Is it true that George Washington said "that the framers had created the Senate to "cool" House legislation just as a saucer was used to cool hot tea[?]" The question becomes then did George Washington and the Framers intend for the Senate to put the tea in the freezer.

A couple of days ago, I asked Senator Spector about our dysfunctional Senate:

Kevin Drum:

Is lefty obsession with the public option going to torpedo Dems in 2010?

Wow. People should not care about issues because that might hurt someone's electoral chances? Wow.

Speaking for me only

It's been 34 days since the House passed its versions of the Health Insurance Premium Assistance Act.

The Senate has spent all year wasting time in their committees to now basically toss out the versions of a health insurance bill they wrote. Harry Reid ended up writing his own bill and now they are negotiating that bill. Who knows what their final bill will look like.

And then there should be a conference between the House and Senate for a final bill. And then that probably won't pass either the House or the Senate. So this year might produce a reconciliation bill that will be inserted into one of the budget bills or no bill may be passed at all.

As a demonstration of governing ability, Democrats have pretty much failed when it comes to the health insurance issue, no matter the end result.

This is an Open Thread.

Biurny Peguero claimed three men kidnapped and raped her. She swore to it under oath at the grand jury and at the trial of William McCaffrey, a construction worker. He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years. He went to prison. Four years later, McCaffrey was officially cleared today.

How did it happen? His attorney was able to get new DNA tests on bite marks on Peguero's arms. The reports at the time of the trial were inconclusive. The new testing showed the bites didn't come from McCaffrey but from two women who had fought with Peguero.

Peguero later confessed to a priest and then to the DA's office that she made the whole thing up. She wanted people to feel sorry for her.

She claimed she was raped because she wanted her friends "to feel badly" for her, and then was afraid to back down from her story as the case continued, prosecutors said in court filings this fall. She thought McCaffrey ultimately would be acquitted because of a lack of other evidence, prosecutors said.

[More...]

An appeals court in California today heard oral arguments in Roman Polanski's case. At issue was Polanski's request to dismiss the charges due to judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. A trial judge last year refused to hear the case because he was a fugitive. The grounds for the dismissal request were the new revelations in the film, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired".

Associate Justice Laurie Zelon asked the prosecutor why the district attorney's office had not investigated recent allegations of misconduct by a judge and prosecutor during Polanski's 1977 court proceedings.

"Doesn't the district attorney's office have an interest in finding out what happened here?" Zelon asked.

Deputy District Attorney Phyllis Asayama replied, "Yes, we are interested. But I'm not sure we have the proper agency to do this." She didn't elaborate.

[More...]

I was on a call with Senator Specter yesterday. His office was kind enough to get me a transcript:

Senator Arlen Specter: Thank you all for joining us this afternoon the principle topic is the healthcare reform legislation, which has been highly publicized. There is some background activity on Jobs Bill. Climate control is pretty much on the backburner, for the moment, as is Wall Street reform and immigration and the Appropriation Bills are coming through, but I think it would be good to move right to the questions.

Q: Hi, Senator Specter. This is Eve Gittelson. I want to thank you, again, for graciously giving us your very valuable time. AS: Well, I’m pleased to do it, Eve. Thank you. [MORE . . .]

Chris Bowers argues that MedicAid expansion is the key provision in the health insurance premium assistance bill for progressives:

The largest public option in the health care bills is, and has always been, Medicaid. In terms of the number of people it covers, it dwarfs any other public option currently on the table in either bill. In terms of the type of people it covers, compared to the other public option expansions it includes a much higher percentage of Americans who are currently uninsured and a much higher percentage of Americans who are currently in poverty. [. . .] Providing 15 million low-income, uninsured Americans with public health insurance is also why so few House Progressives carried through on their earlier threat to sink any health care bill without a new public option program tied to Medicare rates. After all, House Progressives both want to help people in poverty, and they disproportionately represent districts that would have been impacted by the new Medicaid coverage.

