Town Hall Protester: "How in the world can a private corporation...compete?" Health Care is about Insurance?

Wisconsin Public Televisions "Here and Now" host Frederica Freyberg featured a few video clips of protesters at Republican Rep. Tom Petri's town hall meeting, that show how disgruntled the sheeple right wing is with government, including health care. The only thing missing are the torches and pitchforks.

I led off the clip with this corporate minded protesters comment:

"How in the world can a private corporation, providing insurance, compete with the entity that doesn't have to worry about making a profit, doesn't have to pay local property taxes, they're not subject to local regulations...how can a company compete with that?"

I wish I were kidding with the above quote. My guess is people may actually think insurance companies have something to do with providing health care, even when they don't.



Or how about the guy who asks, "Do you actually think they're going to pull the plug on my 92 year old dad? That they're really going to have death panels?" (crowd shouts yes and grumbles in general agreement)

I also like this guys comment about a sign at the town hall:

"There's a woman here with a sign that really offended me when I saw it. I offends me she's relating President Obama to Hitler. The only name that's not on there is George W. Bush."

On the Ed Show, Republican strategist Karen Hanretty warns Obama is going to sell out the public option. I think she's right. How else can you explain a back room deal agreeing NOT to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma.

They're all here: Grassley, Rush, Santorum and others. It should give you a good idea of how good the Republicans are at their scorched earth campaign. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow shows the hypocrisy of all of the above when it comes to flip flopping on the end of life "death panel" issue.

Republicans Rep. Petri actually believes what is "said" about other countries rationing care, not the reality. Showing a total lack of knowledge about end of life counseling, Petri somehow got the idea Medicare would be saving money on such advice, instead of actually paying out more money for the service. And instead of trying to cover everyone in the country, he's worried about the possibility that sometime in the future, the public option would begin paying for abortions.