Tag Archives: health care reform

Health, Humor, International, Politics, Satire

Ultraviolent Mexican drug cartel to close health insurance division

A ruthless and violent Mexican drug cartel has been driven out of the United States, a spokesman for the criminal organization said today.

In an exclusive phone interview with CNN, the spokesman, identifying himself only as “Caballero Uno,” announced the cartel known as La Organizacion has decided to cease operations of Meditrolex Insurance, a Connecticut company specializing in the individual health insurance market.

An estimated 2,500 Meditrolex bosses, underbosses, enforcers, and claims reviewers will lose their jobs.

Caballero Uno said the decision to shutter Meditrolex “is because of American socialism.”

“We decided to invest in America because we thought it was a good place to do business,” said Caballero Uno. “And we prospered. We lived the American dream, jacking up insurance rates 20, 30, even 39% in a year, then refusing to pay.”

“But now your Comrade Obama has ended free market capitalism. He is going to make us post our balance sheet online, and spend at least 85% on patient care instead of mistresses, yachts, firepower, and executive bonuses,” he said.

“Obamacare also interferes in the most fundamental nature of our business — telling us we can’t cut off people we think are bad risks. Well it’s just unacceptable, we’re pulling out and heading back to Mexico to focus on our core business,” Caballero Uno said.

Republicans seized on today’s news as proof the new national health overhaul is bad for the economy. “It’s a narco-jobs killer,” declared a visibly emotional Congressman John Boehner, the House minority leader.

Boehner said he plans to press La Organizacion to stay in the U.S., and intends to travel to Mexico for talks. “I hear they have excellent tanning there,” Boehner said.

Blogging, Humor, Politics, Satire, Technology

Long lines mean Soviet-style shortages are here, Tea Party blogger says

President Obama is creating an economic disaster, a prominent Tea Party activist said today.

“Long lines for bread, clothing and toilet paper were common in the Soviet Union and now we’re seeing the same sort of thing here — long Apple Store lines means socialism has arrived,” movement leader Mike Vanderfrandle wrote in his well-known blog Americans Seeing Socialism Everywhere in Society (A.S.S.E.S.).

Interviewed by PC Üser Alles magazine, Vanderfrandle cited recent occurrences of long store lines in many parts of the country as evidence of shortages.

Vanderfrandle said he had a realization when he saw TV news coverage of customers waiting all night outside Apple Stores for the introduction of the company’s highly anticipated iPad tablet computer.

“I realized it had to have been caused by the Obama Administration’s tax and health care policies,” said Vanderfrandle, “a socialist, big-government fascist conspiracy against us in the Tea Party who only learned to type with two fingers.”

Explaining that he currently dictates his blog to a third grade student who can type, Vanderfrandle said a touchscreen computer would make A.S.S.E.S. and other right-wing bloggers more self-reliant. “An iPad just needs one finger to use, so obviously the Democrat Party has to prevent us from getting our hands on iPads,” he said.

Vanderfrandle doesn’t believe claims that lines at Apple Stores are long only because the iPad is so popular. “If it’s so popular why didn’t they simply make more of them in the first place? No, it can’t be a coincidence that this so-called shortage happened right after passage of Obamacare.”

And has Vanderfrandle ordered an iPad himself?

“Are you crazy? I’m on Social Security disability and Food Stamps, I can’t afford an iPad.”

In a closely related story, Vanderfrandle has blogged that all Tea Party bloggers should get iPads to replace their harder to use PCs. “Break Dell, Gateway, and HP! Break their Windows 7. Break them NOW. Reboot and break them again,” he wrote.

Government, Humor, Politics, Satire

Tea Party leader – “doing all we can to end big government” by using as much of its services as possible

A Tea Party founder said today that his movement’s fight against big government is succeeding. TeaParty.org president Dale Robertson also denied ever reading racist signs at Tea Party protest rallies.

“We are doing all we can to end big government by signing up for all the government handouts we can,” Robertson told Geuters news service.

“A socialist government needs money to exist, we can kill it by by using as much of its services as possible and draining all the money out of it,” he said.

“Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, and unemployment benefits — especially unemployment– Americans who love their country should sign up to overload all these collectivist programs and bankrupt them,” Robertson said.

