HEALTH REFORM IS GOING TO PASS

I yield the balance of my time to Rachel Maddow, in this clip – on “the people [she thought] we were supposed to take seriously,” like Chuck Grassley, Lamar Alexander, and John McCain.  “I don’t get it,” she says.  “Do they think they’re so respected, so mainstream, that no one’s going to fact check them?”  She cites an Orrin Hatch op-ed in the Washington Post “that has so many blatant outright laugh-out-loud falsehoods in it, that it made me wonder if maybe there’s a deal or something, where if you’re a United States senator, or you’re a United States senator who’s been in office for 33 years like Orrin Hatch has, you just don’t get fact checked anymore in the Washington Post.”

The good news:  It looks as though we’re going to get meaningful health insurance reform, with lots of good stuff in it (as noted here and here a couple of months ago).

WITH TORT REFORM?

The Associated Press reports that the President is open to adding four ideas that Republicans put forward at last week’s summit: “sending investigators disguised as patients to uncover fraud and waste; expanding medical malpractice reform pilot programs; increasing payments to Medicaid providers; and expanding the use of health savings accounts.”

I like them all.

But really: watch Rachel.  Eight minutes.