An odd and jittery performance on Charlie Rose

By the Speaker of the House of Representatives, that is. Did you see the interview with the good Speaker Pelosi? The normally placid environment (that solid wooden table!) is not so placid with said guest visiting. Petty to note, perhaps, but I felt as if I were watching a performance, and the performer was a nervous and jittery one.

Anyway, judge the quality of the interview for yourselves. Here are a few choice excerpts from the transcript at Real Clear Politics:

Pelosi: “People are more optimistic outside of Washington D.C. than they are inside of Washington. They want to — they want to be sure that we stick to our path which is to take us out of this economic challenge and not be afraid to do so” – What?

Pelosi: “When the president began and he said that he called for swift, bold action now. And the public responded to it in a very positive way. And he said in a very shall we say professorial way, but also inspirational way, we will harness the sun and the wind and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories, and we’ll invest in science, have better healthcare innovation and schools for the 21st century.” – What?

Pelosi: “Universal healthcare. It’s a place where we are recognizing the damage to our planet by decision that said we have made that we need to reverse. It’s a place where we have to go — we had the industrial revolution, we have the technological revolution. Now we have to have a green revolution.” – What?

Pelosi: “I think there is a realization among all people that all the things we want to do, we need to think in public private — public, public, all different kinds of different combinations on how we get them done, so we can leverage our dollars in a safe way, but leverage our dollars so we get more than just the appropriate dollars.” – What does that even mean?

I could go on and on. What do you suppose she’s saying?

SUPER-DUPER MASSIVE AND IMPORTANT UPDATE: I screwed up – the link is to the 2010 Rose interview that I recently watched, while the excerpts are from the 2009 interview. I honestly did not pick up on that while reading the transcript, obviously. In my defense, here’s an excerpt from the correct transcript:

“It’s so historic. It’s so exhilarating to be part of
history that each one of us in the Congress is on the brink of making
history. This is Social Security, Medicare, health care for all Americans.
So it is its own — it has its own encouragement to it. ”

“It has its own encouragment to it.” Well, there you go. Make fun of me and my faulty memory, and her statement, in the comments. Or just me. Whatever.

Follow the House they all say….

1. It’s worth reiterating something Rich and Jeff Anderson have pointed out: The focus on reconciliation in the past few days confuses things a bit. The question in the health-care debate at the moment is whether Nancy Pelosi can get enough of her members to vote for the version of Obamacare that passed the Senate late last year. If the House passes that bill, it will have passed both houses, will go to the president, and will become law.Yuval Levin, NRO

2. So if, in the end, this process works as the White House wants it to work, it will do so because of core Democratic and liberal beliefs. Republicans and conservatives need to understand that; the political horror faced by every Democrat who does not have an entirely safe seat can be mitigated in part by the belief that there may be enough Democrats who can live their lives proud to have brought this measure to fruition.John Podhoretz, Commentary

A rapacious and greedy Technocracy

technocracy

Obama health care plan online. (Relax. It’s a joke. Or, is it?)

The image is by editorial cartoonist Winsor McCay and I came across the image at the wonderful art blog linesandcolors.

Update: In the comments, Michael Kennedy adds: “CBO says there are not enough details to score the new “bill.” What else is new?”

Yes. What else is new? Also, this via Drudge: “An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision….This was my heart, my choice and my health,” Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.”

Be aware: If the health care plans don’t work as smoothly as gamed by the white paper crowd, the connected will exempt themselves from the worst of it. They always do. Do Senators tend to fly coach?

So, doesn’t change mean change?

“The small bill aims to make health insurance more accessible, affordable, and portable — without increasing government control, jeopardizing the quality of care, or breaking the bank” Small-Bill Proposal for Sensible Health-Care Reform

“We have to learn to do health care in fundamentally new ways in the next twenty years. The changes needed are much more radical and sweeping than anything envisioned in the current legislation — and it will take a very different mindset to make them happen. The current bill is a classic example of steady state, blue social model thinking: it is more interested in keeping the status quo going by pumping more money into it than it is in the basic restructuring needed to build a system that will work in the future.” Walter Russell Mead

The latter excerpt (thanks to LG for the link) highlights, in a way, the frustration I experience practicing in a teaching hospital. It’s all chasing zanaflexhome state and federal dollars and arguing reimbursement rates. Well, naturally. But the really innovative things that we could do? Who, exactly, is doing them stateside? The “cash-only” doc drop-outs? Walmart, Walgreens and CVS clinics? Concierge practices and out-sourced medical diagnostics? I suppose government regulation makes it impossible to be innovative in the most radical way.

Seriously, I am so in the weeds with the day-to-day – just crushed by it – that I have no idea. We should be thinking innovation and nimbleness, and instead, our thinking is staid, staid, statist-ly staid. Because the Walter Russell Mead post makes the point that technology is going to throw the medical profession for a loop, and I think we are not ready to absorb those changes as a profession. Despite all the academic blather (because of ?), we are not ready.

What do you think are the important health care trends the current national “discussion” is missing?