on its own. It is so stupid that the opposition continues to paint this as a government funded plan. NEVER WAS!! NEVER WILL BE!!!!
My Medicare is paid for by the monthly contributions paid by me and my employers over my life time.
If Medicare is going broke, it is because “W” borrowed all that money for his personal war. Then, he added Part D, which was not funded. THAT MEANS THAT ALL OF THE MEDICARE PRESCRIPTIONS ARE BEING PAID WITH IOUs!
All of this is designed to make Medicare go broke. I am tired of the GOP’s constant attack on Medicare. What “W” and the GOP have done to Medicare is criminal. They all should be in prison!!!
BTW. Scott, did you watch Frontline’s “The Warning?” Or do you even know which channel is PBS. You need a big helping of unvarnished truth!!
scottfreitas
said,
about 1 month ago
Stop acting like any of us can truly know what is contained within a bill which has yet to be transcribed into actual, concise language.
Nothing has been written or voted on yet other than vague generalities.
I DO know more than enough about the Demoncrat Party to know how well and truly effed I will be as a result of ANY bill which comes to fruition during their control of Washington…
Not to mention the infinity of leftist lobbyist wish-fulfillments which will be added to such a bill later, with the GOP continually shut out of the process, their every amendment killed in comittee or voted down before ever becoming finalized.
20+ years of C-SPAN, with no lying lefty journalists blabbering away telling me what to think, has shown me EXACTLY how the Demoncrats operate…
striper77 said, about 1 month ago
public health insurance option is a proposed health insurance plan that would be offered by
the U.S. federal government.
HOWGOZIT said, about 1 month ago
Why do they keep saying healthcre reform–the providing of healthcare is not being improved–only insurance is being attacked.
cartwrights
said,
about 1 month ago
Let’s put public option in and use it as the foundation for universal single payer.
charlie555 said, about 1 month ago
”There is no public option paid for by the government!!! Get this straight. The public option on every bill is premium supported. A subsidy will be available to the working poor. Otherwise, the public option has to stand on its own.”
Do the working poor HAVE to use the public option? Or are they free to use their government subsidy on private plans?
Obviously, if the government pays people to choose the public option, it is not fair competition.
How can the public option stand on its own if its first clients will be all the expensive uninsurable citizens and they will not be allowed to refuse any of them enrollment or the best of care?
cartwrights
said,
about 1 month ago
I don’t care about “fair competition.” I’d love to see the health insurance companies put out of business. They have been killing people for years.
striper77 said, about 1 month ago
cartwrights,
You stated the insurance companies have killed numerous people. I do not see it.
If you are the working poor or a non worker your kids get free Medicaid.
There is free health clinics.
After you get 65 you automatically get Medicare and social security.
If you have problems or you can cheat the system you can get social security at any time.
I know of two people that were on Medicaid. Both were pregnant. They got treated like second class citizens at the hospital. Both babies had the umbilical cord wrapped around the neck and both had a bowl movement in the womb. Both times the doctors refused to do an emergency c-section. One died and other is crippled and on social security.
One of the people involved was a non worker / career welfare participant the other was part of the working poor.
I am sure on booth examples the doctor and hospital both knew they were only getting a small percentage of bill. Look what happened in the end.
Now lets look at my wife’s pregnancy. She was in a private room. She had one problem with one of the nurses. She made the doctor aware of the problem. No more problems after that. She got treated like a queen. We had health insurance.
With all that said what is the program going to be like that the government puts together.
I was in the military, I have been at Indian hospitals (I was not seen due to I am not Native American nor on their rolls, I was with someone else),
I have heard of the VA hospital results, (I have known at least 6 different people that died their, 3 in the waiting room) and I have seen how packed the DHS offices are and heard of how slow they are and the problems they have just getting through the system.
Welcome to the Obamaination health care.
crunkbot said, about 1 month ago
@Scottiefrito
Do you have any friends… any regular, positive social interaction? You seem so isolated and paranoid. Do you perhaps have a trusted physician, counselor or clergy to to talk to?
I am sincerely concerned for you.
cartwrights
said,
about 1 month ago
Obviously, striper, you haven’t paid attention to the numerous stories about people denied claims, dropped from coverage, etc. Thousands of people have died as a direct result.
Start paying attention to the news, okay?
hlp54 said, about 1 month ago
Since the “uninsurable poor” are already being taken care of in the emergency rooms your health insurance premiums are higher to cover them now. With a public option, they could get basic insurance and go to private doctors, get preventive care and also lower the health insurance premiums who would no longer have to cover them.
BUT - knowing how the insurance companies LOVE their profits they may not lower all their premiums anyway.
4uk4ata said, about 1 month ago
BTW, here is something interesting about the Baucus bill, from people who supposedly did read it….
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/10/07/cbo-new-baucus/
And here is what the same people said about the House bill: http://edlabor.house.gov/newsroom/2009/07/cbo-scores-confirms-deficit-ne.shtml
Now, compare that with the healthcare industry saying they’d need, oh, a couple of thousand dollars more per year per household in the next few years. What was I supposed to be scared of again?
striper77 said, about 1 month ago
4uk4ata,
I read your article and this is what I found:
that a public option that reimburses at Medicare rates for the first 2 to 3 years would devastate rural providers (they’ll all go down in three years, you see).
21 percent cut in fees
What kind of treatment are expecting when the doctors, surgery centers and hospitals are getting paid less.
If you still work or if and when you worked. How would you feel if one day the boss came in and cut your pay 21% to 50%?
Jim said, about 1 month ago
Thanks Anyol’tomcat . : )
Herbabee said, about 1 month ago
<<< Hee hee, and why should Crunky have all the fun?
treered said, about 1 month ago
single payer all the way!
Ph8549 said, about 1 month ago
Sen. Harkin guaranteed that the public option will be in the bill.
Ronshua
said,
about 1 month ago
The mouthpiece is too small or incorrectly drawn to be a Clarinet .
believecommonsense
said,
about 1 month ago
it’s just a musical pipe, as in the Pied Piper
believecommonsense
said,
about 1 month ago
striper, you don’t automatically get Social Security, BTW. The amount of social security a recipient receives is based upon his/her lifetime earnings, and the age at which it begins is now up to 67 for younger workers. (at least I think it’s still 67, could have gone higher by now)
4uk4ata said, about 1 month ago
@ Striper: I’m not happy with some of the cost cuts, although there is probably some fat that could be trimmed.
However, neither bill has anything to do with that. More on this shortly.
/practices his almighty Google-Fu
As for the 21% cut (or rather, as far as I can tell, the lack of increase compared to private providers), it’s not related to the bill: it is planned in Medicare. In fact, it would be due to the SGR, a measure binding inflation to the increase in doctor’s premiums (passed in the 90s, incidentally, by the Gingrich Congress), which has been put on one-year moratorium year after year . In fact, the articles I read stated that the House Bill would actually annul this provision and thus prevent the “cut” from taking place. Otherwise, this “cut” will take place unless the moratorium is extended… and as you can see at the below article, it might not be due to deficit concerns.
So the whole thing is already there, and will not be created by the House bill, nor the Baucus one. It has been there for a while due to concerns about deficits, which according to CBO neither bill would increase. Now, I do think that even in the current economic conditions decoupling is a good idea, but apparently I don’t get to vote on it.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/21/democrats-lose-vote-to-stop-steep-physician-payment-cuts/?iref=werecommend
brimhir said, about 1 month ago
Wow, the fear mongering runs rampant! The taxpayers would never end up paying for a public option. You bet it will work on its own. Just look at how well the banking and mortgage industries are doing!
striper77 said, about 1 month ago
Believecommonsense,
I should have stated if you work the minimum about of time for social security you will be eligible for it.
Since I have been working full time since I was 15, never missed a pay day and have always had a job.
I may of missed that point.
However back when Clinton was the president he allowed people to get a certain amount of the social security they paid in and opt out of the system. How is this going to play out?
I believe it was around the same time when Clinton offered career military and government civilian personal a lump sum to quite and not retire.
Due to I was in the military during this time, I have ran into some people whom took that option and spoke to the people whom it was offered to.
Magnaut
said,
about 1 month ago
right instrument…..wrong bleeep
striper77 said, about 1 month ago
The entire Declaration of Independence, including all 56 signatures, is
contained on a single hand-written sheet of paper.
The full and complete original Constitution of the United States of America
is printed on six pages. The first four pages contain the basic text of the
founding document. Page five is the letter of transmittal to the British
government. And the sixth and final page contains all ten of the initial
amendments, known as the Bill of Rights.
