Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 16, 2009

Hey, I’ll approve it. I’m part owner.

I used to work for one of their divisions about 11 years ago.

Wait’ll they run health care.

Heh, yeah, I’m with Grokenstein. We’re already paying a fortune in insurance so we can cool our heels for hours in emergency rooms (I once spent FIVE HOURS in one slowly bleeding onto the floor). My last physical totaled $1100 in bills … for a PHYSICAL! My mother’s paying $600 out of pocket a month for medications.

And THIS is the system the Republican scaremongers think this administration could screw up? Here’s hoping!

I (briefly) use to sell cars at a (now defunct, but not my doing) Ford dealership. Customers who wanted something that the dealership didn’t really want to give got the same run-around shown in the comic, except it was layers of sales managers – both real and imaginary – from which we had to get “approval”. Better to blame some nameless-faceless company “bureaucrat” than to straight out tell the customer “No”.

One irritating thing I frequently observe is how private industries hide behind government regulations that they, the industries, themselves advocated to be enacted – the government becoming the willing fall-guy for blame. There is a great myth in this country that the private sector is inherently more efficient than government agencies. I’ve worked in both private companies and the Federal government, and in both cases the organizations were not far removed from a “Dilbert” cartoon. In fact, in my own sphere at least, for efficiency I’d have to give the edge to Uncle Sam.

Heh, pretty much, Al. And let’s review the math. The current administration has been in office for less than eight months.

The previous REPUBLICAN administration was in office for EIGHT YEARS, and in charge of all the government departments and bureaucracy in that time. So if business complains that it’s overregulated, would someone kindly explain to me why the guys they claim are business-friendly kept the screws on?

Well Ravenswing, that actually pretty simple. You see, we librils, we are extremely talented and powerful. We can see into the future and influence it from afar and we have bionic powers, extra-perceptional influential abilities and mind reading skills.

It really was the Democratic party that was in charge during the Reagan administration (Poppy Bush’s first two terms in office), Poppy’s administration AND Junior’s administration.

We, being the ones who understand and can use science, secretly implanted a microchip in Dick’s pacemaker that ultimately replaced any human emotions with killer instincts coupled with an unnatural need for more money and power.

Then we charged up the implant in GW’s brain (no, Karl’s implant isn’t connected, it’s really just an upgrade of the same model) that removes any ability to speak or understand the English language and forced him to exercise 4 hours a day, and go to bed every night at 9pm. It also caused extreme fatigue during those times we needed him on vacation so we could influence our Al Queda friends in Iraq to do nasty stuff to the American people.

I’d tell more, but then I’d have to “remove” you all. Shhhhh!

I do not know why this has to be viewed as difficult. Senators elected by 2.3 % of the country, and not the brightest 2.3 % I might add, are trying to write a new health care policy without peeking at the latest checks from insurance companies, and drug makers.

The Republical Party is taking Biblical analogies as Gospel Truth, oxymoron #1, and vaporizing.

ipse dixit if you took any Latin.

cheers chaps next time

WTF my previous has 2 options edit and delete. Post the mf you don’t mind

..I bought a used car three months ago..and boy were they willing to deal..now,that my other clunker is giving out I thought I could get another great deal on another fine used car…no such deal…”Sorry,”the drealer said,”That we can’t put you into a car you can afford.”

Don’t tell me $$$ for Clunkers isn’t working.The dealers are the fine old snobs they used to be…

Anybody buying into the Republican cheap scare-campaign, watch Moore’s Sicko. It says it all.

GPS?? I would like to think that at some point in the past 10 years Trudeau would have heard of ONSTAR!

Moore’s Sicko. Right. Speaking of cheap scare campaigns…

If you are a member of an affinity group (AAA, AARP, Costco, etc) the deals are pre-priced. You deal with the fleet manager, not a salesman. I bought a Toyota Sienna (made in Richmond, IN), a Cololla and a Matrix (both made in Fremont, CA) from Frontier Toyota in Valencia, CA. (Sales taxes returned to my home city.) Each deal took about an hour from the time we walked in until we drove off. It’s the only way to go.

I sold cars in ‘65, “TO” setups are still in effect, the mysterious “sales manager” was there to turn people on to something they didn’t want and couldn’t afford. That is the Republican plan for a tax exemption for some poor slob to buy private insurance, that costs 3-5 times as much as tax exemption will provide. His employer will also be backed out of the picture, so will save his “cost of doing business”, and provide higher bonuses for the CEO and those at the top.

The Republican plan is the TO. The Health Care plan being proposed, yet being slashed daily due to the Beck/Armey attack from the lies and ignorance brigade, is the simple actuarial posture of everyone pays a little, everyone gets coverage for at least basic health care.

Ravenswing,

To answer your question: fiscal/regulatory conservatives have not had a majority in Congress in decades at the very least. They get their kind of legislation passed occasionally (e.g. various Contract w/ America reforms in 1995, Kemp-Roth in the early 80s), but not consistently. The party where most of these folks are found is divided over these issues. For presidential examples, Nixon was a regulatory fanatic, and Dubya a spending liberal.

Keep in mind that the Dems controlled all of Congress for 2 of Bush’s years, and the 107th Senate for most of its tenure (GOP was majority from January 20–June 6, 2001).

And to answer Mr. Henderson, REGULATION has very little to do with Congress. It has to do with the bureaucracy of the adminstration departments. These are 100% under the control and supervision of the White House.

No kidding the Republicans aren’t remotely fiscal conservatives; half of my point is that I’m sick of them lying in claiming to be.

bleeep frenchy, first you support obummer, now you stab him.

HEY! When do MY bionic powers come on-line?! Huh? Huh? When?

Ravenswing,

Regulatory agencies are brought into being by Congress.

I just checked the new GM-EBay sales site. They brag on TV that you can get any car you want – just name your price. But the only vehicles they have for sale are monster trucks and SUVs. Detroit still doesn’t get it.

To PSUnderwood:

Sicko is not depicting a future scenario but simply shows how lousy, outrageous and inefficient the current system is. Then compares it with the ‘communist heaven’ systems in France and even Cuba.

The scare campaign is to tell the US people that public health care is impossible and uneconomical while in fact the current system is probably the worst and inhuman on the planet.

Well, if Cuba’s and Canada’s healthcare is so great, then why not just have US doctors give their patients plane tickets to those countries when they need major medical care? It’s free, and I’m sure they’re as generous treating illegal American aliens as we are treating illegal aliens for free here.

Everybody wins - high quality, low cost. Winner winner, chicken dinner!

On gov’t subsidizing and regulation:

Corporations in the market to buy members of congress through lobbyists and campaign contributions LOVE to rail against any gov’t regulations (as they subsidize congress members coffers) but then flip flop to beg to be bailed out by ‘the gov’t after they’ve sucked as much from the bubble working people pay into their schemes. Roughly 60% of the people, nurses and doctors want single payer – they don’t believe the tripe FOX, Limbaugh / Hannity/ etc. lie about on the air waves. I do love to see how republicans - who are conserving nothing and do not deserve the name conservative - have been winding the long rope they’ve taken all about their necks.

The party and practice of old and old minded / fear minded people will and must end.