Full Court Press

It was all healthcare all the time on talk radio this morning. On the road this morning I heard some conservative literally spit into his microphone over how crazy it was for something that was supposedly free to actually cost a trillion dollars and how there's a long waiting list for programs - just as there would be once it was enacted for people to see their doctors. He also alluded to the idea that you wouldn't be able to get aspirin.

Pretty crazed stuff, but no doubt straight off the Republican talking points. Emphasize waiting, emphasize cost, emphasize a loss of personal control - all of which happen to be false, but still. Great talking points.

On to NPR where some WellPoint exec is claiming that Medicare is less efficient and innovative than private insurance companies.

Really.

On to the librul station where, without a skipped beat, Big Ed was glad that David Axelrod had finally made a shot over the bow to the Republicans that if they weren't willing to go along with the program then healthcare reform didn't need to be bipartisan.

He read this quote: "Ultimately, this is not about a process, it's about results," David Axelrod, Obama's senior political strategist, said during an interview yesterday in his White House office. "If we're going to get this thing done, obviously time is a- wasting." Both Axelrod and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said taking a partisan route to enacting major health-care legislation isn't the president's preferred choice. Yet in separate interviews, each man left that option open.

"We'd like to do it with the votes of members of both parties," Axelrod said. "But the worst result would be to not get health-care reform done."

Paying for it will be the taxes on the wealthy - and it is curious how the Republicans can rail against that and at the same time denounce excessive bonuses - like the ones announced today at Goldman Sachs, where the average employee bonus is nearly $900,000 and top execs will see tens of millions.

Come on. You're not in favor of taxing that?