Karl Marx laid out The Communist Manifesto in a mere 23 pages.
The English translation of Dostoevski’s Crime and Punishment is 718
pages, while Tolstoy’s War and Peace weighs in at 1,225 pages. And try as
she might, even Ayn Rand could manage only 1,069 pages in her magnum opus,
Atlas Shrugged.
My personal, large-print New King James copy of the Bible contains 1,426
pages of text, a 64-page concordance and six pages of maps.
What do these momentous documents have in common with each other? They all
contain fewer pages than the bloated Senate health care bill, S. 1796, which
totals a ridiculous 1,502 pages.
In other words, the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, the
father of modern Communism, three of history’s most prolific Russian writers and
even God Almighty Himself didn’t need as many words to get their entire message
across as the self-important blowhards in Congress trying to express themselves
on one single issue: health care.
But let’s be honest. What’s going on in Washington right now is not really
about health care; it is about control. The Senate leaders, in conjunction with
the White House, are doing the same thing they did with the stimulus bill, the
omnibus bill, the budget bill and the cap and trade bill. Thousands of pages of
rules, regulations, restrictions and, most of all, astronomical spending. They
believe that if they so overwhelm the American people with mind-numbing
legalese, we will simply take their word for it that this poison pill isn’t
going to hurt us.
On top of the already burdensome language of this monstrosity, they have made
it a moving target. It started with House Resolution 3200. Now it has morphed
into the Senate version. But they are not even close to being finished with it.
In fact, the current, so-called Baucus bill, with its “moderate” approach to
health care reform, is merely the framework for the shell game Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid is playing with our health care system. Even if S. 1796 were
acceptable in a free society – which it isn’t – it in no way reflects how the
final bill will read.
President Barack Obama and the domineering Democrat leadership in Congress
never talk about freedom. They whine about “fairness” and “security,” but the
word “liberty” is not in their vocabulary. The Founders would have considered
the current “reform” going on in Congress as nothing short of criminal. They
would rebel against this tyranny as surely as they revolted against the
despotism of King George.
d_legendary1 said, about 1 month ago
Doesn’t the Declaration of Independence say I have a right to LIFE, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of HAPPINESS?
Shouldn’t life include healthcare? Cause I know for a fact I don’t have any because I can’t afford it.
I had it once paying $180 a month, but then it got too expensive and my hours were cut.
Corosive Frog said, about 1 month ago
stripy, do you expect us to believe that wasn’t cut and paste?
johndh123 said, about 1 month ago
Jase….”No, put it back in and keep it there. A well run, low cost public option will force the insurance companies to actually compete for your business….” With due respect, the problem is….a well run, low cost public option…..(!??) You must first convince me that something from the government will fall into those two parameters before I jump on that bandwagon….One need to look no further than the postal service…and THAT my friend is infinitely less complicated than our health system!
johndh123 said, about 1 month ago
crunkbot
that was out of line….
fennec said, about 1 month ago
^not sure it was, john…I once worked with a guy who sounded as isolated and angry as scott…he later committed suicide. Unhappy angry people need to get help.
believecommonsense
said,
about 1 month ago
”However back when Clinton was the president he allowed people to get a certain amount of the social security they paid in and opt out of the system.”
Does anyone here know what Striper is referring to here? Or could you add add’l info striper?
Jase99 said, 29 days ago
John, I used to occasionally work with my local post office as part of my job and know the local post master through her daughter. What part of the USPS is a mess? Is it the whopping 3 to 5 days it takes them to deliver a letter 1/2 way across the country to my mother, or the massive 44 cents they charge to deliver it? Besides, we’re not talking about the entire health care industry, only insurance.
United Health Group makes about $4 billion a year in /profit/. That’s after the exorbitant executive salaries and bonuses. Former CEO William McGuire was forced to repay over $460 million in back dated stock options. His golden parachute is expected to earn him another $1 billion or so. UHG payed out a $350 million to settle class action lawsuits filed by the AMA and others for failing to pay out benefits. All that, and they refused to cover a healthy 2 y/o girl on the grounds she was underweight and a picky eater.
I’ll take the public option, thank you.
nomad2112 said, 29 days ago
… river to drown? No, buried under a mountain of debt.
believecommonsense
said,
29 days ago
jase, appreciated your info about UHG. I believe they’re one of the worst with abusive practices.