Keith Olbermann had a “special comment” on Monday calling out Republicans and Democrats who were standing in the way of President Obama’s health-care plan, and blamming lobbyist money from the “health sector.” An excerpt:
Because the insurance industry owns the Republican Party. Not exclusively. Pharma owns part of it, too. Hospitals and HMO’s, another part. Nursing homes, they have a share. You name a Republican, any Republican, and he is literally brought to you by campaign donations from the health sector.
[…]
No, the Democrats are not wholly owned. Hundreds of Democrats have taken campaign money from the Health Sector without handing over their souls as receipts. But conveniently, the ones who are owned have made themselves easy to spot in a crowd.
They’ve called themselves “Blue Dogs,” and they are out there, hand-in-hand with the Republicans, who they are happy to condemn day and night on everything else, throatily singing “Kumbaya” with the men and women who were bought and sold to defend this con game of an American health care system against the slightest encroachment.
One thing Olbermann left out when railing against the lobbying machine — his employer, GE. From today’s WSJ:
Medical-device makers are adamant that U.S. health care needs fixing. They’re equally adamant that they shouldn’t have to pay for it.
“If you’re looking for savings, don’t come at us,” says Tim Trysla, a top industry representative. He has marched into the offices of 120 lawmakers, sometimes with General Electric Co. officials in tow, to argue that the government already provides so little reimbursement for high-tech medical scans that it shouldn’t chop payments further.
Maybe if GE cut some salries at MSDNC, it could be more patriotic and do its fair share in paying for Obamacare.