Robertson went on to advise patriotic Americans to use food stamps to purchase meat. “The USDA can only check so much meat for E. coli. What we want is to buy more meat than government’s capacity to inspect, forcing it to admit defeat and shut down food safety,”

The former Marine said he was already fighting the government takeover of health care by using Veterans Administration single-payer medical services as much as possible. “I am also taking a stand against the socialist bailout that saw government take over too big to fail insurance companies like AIG. I’m burning things down and filing claims,” he said, explaining the tactic has the added benefits of straining collectivist fire departments, and clogging the collectivist public street system with emergency vehicles.

Robertson said he drew inspiration from President Ronald Reagan in designing his anti-big government strategy: “Back before President George W. Bush privatized a lot of the military, Reagan poured billions into single-payer defense spending, forcing the Soviet Union to overspend on its collectivist military. This brought an end to the Cold War.”


Robertson
Admits Tea Party movement is illiterate

“Washington is going to get our message that socialism benefits no one, loud and clear,” Robertson said confidently.

Robertson also reacted to critics who have called the Tea Party movement racist. “I have never read a racist sign at a Tea Party rally, nor do I know anyone who has. We’re all basically illiterate,” he said.

In other news, House Minority Leader John Boehner said today that he is among the millions of Americans who could be made penniless due to the new tax on tanning parlors imposed by the new health care overhaul.

Humor, Politics, Satire

iNews Friday, 3/26/2010

A sampling of this week’s output from the iNews 9000 Turbo wi-fi headline translator—

Headline: Formaldehyde found in designer clothes
Translation: Secret of well-preserved celebrities revealed

Headline: Stupak called ‘baby-killer’ on House floor
Translation: Republican shouts-out his lunch order

Headline: Obama allies target bank reform after health care win
Translation: “Obama forcing you to keep money in bank,” GOP claims

Headline: Texas Republican says he shouted ‘baby killer’
Translation: Neugebauer surprises nation – Uses two-syllable words

Headline: GOP State Officials to Try Blocking Healthcare Law in Court
Translation: GOP sends Obstruction down to AAA ball

Headline: Sarah Palin travel show coming to Discovery
Translation: Cable channel changing name to Incurious.

Headline: Bricks Shatter Windows At Rep. Louise Slaughter’s Office
Translation: Teabaggers hold 1st annual Kkkristallnacht

Headline: Bitter melon extracts can cure breast cancer
Translation: Use found for vegetable that already tastes like medicine

Headline: Bullet that hit Cantor’s office ‘randomly fired skyward’
Translation: Dick Cheney hunting nearby

Government, Health, Humor, Politics, Satire

Gingrich calls health care overhaul elitist – Doesn’t cover legal fees for cancer ward divorces

Former Congressman Newt Gingrich today blasted the nation’s health care overhaul legislation, calling it elitist.

The former House Speaker’s remarks came only minutes after President Obama signed the measure into law in a White House ceremony.

“I’m opposed to this elitist legislation, which does nothing to help with the crushing legal fees of the tens of thousands of assholes who would serve divorce papers on their wives who are in post-op recovering from cancer surgery,” Gingrich told Fawn Craven this morning on the Fox News program Craven Journalism.

“The reality today is that only rich assholes can afford to divorce sick wives, whether with cancer or some other disease. Insurers should be required to cover divorce expenses of poor assholes too — trading up to a trophy wife should not be based on income, not in my America,” Gingrich said

Gingrich said he would work to repeal health care reform, and seek to have it replaced with a more comprehensive reform that would include federal subsidization of alimony payments.

Government, Health, Humor, Politics, Satire

Obama, Pelosi pay $2500 for $500 Dodge van – Plan summer Apology Tour

President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi followed yesterday’s passage of federal health care reform legislation by purchasing a 1985 Dodge Astrovan for $2500. The van was put up for sale for $500 in the Washington Post classifieds by Ms. Ina Surance of Hartford, Connecticut.

