Anthony Weiner is a Health Care Hero

Crossposted at CobaltVa.

Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York got on Morning Joe Tuesday and gave the clearest, most concise position on the health care debate that has yet reached the public airwaves. He is an advocate of Single-Payer and before you dismiss him as a leftist kook (wait, why would anyone on this blog do THAT?) hear him out. He is the only person to have ever rendered Joe Scarborough SPEECHLESS!

Leslie Savan over at The Nation blogs today:

Something rather remarkable happened on Tuesday's Morning Joe. Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York pointed out that the health insurance industry has no clothes, and Joe Scarborough, after first trying to spin it some gossamer threads, broke down and said, By God, you're right, this emperor is a naked money-making machine!

Well, he didn't use those exact words, but Joe did seem to finally get that America has granted insurance companies the right to create bottlenecks in the financing of healthcare in order to extract profits out of the suffering of ordinary people--without providing any actual healthcare whatsoever.

My personal hope is that this Rep. from New York gets air time, gets passed around the internet, comes back on MSNBC many, many times and makes his arguments again, clearly, rationally, and with common sense. This is the type of argument I've been waiting to hear in the news. This is the type of argument that will win the day for this historic legislation that needs to be passed for the benefit of the citizens of our great country.

The essence of his arguments:

Weiner, who recently warned that President Obama could lose as many as 100 votes on a health bill if a public option is not included, really wants single payer--Medicare for all Americans is his goal. What a crazy, way-out, reckless notion, Joe went into their encounter believing. But Weiner asked some simple, direct questions that no politician, much less Obama or HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, has managed to pose:

What is an insurance company? They don't do a single check-up. They don't do a single exam, they don't perform an operation. Medicare has a 4 percent overhead rate. The real question is why do we have a private plan?

Indeed! What are the insurance companies bringing to health care? Why is our health considered a commodity? Why is Medicare so popular? Why do we include insurance companies in the loop when their best interests are served by denying health care to their consumers?

You go Anthony! I'm looking forward to hearing your voice on the air and in the blogs over and over until health care reform is done.

This is a must see: