“Obamacare is a Travesty,” Says (Sane?!?!?) Lawrence O’Donnell!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Somebody must have given him Lithium for his bipolar explosions in the last month, that is all I can say.

O’Donnell, for those of you don’t know, is an expert on the rules of the House and Senate. He was a major player in Hillarycare a decade and a half ago. And as a liberal legislative expert, he knows of what he speaks.

O’Donnell, in the first clip above, equates Obama passing health care this week as the equivalent of the baseball analogy of having a runner on first base, and hitting a triple with the next pitch.  Later, he says there has NEVER been a successful political ‘Hail Mary’ like this  in the history of this country.

Then, he rips Donnie Deutch (who knows nothing) and says that he, and the other fools in the media who have always accepted the finality that Obamacare will pass…and say they are clearly mistaken.  He basically insults the entire mainstream media by stating that he envies them because of their ignorance.  It is brilliant.

The below is MUST SEE T.V.!!!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Now, O’Donnell is honest.  He is a liberal, and believes in single payer.  But he is also clearly honest about what Obamacare will do:  it will increase taxes, increase the debt, not decrease medical costs, bankrupt the states, and not significantly improve anything.

That kind of honesty is refreshing.

First, Medicare.  O’Donnell and Joe Scarborough both agree that this is the largest unfunded mandate in American history.  And at a time when states already cannot afford to pay doctors (see this New York Times article, which incidentally talks about several physicians I know personally who no longer can afford to take Medicaid patients), we are going to add to that broken system?

And O’Donnell’s rant here almost directly echoes what John Beohner and Mitch McConnell write in their Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal today ($ paywall).

The real irony is…I agree with Lawrence O’Donnell’s solution, somewhat.  15 years ago, I wrote an op-ed that stated that the government should find a way only to mandate catastrophic coverage.  This would prevent people from going bankrupt, and would allow people to feel relatively secure if they lost their job.   At the same time, by privatizing more of the ‘elective’ care, we could theoretically drive down costs.

O’Donnell makes the argument that it is unfair to blame insurance companies for failing to pay for some of these catastrophic events, because simply put, that is not what insurance is for.  It is for spreading out risk…but remember, everyone dies.  There is ultimately no spreading of risk, because everyone needs insurance at some point.  The risk is universal.  And thus, O’Donnell, like me, argues that government should only be responsible for catastrophic coverage, and all else should be private.  I have made this argument for many, many years.

Ultimately, O’Donnell’s treatise on where Obamacare stands, both procedurally and as policy, is a fabulous indictment of President Obama and the Democrat Party.  Incredible, especially from a loyalist like O’Donnell.

P.S. I detest Keith Olbermann…but sympathies on his father’s death.