Ponies, Unicorns, And Pixie Dust

As you may have heard by now RNC Chairman Michael Steele gave a speech this morning at the National Press Club to slam President Obama's health care reform push. Now I try not to waste too much time on Michael Steele because the man has shown himself to everyone to be an outright buffoon.

I believe there is bipartisan consensus on this.

But I just had to share a few of his "reform proposals" with you because he is just such a moron. Mind you about 80% of his speech is nothing but sloganeering and soundbites trying to throw President Obama and Congressional leadership under the bus. Honestly he probably should have stuck to that. But instead he tried his hand at showing that the GOP is not just the party of no. That they have their own ideas too. LOL yeah, that's a good one!

So lets take a look see shall we.

Lets' have doctors and hospitals post pricing and outcomes. In this day and age, why aren't the cost of all tests, treatments, procedures and office visits -- as well as effectiveness of treatments posted openly on the internet. That'll bring down costs.

First off let me acknowledge that I do believe this is a good idea for the sake of transparency. But to say that just by posting prices and outcomes online that will in and of itself reduce costs is foolish on its face. First of all it is going to COST MONEY to set up a system whereby you post those prices online. Second of all It is highly likely that such a system would be done in such a way that the average person can't understand it. Does this have potential to HELP bring down costs? Of course it does. If people actually can figure out the information and they start bargain shopping for their health care then it may have an effect. But there is no way in hell to say unequivically that it will help nor could you possibly quantify how much it might help if it did at all.

Then we change the law so you can take your health insurance with you if you have to change jobs, eliminating expensive and unnecessary insurance turnover. That'll bring down costs.

Can someone explain to me how he plans on doing something other than Cobra coverage when you leave a job where your employer pays either all or some of your premium? And again if you set such a system up is it supposed to just magically change and everything work well without creating a new expensive beauracracy to oversee it? Again this is so vague as to be laughable that he puts it forth as an actual policy position.

Let's support new paperless, computer-age health care IT systems to reduce the cost of health care management as well as reduce medical mistakes. That'll really bring down costs.

Hey stupid, we already did that. Remember that stimulus bill you keep slamming? Yeah, it was in there moron.

I truly can't understand why this guy keeps going out publicly and making a fool out of himself like this but as a Democrat I will take it. His rhetoric and his delivery are both so ridiculous that its hard to see how anybody, even his own supporters, take this man seriously. I don't think President Obama is spending much time worrying about Michael Steele speeches I can tell you that much.

Oh and one more thing, I am continuing my boycott of MSNBC until such time as they fire Pat Buchanan, but for the rest of you Steele will be on Hardball with Chris Matthews and I would be willing to bet the farm that Tweety will twist him into some YouTube moments.