10/15/09: TWD's Agenda For The Day: Iraq Isn't The Only Thing From 2003 We Can Learn From

After thinking it was completely dead a few weeks ago, our favorite "T" word pushed by President/Empress Snowe has come back to life. Like the public option, it has (unwelcoming) had its Lazarus moment too, thanks to "Trigger Man" Emmanuel and his fellow "out of touch" willing accomplice.

If you need more proof of how Gosh Awful the Trigger would be in conjunction with the many that have been said as time has pasted, just take a flashback to 6 years ago. And think of the phrase "Medicare Part D."

Snowe, shockingly, lied about that with her own revisionist history yesterday morning on CNN's pathetic fest of an AM show. She pulled a clear fast one on Kieran Chetry, another network anchor who is dreadful at doing any sort of political coverage, about how the Trigger was never intended/needed for Medicare Part D.

Now, before you see the mendacity displayed by the "de facto head of State", get this from BuzzFlash.com's Meg White. Oh, it's a doozey of the truth.....unless you know already about it in regards to Part D:

It was promised as a mechanism to bring down prescription costs for seniors. The problem is, the legislation itself was basically written by Big Pharma. The drug companies ingeniously decided they wouldn't have to negotiate with the federal government on Medicare prescription drug prices, as they must do with other programs such as the Veterans Health Administration, so they could charge taxpayers whatever they wanted.

And that they did.

The legislation had a "trigger" built in to supposedly protect consumers and taxpayers against huge cost increases in the program. If the bills became too large, a "public option" would kick in and tell Big Pharma what's what. Unsurprisingly, that threshold has not yet been reached.

As a result, Big Pharma got a big windfall (a whopping $3.7 billion in the first two years alone) from Medicare Part D. But hey, that's what happens when you let lobbyists for the industry you're trying to reform write the legislation that does the reforming.

White talks about "the doughnut hole" opening. And man, is it an opening.

Now with all of that, take a look at how this royal liar sneaks a fast one past a hapless anchor so easy, you thought she was going to pitch in tonight's NLCS Game 1. Just fast forward to 1:38, and stomach it if you can until the 4th minute. And if you can't, here is the transcript right below.

CHETRY: It seems that's going to be a hard bar to meet, to pick the best possible, because there are so many groups out there who have their one issue that's make or break. I mean, take a look at even in the way these bills came down. The Senate Finance Committee is the only one that does not include a public option, and there are many in the House. All three of their bills do include it and there are many who say it's a public option or bust. Where do you stand on that?

SNOWE: Well, you know, I'm opposed to a public option, because I think the government has an inherent disadvantage, and disproportionate advantage at that against the private sector, and I think that we should leverage the private sector to perform by prohibiting egregious practices on the part of the insurance industry of the past and denying people coverage on so many levels.

We're going to end all of those practices, at the same time we're going to provide tax credits and subsidies and then we're going to make a transparent marketplace through these exchanges for individuals and small businesses and to provide affordable health insurance. I think that's the preferable rule. I would support a trigger as a fallback in the event affordable plans do not materialize in any given region of the country as we did with the prescription drug program.

We never had to utilize it. It was so much competition, that it was never triggered. I think that's the preferable way to go in that regard. I'm surprised that the insurance industry, frankly, you know, in trying to engineer such opposition, because our bill did not include the public option and provides tax credits and subsidies of almost $500 billion of the purchasing insurance products.

You see that?

Not only does Snowe does her usual dishonest schtick, but also a key fact is highlighted: That "trigger" hasn't worked at all. Pharma is dancing in happiness over that, while some seniors are getting ravaged by it.

Lord knows how brutal it would be if the trigger is implemented in the final option, even with all the anti-trust legislation news yesterday being good.

And even with Pelosi continuing to affirm a strong public option out of the House, and the Rockefeller/ Schumer duo combating the White House's hard-on love for Reid's "hot potato-ness", Baucus lobbyist crap written bill, and Snowe's middle finger to even some in her own state (let alone the rest of the nation), even the past history in this decade of no trigger pull hasn't stop a revitalization of an insane, heartless idea.

Just last week, it seemed we would doing nothing worse than an "opt-out." But knowing the Senate (thanks to the White House letting it merrily happen), it probably was very foolish to think like that.