One of the things that health insurance industry executives do with the mind blowing profits they suck out of the US healthcare system is to fund an endless series of conferences for themselves at nice hotels with lavish receptions.
Apparently one of the recent confabs, the AIS Health Business Roundtables Conference on October 4 in DC, was a doozy (see below).
From an industry trade rag account of the event:
"Could Romney, Congress Defund Reform?" screams one headline hopefully.
"Would Obama Delay Law's Implementation?" asks another.
The first part of the lead article pumps Tom Scully, Republican administrator of CMS under Bush from 2001 to 2004, and now a scumbag lobbyist.
One imagines that after the execs in attendance disrobed, assembled themselves in tight circles, and found firm grips, Scully addressed the crowd.
"He told conference participants that if former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney (R) wins, the new president will certainly live up to his campaign mantra to try to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). He also would likely seek changes to Medicare, notably by raising the eligibility age to 67, ending the Medicaid expansion and turning over more of the Medicaid program to state control in the form of block grants."
Moans of pleasure...
"But if a President Romney is unable to dump the whole reform law because of pushback from Congress, he will likely seek to slow new spending for the law's provisions, which could cause at least a five- or six-year delay in implementing key provisions and lead to more of a gradual phase-in."
Gasps of joy...
A Romney administration likely would lead to a friendlier CMS in terms of policies that impact Medicare Advantage plans, Part D prescription drug plans and what Scully termed other "risk ventures."
Tears of surrender...
Would Jindal Head HHS?
La petite mort.
Scully apparently went on to confirm a broader DC narrative, partly exposed by Chuck Schumer last week.
"If Obama wins, Scully predicted a big budget deal similar to the 1997 compromise. In the budget talks, Republicans will seek a delay in health reform law enactment in exchange for agreeing to revenue raisers, i.e., taxes."
Then he delivers a huge lie - the keystone to the latest GOP con:
"The only two moving pieces for Obama in his next term are raising taxes, or delaying the implementation of Obamacare. The money just isn't there to [implement major provisions of the reform law in 2014]... and if you're going to do a budget deal [with Congress] next year, that's what's going to have to happen. It might take until June to get there, but that's what's going to happen. I'd bet my life on it," Scully said.
Of course we would have
plenty of money to dump $2 trillion more into military spending - you know, more sitting duck aircraft carriers, planes too expensive to risk in combat, and - dare they dream? - an invasion of Iran.
And they would find plenty of fiscal room for massive new tax cuts for the rich, given the opportunity.
In other words, the supposed fiscal constraints are a huge f*cking lie, tailored to dupe a certain very serious - though remarkably feeble-minded - set of elites.
And this characterization is more than rhetorical - these pundits and elected plutocrats, many with shockingly limited experience with basic finance and accounting, are DC's versions of the muppets the Goldman Sachs guys hunt out when they want to rip off a face or two.
If this "destroy yourself and I'll allow you to implement my agenda" big con is the GOP game, it raises the question: are Democrats, assuming they keep at least something in DC, stupid enough to take the bait and bite down on a terrible budget deal that would be tantamount to an electoral suicide pact for 2014, 2016, 2018 etc.?
Because in the modern media environment, its clear Democrats would wear the consequences of a phony, screw-the-99-percent deal like an albatross around their necks for the next decade or more.
Returning to the confab, a few other highlights of the conference included:
. Think tank pundits making predictions that a Romney win plus a Senate pick-up would guarantee the voucherization of Medicare - wait for it - through the use of reconciliation to ram it down the throats of any filibustering Democrats in the Senate!
(Back of the envelope, that might steer as much as $1 trillion into insurance industry profits over the next 15 years.)
. Tommy Daschle addressing his dear, esteemed colleagues on how swell the ACA really is, and how glad he is that everyone had become such great friends through the big tent healthcare reform process.
(One would guess that most of the crowd probably hit the bar before that speech ended.)
Many of us have been harsh critics of Obama and Congressional Democrats.
But if Obama goes down in flames, and takes the Senate with him, I think we're probably on the threshold of a true crony-capitalism revolution, the full realization of the K Street Project: corruption and looting of the public treasury on a scale that would surpass even the world historic achievements of 2008.