Obama and Pelosi will use the van during a June nationwide Apology Tour — two weeks driving from Washington, DC to California, stopping along the way to apologize to the Democratic base for the health care overhaul, which:

  • lacks a public option
  • mandates Americans to buy health insurance from for-profit companies
  • subsidizes coverage by giving taxpayer dollars to insurance companies
  • fails to repeal antitrust immunity for insurance companies, and
  • does not bar preexisting conditions for group insurance plans, and
  • leaves intact the geographic disparity in Medicare reimbursement rates

This morning Obama and Pelosi went before the Washington press corps to celebrate the van deal. Obama described his negotiating strategy: “When I saw the van was $500, I immediately offered Ms. Surance $600. When she said $500 was all it was worth, I kept bidding it up until finally she agreed to accept five times her asking price,” Obama said.

The Speaker agreed it was a good compromise. “We could have taken the Amtrak public option, coast to coast for $524 in USA Rail Passes. Except Rahm Emanuel agreed with Mitch McConnell beforehand that we wouldn’t do that,” she said.

Government, Health, Kleptocracy

Giveaway To ‘Big Insurance’ Passes House

You can sum up the so-called “health bill” that passed the House last night in one sentence:

Mandatory insurance is NOT universal care!

…no matter what that asswipe Obama or the corporate cronies in the Democratic Party say.

This bill is a f*cking disaster.  It’s an enormous giveaway to Aetna, Cigna, and Wellpoint that will do little to improve the health situation for those 25 – 32 million people who’ll be forced to buy private insurance in public exchanges.  Did you see the part of the bill that details the quality of coverage in these ‘plans of last resort’?  No?  Probably because it’s not there!  Likewise, the ability to exclude based on pre-existing conditions isn’t gone.  It’s just been delayed in order to force more people into the exchanges where insurance companies can offer crap coverage with crippling deductibles at high rates.

About the only good thing in this bill are the industry targets for how much of premiums must be spent on actual care.  But that doesn’t go far toward mitigating the reality of this bill:  The party, that at every stage voiced their support for a ‘public option’, did everything in their power to ensure that no such option ever made it into this bill.

Long story short:  Obama, Pelosi, and Reid screwed us and gave the insurance industry more than it could ever have hoped for from the GOP.

Health, Humor, Politics, Satire, Sports

GOP declares itself March Madness favorite – “We are the maddest of all” says Bachmann

The Republican Party surprised the collegiate basketball world today, when it declared itself the favorite to win this month’s ‘March Madness.’

“If this is about who’s the most insane, it’s a slam dunk for Republicans because we are the maddest of all,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann, the party’s go-to person on derangement issues.

Bachmann touted head coach Michael Steele’s completely insane starting lineup, which has no forwards or center.

The squad’s chief playcaller is Sarah “Death Panels” Palin, who writes all the plays on her hand. She gave up her final year of eligibility at Alaska in order to be drafted in 2008.

Palin is joined in the back court by John “The Tan” Boehner, who once forgot that health care reform bills have passed both the House and Senate.

Then there’s the totally nuts Sen. Jim Bunning from Kentucky, who tried to cut off the unemployment and COBRA benefits of hundreds of thousands of registered voters. He is so popular fans mobbed him as he tried to enter his private elevator, which does not go all the way to the top.

Bunning often feeds the ball to Arizona’s John “Loopy” Kyl, who thinks unemployment benefits make people less likely to look for work.

Finally there is “Crazy Eyes” Bachmann herself, a second-term outpatient from Minnesota who has called for revolution, is suspicious of the Census, and is currently accusing the media of treason.

The GOP also thinks its bench gives it an advantage, deep with senators who play killer defense on health care reform, and House members who can’t bring themselves to call Joseph Stack a terrorist. New sixth man discovery Bob Marshall of Virginia — who says birth defects are God’s punishment for women who aborted their first pregnancies — adds extra delusion to Coach Steele’s playbook.

Assistant Coach Lamar Alexander also brings experience, handing clean sheets of paper to Steele for the hand-tooled leather and diamond-studded Gucci playbook.

The one question mark is veteran Ron Paul, a fan favorite who nonetheless is in Steele’s doghouse and seen his playing time dwindle to nothing.

The Democratic Party had expected to be highly seeded this year, but has seen its March Madness hopes disappear in the past three weeks after both James Traficant and Eric Massa quit the team. Head coach Barack “The Big O” Obama hopes health care reform with no public option is just insane enough to make Democrats this year’s Cinderella squad.

