Kudos to Senator Frank
 

I just listened to Senator Frank's Town Hall meeting from last Tuesday. It was a masterful performance. I am impressed with the Senator's intelligence and calm. I still disagree with him on national health care, but I have tremendous respect for his ability in front of a hostile crowd.

I am also ashamed at the behavior of many of the protesters. They had the opportunity to debate/ discuss national health care with one of the key Senators in the debate. Instead they chose to debase themselves ( and their cause, I fear) by rude laughter, and catcalls. The Senator showed himself to be the master of the situation.

X2. I thought it was an impressive performance. If more senators and representatives had the ability to derail the absurd claims of health care reform's critics, the debate might be intelligent.

Representative!

My mistake.

You had me thinking it was Barney.

Here at "home", he's often refered to as "Barney the frank!"

The lady sorta had it coming but I would have taken a different tack. I similarly didn't like BHO's smirking dismissal of the deather crowd at his NH town meeting about a week ago.

I would have said something like:

Hitler actually believed he could create a master race, that his instincts were better than the creator. No one that I know of in US govt. has any delusions about such a thing. The provision that led to all of this, the business about counseling for end of life decisions, has been with us for some time. Some people are appalled at the notion of being hooked to tubes and catherters for the last weeks or months of their life and wish to have the right to forestall such things, when it becomes apparent to several expert consultants and their family, that the end of life, which comes to us all, is near.

Other ideas floating about, that we perhaps ought to look at stopping and somewhat reversing the rapid increase of expenditures on end of life care, are controversial to be sure, but fact is these costs are increasing more rapidly than our national income and at some point, some limiting of care will take place, no matter what. For example, if each person has paid an average of $700 a month for health insurance, no small figure, for say the last 20 years of their life, that comes to a total of $168,000. Even assuming that that amount were to triple from interest earnings, if each and every person were to consume several $million in end of life care, the insurance companies would go bust in short order.

Some rationing is going to take place no matter what we do. The question before us is: how do we identify the best course of action for spending our health care dollars? Do we continue to enrich the pharmaceutical industry for a bizarre array of drugs, all with their own side effects, and the rest of the growing medical industrial complex? Or do we examine a broader range of options?

It will be a complicated discussion, and wild charges that Obama is emulating Hitler will not be helpful in that.

He's an odd bird but I sorta like the guy.

I disagree. Your reply takes the question seriously, legitimating an absurd claim. Frank put the questioner squarely where she belonged, in the company of nutjobs. I think the Obama administration has made a bad strategic error by responding seriously to the absurd claims. It has given the Republicans a strategic victory by moving the debate away from serious health care topics. I think the Republicans were very smart in making Palin the source of the 'Death Panel' claims. Kind of like sending your worst soldier first thru a minefield. She's expendable and many people already consider her a nutjob so she can be used to advance your cause without making more credible Republicans seem looney by advancing such positions.

Here's Frank in his earlier TV role:

I think a major political miscalculation was making Pelosi Speaker. I think Frank could have gotten the job done. So, I guess I'm glad Pelosi is Speaker. Politics make for strange stuff.

left right center whatever, I think it is very good for people to question and assail through verbage th emembers of congress. they all have become too insulated and arrogant. a little (or a lot0 of dressing down i sin order to help remind them that they are the people's employee and thus they should heed the demands of their constituancy. persoanally I find Frank somewhat arrogant, but then again, he has had a lot of conflict during his career

I love his completely rumpled appearance. He couldn't look less like an official in high office.
That and he wrote a bill to let me spend my money how I please. Republicans killed it, but at least Frank put it out there.

Yeah, he's a real gem.

What's not to like?

Lets not forget Franks fingers being into Fannie Mae and Freddie mac, your tax dollars at work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlZiWK2Iy8 lol... damn nazis.