Posted on 07/31/2009 10:52:22 PM PDT by kcvl
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called health insurers "the villains" in the unfolding story of the health care overhaul on Thursday, ratcheting up an anti-insurer theme trotted out by President Obama earlier this month and encouraged by other Democratic leaders in Congress.
"It is somewhat immoral what they are doing. Of course, they have been immoral all along how they have treated the people that they insure," MSNBC's Luke Russert quoted her as saying. "They are the villains in this."
Pelosi, of course, has accepted campaign contributions from said villains this year and in the past, as have most of her Democratic colleagues. Pelosi's campaign committee, for example, took $2,500 from AFLAC's political action committee on April 13. But she's not giving the money back just because she thinks the sources are immoral and villainous.
"As the Speaker's opposition to the health insurance companies being in charge of American's health care shows, there is no link between political contributions and positions on policy," said her spokesman Brendan Daly.
Besides, a quick look at her records suggests that health insurers make up a fraction of the money she accepts from the broader insurance industry and place her fairly low on the list of recipients -- particularly given her longtime spot atop the Democratic Party -- according to a study released earlier this year by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Pelosi ranked 55th among members of the 111th Congress in contributions from health insurers since the 1989-1990 election cycle, according to CRP, having taken in $186,750 (less than $20,000 per two-year cycle).
The real trick -- as Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., has shown -- is to turn your entire enemies list into your fundraising pool.
The targeting of insurance companies is a political natural, as Americans view them with great skepticism in polls. In one recent Gallup survey, only 4 percent of respondents chose insurers over doctors and hospitals, Obama and congressional Democrats, and congressional Republicans as the entity they most trust to reform the health care system.
Sounds like they’re not to worried about losing campaign contributions. But she’s certainly not complaining about her own health coverage...nor is she saying that she’ll go on the government plan.
socialism for thee but not for me.
(Pelosi)
Want to know what the average Health Insurance company makes on it's insurance policies. 1%, That's right 1%. They make their money on investments.
What about Mutual Companies? They are NON_PROFIT. Many if not most of these companies lead the pack in the Health care industry.
Government Health Care: All the efficiency of the DMV and all the kindness and humanity of the IRS.
If the voters got up on their hind legas and demanded that the President, Congress, the bureaucrats and the judiciary must be enrolled in ObamaCare, along with the “peasants”, you’d never hear another peep about it in your lifetime!
She sounds more power mad than Mussolini. Il Duce with botox. Evil witch.
Pelosi ranked 55th among members of the 111th Congress in contributions from health insurers
Uhhhhhh....If I'm not mistaken, there are 435 members of Congress, so 55th would place her fairly HIGH on the list wouldn't it?
That just about sums it up!
Exactly! They would NEVER agree to do that, ever! That should tell us all we need to know about the healthcare they want US TO LIVE with.
Pelosi is getting sound bites from Hugo Chavez.
Birds of a feather and all that.
<Il Duce with botox.
ROFLMAO!
I agree with a previous poster; she must not need the campaign contributions. What an idiot - on the other hand, there are a lot of Dim idiots who will take her badmouthing their industry and continue to vote Dim.
Now, "National Health Care Reform" is being changed to "Insurance Reform".
It is the same bill, HR3200. It is still Socialized Medicine.
Do not be deceived.
yitbos
He will not be available to his constituents for anything but campaign contributions.
yitbos
The real villians are in the government.
Their tongue wagging and finger pointing is
a ruse to divert attention from their own plots
to deceive and cheat the people.
The Crats have got “The dog that caught the Bus” syndrome. The only way they got elected was on the “America Sucks” platform. In other words America Sucked because Republicans were in charge...Well now they are totally in charge and if America Sucks it is their fault. Alinski never got to the part of what to do after you are in charge. Look for a complete Crat Meltdown. We as a country are going to learn a very hard lesson.
Dog catches bus.
Dog urinates on bus.
Right after they send their kids and grand kids to public school nightmare they created.
Don’t be fooled by the righteous anger. This is always how the shakedowns start.
This witch needs to be forced back on her broomstick for a ride to oblivion.
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