Al Franken: How Many Medical Bankruptcies Are There In Switzerland?
We stray into politics often at our peril but I had to share this clip of Sen. Franken kneecapping a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute conservative think tank. In what was supposed to be a hearing on the Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act, Diana Furchtgott-Roth instead used her testimony to pillory against health care reform proposals not even being discussed. After Sen. Whitehouse asks her if she even read the bill at hand, Sen. Franken goes: "You said the way we're going will increase bankruptcies...How many bankruptcies because of medical crises were there last year in Switzerland?"
<- Franken clip.
In the second clip, Sen. Whitehouse asks: "Did you actually read the bill that is the subject of today's hearing?"
In the second clip, Sen. Whitehouse asks: "Did you actually read the bill that is the subject of today's hearing?"Here she uses the big "UC" - that less strict bankruptcy laws have the "unintended consequence" of encouraging more people to seek bankruptcy. Her solution to so many medical bankruptcies is then to make it harder to seek bankruptcy, rather than addressing the underlying over-inflated costs that drive consumers into medical bankruptcy in the first place.
Pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly, Merck and Novartis number among The Hudson Institute's funders.
You can watch the entire session and read and search the transcript here on C-SPAN.
(Thanks to Dirk!)
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Comments:
Good work, Stuart Smalley.
awesome!
Al Franken is becoming my favorite Senator.
I love Al Franken. ♥ I hope he just keeps on being so awesome.
@ecwis: I believe, as the consumerist usually does, it is pointing towards an effort by major companies to either deny or lie about things, except she was caught and visually you can see her suffer where she thought it was going to be a simple stating of "facts".
Minnesota should be proud.
Dear Minnesota,
You guys made the right choice (even if it took you a few extra months).
Love,
Me
That deer in the headlight look, brutal.
Senator Franken is really proving to be a breath of fresh air. The man has a talent for cutting through the political BS to get to the heart of the matter and inject some common sense.
It's amazing what happens when you actually get someone intelligent into the Senate instead of the same old fogeys who've been re-elected over and over for the past 30 years.
@Darklighter: Technically they chose way back. It took Norm Coleman all that time to stop wasting peoples time and money.
@futuresuperbowlMVPJayCutler: I like it at 2:10 when she rotates her head on an axis while keeping her eyes on Franken.
We have the worst bankruptcy provisions ever since Bush destroyed it while in office.
btw love the end of the last video. "mansion or castle" lol
Go Franken your time in office is short.
Damn. This makes me extra glad that Franken finally got seated. Leave it to a comedian to make excellent use of sarcasm. Don't ever change, Senator. Don't ever change.
@Skankingmike: Why do you think his time in office is short? He will be in until at least 2014. I think Minnesota voters are going to love him.
Al Franken IS THE MAN.
This means I should tune into the Daily Show tonight.
@thezone: you keep believing that.
Lets hope Madison is wrong in that it takes you several years to truly understand how the system works.
i need to watch c-span more often, that was great :)
I believe that "Senator Sheldon" you mean "Senator Whitehouse" from my adopted fair state of Rhode Island...
Kind of a distinct contrast between the two videos: Franken's quick swipe to the jugular, vs. "I don't know how to do a proper video capture" dude who sounds like he just put down his bong long enough to make (to him) a profound condemnation of some industry shill.
@jmurphy42: He's also a huge policy wonk and intellectual. So, he actually reads the bills and can discuss policy. He's not the person to mess with when you lie about what a bill does or does not do.
It seems that the people this woman works for have taken a page from the wireless companies' playbook.
Complaint: "We pay too much money for text messages!"
Response: "The United States has one of the most powerful wireless networks in the world."
Franken was great as usual, but Sen. Whitehouse's interaction with that woman was incredibly satisfying.
It's like when I sit down with a typical BS-er student to talk about how they only pretend to do work. And we have almost exactly the same conversation... And they usually get the exact same look on their faces.
Heh. heheh.
Also: Franken addresses her as "Dr." but she's not a doctor.
Also, scary facts: This individual was Chief Economist at the DoL under Bush and was Chief of Staff for his Council of Economic Advisors. So, she's obviously known for her spot-on research skills.
And boom goes the dynamite.
Incidentally, the title of that second video cracked me up.
Looking at Franken makes me want to take Tina Fey, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Carey Greenberg-Berger and put each of them into a committee. They'll be tearing down BS like you wouldn't believe it.
@MaxSmart32: Gah, I'm sorry, I broke the guidebook on comments...I realized after I posed it an email would have been more appropriate. My apologies to my Consumerist friends!
We should absolutely address those "underlying over-inflated costs," but doing so is going to require either price controls on doctors and hospitals, or reducing the volume of care consumed.
We have two health care problems in this country:
1. Too many people don't have health care.
2. We spend too much on health care.
The proposed reforms take a shot at dealing with #1, but they don't do anything about (and actually make worse) #2.
It's about time someone stood up to TEH STOOOPID. I'm so sick of bad studies and spurious correlations being used to justify bad policy (and to be fair, it's not like the Dems are innocent of it either).
Why is it that comedians do the best job of smacking down with the truth these days? Why can Stewart/Colbert find the video that contradicts the politicians who claim to have never said a given thing, but the "real" news networks don't bother? Maybe the comedians are smarter than the average network talking-point parrot?
@TCama:
Complaint: Why can't we work as a team to reduce emissions and our dependence on oil?
Response: 9/11.
@JGKojak: I wish he was my Senator. Although having Claire McCaskill as a Senator is not too shabby either.
@NeverLetMeDown: 1. Too many people don't have health care so skip out on their medical bills. This leads to 2. where the hospitals have to make up their losses by jacking up prices for people that DO have health care. Therefore, 1 begets 2.
Furchgott-Roth, I'm guessing, is a spouse or other relation to Harold Furchgott-Roth, former FCC Commissioner, later another rightwing thinktanker, and overall out-of-touch lunatic who worships the free-market fairy dust. And to think THESE are the people the Republicans want as the face of their "movement?" Keep talking, lady, please please keep talking.
@redskull: I suggest getting Rachel Maddow into the senate instead. Easier than cloning with similar end result (complete with endearingly nerdy glasses).
We should probably just start hiring celebrities as political officials from now on and start putting senators up for public humiliation as entertainment. I specifically request a lions vs congressmen weekly feature.
I do not know about you guys but the girl behind AL looks pretty healthy to me
@ARP: The man is absolutely brilliant. Too bad he didn't use that on his book titles, heh. Disclaimer: I've read parts of Lying Liars, and it was chock full of statistics and really good analysis.
Facepalm!