Sounds like the Democrats with 'guts' are beginning to be heard, and it's about time. How does that McCaughey keep rising from the dead, like some evil doer in a horror movie?

If their argument is we can pay more because we can afford it, then they are doomed. That argument is doomed with 80 percent of Americans, and the other 30 percent are too dumb to come in out of the rain.

"We earn more, and we can afford more," she said.

Except for the tens of millions who earn little to nothing, and can afford little to nothing. Has McCaughey addressed that problem? Didn't think so.

"We earn more, and we can afford more," she said.

I guess she doesn't realize that most of our bankruptcies are due to medical expenses. Oops.

Pinson has the right idea. Someone who didn't already know a lot about McCaughey could reasonably conclude, from reading this article, that Weiner was berated her unfairly, or, perhaps, that she might have a legitimate point about spending more for health care b/c we can afford to. Since we all know those would not be reasonable conclusions, reporting on the debate in typical journalistic faux-balanced 'he-said/she-said' style just plays into McCaughey's hands.

These two were on MSNBC's Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan today and it was extremely interesting.

While I find it difficult to watch people interrupt and shout, Ratigan repeatedly called McCaughey on her b.s. I'm one viewer who's actually heartened to see hosts control a civil conversation, so I respect Ratigan for intervening. (No doubt McCaughey supporters will view him as some kind of meanie; I figure he's simply acting like a decent manager.)

And wow, she spit like a snake when she wasn't allowed to control the conversation and keep serving up irrelevant points (!).

But sadly, she does not seem to grasp that without breaking up the healthCo monopolies, what she claims that she wants (which might be called a 'wellness approach') is simply not possible.

The existing economics of the way that we provide and pay for health care exclude what she claims to want.

Weiner gets it.
She doesn't.

Very weird, and deeply frustrating.

Google their names if you are interested in watching the 13 minute segment.

McCaughey should no longer be allowed to pollute the public debate on healthcare. She's out of touch with reality and a willing liar. Let's consign B.M. to the growing pile of whackjobs to ignore when it comes to genuine discourse. Weiner wastes his time arguing with her.

I'm going to save the video for later tonight, have my dinner first and wait for at least one hour then watch it - b/c every single time I watched her I had to throw up.

no link to the entire debate??

Can we please change the headline of this to "McCaughey Smacked by Weiner"? Please?

After the two gave their opening statements, the moderator, Politico's Ben Smith, asked questions, including one near-grilling of McCaughey on whether there's any place to save money in health care.

"Government controls are a blunt instrument," she began.

"But is there another way to do it?" Smith cut in.

"Let me finish," she said. After more dodging, an audience member shouted, "Answer the question!"

"We can encourage people to lead healthier lifestyles," she said.

McCaughey just proved Rep. Grayson right - the Rethug health care plan is "Don't get sick!"

Didn't Ben Smith shout out his fellow young republicans or something like that?

My car is ranked the 37th best car in the world -- but the rims I have on it are ranked #1!!!

We have all heard the following story in many versions, but it is worth repeating. A man had a small business with 60 employees, but now it is down to 20, because of rising costs, like health care of which he has little control over. He himself needs an MRI, and is referred to a lab that is owned by "his doctor". If you walk in from the street, the lab charges you $2400, but with normal insurance, it charges $1200. The business owner has a premium policy, which negotiates the price down to $600. So he figures the real cost of the MRI is probably like $300. So Betsy, you say we can pay what the market will bear, because we can afford it, but I ask you, what do we know what we can afford, when we do not even know the price we are being asked to pay.

I was there. It was a clear win of fact-based reality over...well, there is no other way to put it: lies. I agree that nobody's mind was changed; still great to be there.

Why did Rep. Weiner lower himself to debate this nitwit? It results in inaccurate articles about his position being on the extreme end of the debate and falsely equivalent with this woman's extreme lies.

The single-payer position is sane, practical and fair.
Standing next to this lunatic only demonstrates why this country will probably never attain it.

Man is she annoying to listen to. Jon Stewart smoked her in response to her BS Death Panels schtick. Seems she has a lot of free time these days to make shit up:

CANTEL MEDICAL CORP. (NYSE: CMN – News) announced that on August 20, 2009 it received a letter of resignation from Ms. Elizabeth McCaughey as a director of the Company. Ms. McCaughey, who had served as a director since 2005, stated that she was resigning to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest during the national debate over healthcare reform.

McCaughey found herself the subject of widespread ridicule after an appearance on “The Daily Show” Thursday, during which host Jon Stewart aggressively challenged her positions on health care reform.

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By the way, I liked Josh's calling her the "Typhoid Mary" of HCR in an earlier post.

I think we should all refer to her as "Typhoid Betsy" McCaughey in future.

"Americans spend more on health care because they can afford more,"

is equivalent to:

"Americans are charged more for health care because they can afford more,"

See: Price Gouging, Extortion, Uncompetitive Market, Abusive Dominant Supplier, Monopoly.

"It sure would be a shame if you were to get cancer without health insurance coverage..."

She is totally a bought and sold subsidiary of the health care industry.

My favourite was when she had her 1000 page Health Care bill in front of her and was reading a part she felt proved her bogus case. When she was asked to read the next page that would put the whole issue in context and would disprove her point, she "could not find" that page. She only brought 999 pages and it just so happened that the one page that would disprove her invalid point was missing!
Surprise, surprise!