Health, Humor, Politics, Satire, Society

Journey rushed to hospitals after Democrats stop believin’

Current and past members of the 1970s-80s supergroup Journey were separately rushed to hospitals Friday after millions of Democrats stopped believin’. Doctors say supporters of President Obama stopped holding on to the feelin’ after Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated she would not insert the public option into health care reform reconciliation legislation now in the House.

In his Saturday weekly radio and internet address, President Obama urged streetlights, people hold on.

The end of believin’ sent shockwaves up and down the boulevard between the White House and Capitol Hill. Democrats, neighbors and strangers from coast to coast who have been waiting for real health care reform vented their displeasure at the White House and Democratic Congressional leaders, jamming switchboards of progressive talk radio and overloading servers of Daily Kos and Huffington Post.

Signs that Journey was being affected became public after former lead singer Steve Perry was admitted to South Detroit Medical Center suffering from extremely bad vibes. Shortly afterward reports circulated that guitarist Neil Schon, drummer Steve Smith and bassist Randy Jackson were in California emergency rooms suffering from similar symptoms.

“The acute musician senses picked up on Democratic disillusionment that is sweeping the country,” said Dr. Maya Ize of the National Institutes of Rock & Roll Health. “The increase in people not believin’ was too much negative energy for current and former Journey members, resulting in a rise of bad vibes to near-toxic levels,” Dr. Ize said.

Health care reform activists regretted the impact on Journey, but said Democrats have stopped believin’ in President Obama’s health care reform effort. “We were believin’ Obama when he campaigned on health care reform and the public option,” said Franklin Delano Frandle, spokesman for People for the Unethical Treatment of Insurance Companies, a group favoring a single payer system.

“But after more than a year of delay in Washington, we no longer have open arms for the Obama approach. We fear a deal has been made in a smokey room between Congress and insurance lobbyists,” he said, adding: “citizens facing escalating insurance rates can’t afford to pay anything to roll the dice.”

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont agrees on the need for a public option. “Without a public option it won’t be real reform. Some will win, some will lose, and some will sing the blues,” said Sanders.

“There has to be a public insurance option to compete with private insurance, otherwise this midnight train isn’t goin’ anywhere,” he said.

In other news, the woman at the center of the John Edwards scandal says she is penniless. In a photo spread for GQ, Rielle Hunter revealed how Elizabeth Edwards has actually sued Hunter’s pants off.

Health, Humor, Politics, Satire

GOP lines up to back new Afghanistan strategy – “Time to start over with a clean occupation”

With fighting approaching its ninth year and operations against insurgents entering a new phase, Republicans in Congress today launched a new effort to reform U.S. policy on Afghanistan.

“It’s time to start over with a clean occupation plan,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader.

“The American people don’t want the president’s costly, complicated plan. What we need is to find what Republicans and defense contractors agree on and proceed step by step, in a bipartisan fashion,” McConnell said.

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee also stated the need for cooperation. “Now see here, I, I say, instead of trying to strike di-rectly at Taliban insurgents, we should go step by step, boy, stopping to re-view each move in a series of committee hearings. It’s time to reset the number of tours our troops have served in Afghanistan to ze-ro, and start over with a clean occupation plan, I do de-clare.”

In the House, GOP whip Eric Cantor likened President Obama’s Afghanistan policy to a strategy game he tried to learn when he was a quiet, science-fiction loving teenager in Richmond, Virginia. “What we have now is like that game Risk. Infantry, cavalry and artillery, routes and territories — it’s way too complicated.”

“It’s time to clear the board and throw all the cards and gamepieces on the floor — start over by rolling the dice and going step by step with a clean occupation plan,” Cantor said.

In a related story, House minority leader John Boehner attacked the White House’s proposal to seek out defense waste and fraud using a network of undercover citizen investigators, posing as arms buyers. Boehner called the idea “a government takeover of the military.”

“The American people like the Blackwater they have and want to keep it. What the people want is to control costs, and to do that we need more private, market-based solutions for defense,” said the Ohio lawmaker. Citing tort reform as an example of a way to lower the cost of frivolous lawsuits against firms whose employees rape fellow employees, Boehner announced plans to lead a fact finding mission to Iraq. “I hear the tanning there is excellent,” he said.