Crystal Clear News-Lite

Defining Health Care

Kathleen Sebelius Will Decide the meaning of common medical and health insurance terms such as “hospitalization,” "physician services," “premium,” "prescription drug coverage," “deductible,” and “emergency room care.”

“Giving the secretary the power to define and regulate all products in the exchange, you essentially remove all consumer choice.” Devon Herrick--health economist at the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Forget a Constitutional Challenge

Robert Gibbs said there is no "veracity" to the argument that the U.S. Constitution does not authorize the federal government to force individuals to buy health insurance.

The Congressional Budget Office has said that the federal government has never before in American history forced Americans to purchase any good or service.

Final Stages/Strong-arm Tactics

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference she and her leadership were entering the "final stages" of assembling a health care bill to be voted on this fall. Officials have said the measure would cost $871 billion over a decade, but that total excluded a handful of items not directly related to expanded coverage that would push the total to well over $1 trillion.

Pelosi told reporters a provision eliminating the health insurance industry's exemption from federal antitrust law would be incorporated into the House measure.

Kudlow Rips Barney Frank and Sister Station MSNBC

“Was there a conservative there?” Kudlow asked. “I saw Ralph Nader and Barney Frank. Did MSNBC miss a conservative dissent?”

Kudlow offered this rebuttal to Frank – big government was tried during the Cold War and failed because people yearned for less government and that was its ultimate undoing.

“Well, here’s my response to Congressman Barney Frank: With all due respect to Mr. Frank, who I think is a very smart guy, we tried heavy government control and regulation in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe,” Kudlow said. “It didn’t work. They rebelled. They wanted economic freedom – the right to keep their own money, the right to start their own businesses, the right to climb the ladder of success in a free economy. That was the revolution.”

Kudlow, the former associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget under former President Reagan explained – free-market policies had a proven track record. The opposite, not so much.

“The Reagan free market – deregulation revolution, with a sound dollar and low tax rates launched a 27-year boom,” Kudlow said. “The Gipper’s policies were copied all around the world.”

That according to Kudlow brought into question the validity of Rep. Barney Frank’s argument, since the battle between the two competing philosophies had already been decided.

“So my question – what does Mr. Barney Frank know that virtually the entire rest of the globe doesn’t know?” Kudlow asked. “The battle between democratic entrepreneurial capitalism and statism has already been won by the economic freedom fighters. This Congress is going in the wrong direction. Growth and wealth come from individuals and human action, not the heavy footprint of the state.”

Later in the program, in a segment about the stimulus and whether or not the White House policies were pro-growth that included David Goodfriend, a former Clinton White House staffer, and Steve Forbes, Kudlow reiterated his point about balance. Kudlow also showed he wasn’t just talking the talk, but walking the walk as well by presenting both sides of a debate.

“Look, this is better than that MSNBC show that had two lefties – Barney Frank and the other dope, Ralph Nader,” Kudlow said. “At least we have an equal representation.”

Way to go Larry! I sure hope Fox Business is taking applications.

More perfect 'Union' for Disney

Jerry Bruckheimer is plotting a civil war at Disney, tapping J. Michael Straczynski to adapt 2K Games' "Shattered Union."

In the game, states secede from the U.S. and form their own governments that wage a civil war against each other after Washington, D.C., is wiped out in a nuclear blast and chaos ravages the nation. Players control one of the warring group of states -- the California Commonwealth, Republic of Texas and New England Alliance are three of the six -- or a European peacekeeping unit sent to reunify America.

Could Jerry have been inspired by Orwell's 1984?