So, why not just pass MedicAid expansion then? Hell, throw in the subsidies to purchase private insurance too if you want. Use the House funding mechanism (the very popular "tax the rich" approach) and voila - we have a good progressive bill. Are there not 60 votes in the Senate for that? No problem. As was contemplated in 1997 for S-Chip, pass it through reconciliation:

Progressive taxation is cool again:

Americans want their government to create jobs through spending on public works, investments in alternative energy or skills training for the jobless. They also want the deficit to come down. And most are ready to hand the bill to the wealthy.

A Bloomberg National Poll conducted Dec. 3-7 shows two- thirds of Americans favor taxing the rich to reduce the deficit. [. . .] The appeal of taxes on the wealthy crosses party lines. About half of Republicans back the idea and it is more popular among Democrats and independents.

Tax the rich! Let's do it. Speaking for me only of course.

This is an Open Thread.

Via TPMDC, the Communications Workers of America commissioned a poll:

[N]ew polling, commissioned by the Communications Workers of America and conducted by Anzalone Liszt Research, finds that voters overwhelmingly oppose taxing high-cost health insurance plans as a way to help fund health insurance reform, but support raising taxes on the wealthy to accomplish the same goal. The Anzalone poll surveyed 2,200 likely voters in 10 states including seven with 2010 frontline Senate races (Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Nevada and North Dakota). Also polled were Indiana, New Mexico and Virginia.

We are through the looking glass. The public supports a public option but it must go. The public opposes the excise tax, but it must stay. Democracy in action.

Speaking for me only

Booman writes:

In any case, I find it absurd that anyone would seriously believe (or ask others to believe) that Obama has wanted to weaken the public option all along. In fact, I think that is just stupid.

I agree. I do not think the President has lifted a finger, pro or con, regarding the public option. He has been the Bystander President regarding the SUBSTANCE of "health care reform." Some attribute this to the political impotency of the Presidency itself. In my opinion, that is an absurd and stupid view. Others think the President and his team are focused on "success" (apparently defined as passage of a bill, any bill. I fall into that camp.) Others rightly question why that definition of success should be accepted by progressives and activists.

In any event, absurdities abound.

Speaking for me only

The mother of one of the five missing men arrested in Pakistan says he traveled there to meet her and her husband who were trying to arrange a marriage for him. She says her husband was arrested along with her son, bringing the total number arrested from the U.S. to six.

In an interview with CNN, Subira Farouk said her son, Umar, was one of the young men detained in the case. She said her husband also was arrested, which would bring to six the number of people in custody. Police confirmed they have six people in custody, not five, as was originally reported.

Farouk said her son would never plot a terror attack. She described him as a business student at George Mason University in suburban Washington.

A law enforcement official says none of the five missing men "had shown up on law enforcement's radar" before they were reported missing.

Maybe they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe they were unwittingly lured there. There's more to this story and I'd caution against forming any judgments until more is known. At least the State Department will be seeking consular access to those who are Americans. I don't imagine Pakistan is a friendly place to face interrogation upon arrest. For that reason alone, I'd be suspect of any claimed confessions.

In a way, it is stunning to me that someone like Matt Yglesias, who has spent the year pooh poohing the public option and arguing that it be dropped by progressives would write this:

[I]t’s important to understand that [Medicare's] low reimbursement rates are a feature not a bug. [. . .] [O]n the one hand, that funding levels are high. But it also means that there’s a reasonable amount of interest in getting as much health care services per dollar as possible. Consequently, providers are paid enough to make it worth their while to see Medicare patients, but much less than they’d like to make. The result is not a perfect program (far from it) but this particular aspect of Medicare is an example of big government at its best—serving clients’ interests rather than those of providers.

I have written it a million times - here is one million one - the one tested and proven method of controlling health care costs is Medicare. Health care reform that creates a program that COULD become like Medicare is the only proven reform that has been proposed. The wonks will tell you all about the wonderful "bending the curve" provisions like the Exchange, and the excise tax and all the rest. What they do not tell you is that none of that - absolutely none of it, has been proven to work in any setting ever. Only one program has been proven to work to cut costs - the government run insurance program known as Medicare.

Speaking for me only