Tag Archives: Health Care

Big surprise: Hildebrand was bluffing

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From CNN Politics:

Washington (CNN) – Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin will avoid a primary fight for her South Dakota seat, sidestepping a potentially divisive Democratic battle with a top campaign official to President Obama.

Steve Hildebrand told CNN last week he was seriously considering challenging Herseth Sandlin if she voted against health care reform or if the vote was close.

Herseth Sandlin did vote against the bill, which passed late Sunday evening by a 219 to 212 margin. But Hildebrand said Monday morning that the margin of victory was wide enough, and that Democratic leaders could have called in more Democratic votes but chose to allow some lawmakers to oppose the measure because of "their own politics."

Read the rest by clicking here.

The most telling quote comes later in the piece, and I believe it reveals what Hildebrand’s real aim was all along. I think he was just trying to apply pressure, and he didn’t really want to run for anything. Here’s that quote from Hildebrand:

I will continue to encourage her to support progressive legislation, and I will encourage others to use their voice loudly in South Dakota to move her votes into the Democratic column.

Health care: Have at it

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I know that a lot of you are very passionate about the health-care legislation that has passed Congress. Personally, I’m confused. Between the thousands of pages in the legislation and the way every aspect of it has been politicized, I have no idea whether the legislation is good or bad for our country. In fact, I have no idea whether it’s good or bad for me personally.

I fear that the health-care legislation was passed for the sake of passing something. I fear that Democrats desperately wanted to be able to say they accomplished something when the November elections roll around, and so they just passed this legislation without fully understanding its ramifications.

That’s what I fear. Maybe my fears are unfounded.

Please tell me what you think.

Did George McGovern make us fat?

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Mark Tapscott of the The Examiner shared some interesting comparisons this week between the current anti-obesity campaign led by First Lady Michelle Obama and the 1970s Senate Select Committee on Nutrition chaired by Mitchell’s own George McGovern.

Here are some excerpts:

… We’ve been here before. In fact, a big reason why we’re here today is because government went on an anti-fat campaign back in the 1970s. Remember the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s "diet pyramid"?

I was reminded of this fact recently while reading "The South Beach Diet." … I was reading along and chanced upon this passage about how the federal government arrived at the low-fat dietary guidelines issued by federal officials back in the day. Those federal guidelines assumed all dietary fats were evil:

…

"The McGovern committee was originally chartered to fight malnutrition, but in the 1970s it switched to a new goal – the prevention of over-nutrition. The campaign started with a preconceived notion: Fat was inherently bad, and our over-indulgence in it was the major cause of obesity and heart disease in the United States.

…

"How has America done since the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet recommendations? We’ve gotten fatter and fatter. In addition, adult-onset diabetes, a sure sign of unhealthy blood chemistry, has become widespread."

Click here to read the entire piece.

Senators talk about health care

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I was on a conference call earlier this morning with Sen. Tim Johnson. He took the opportunity to criticize those who oppose the current health-care reform legislation, saying that those people are going to be "on the wrong side of history." He also said all the talk about the "reconciliation" process has confused the issue. Numerous good measures — including the program known as COBRA that allows workers to extend their health coverage after losing their job — were passed with the help of reconciliation.

Sen. John Thune will conduct his media conference call later this morning. I’ll listen to that and write about both calls for tomorrow’s print and online editions.

Below is the audio from the Johnson call.

Reaction to Herseth Sandlin’s Pelosi comments

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Last week, I wrote a story about comments that Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin made in response to a question about her relationship with Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Specifically, I was intrigued by one extended comment, which I quoted in the story:

“I would describe our relationship as, uh … uh …” Herseth Sandlin said, before emitting what sounded like a half-laugh, half-sigh and finally breaking an 11-second interlude with this: “… one in which she has, uh, I think she would respect, uh, my decision-making process and, uh, one in which she probably acknowledges that I have some disappointment on how this process has unfolded.”

The comment was made during a regularly scheduled conference call with reporters. As far as I’ve seen, I was the only one of the dozen or more reporters on the call who wrote about the Pelosi comments. That surprised me, given that the comments stood out so glaringly from what otherwise was a pretty routine call.

Rapid City Journal reporter Kevin Woster, who asked the question about Pelosi, has now weighed in on the comment with a post on the Journal’s Mount Blogmore. Here’s an excerpt:

Let me translate: She’s frustrated with Pelosi and a health reform process in the House that locked out those who tried to modify – or moderate – it and those who represented concerns in their home states, such as South Dakota.

Click here to see the rest of Woster’s post.

Additionally, the Blake Curd campaign has made a new video using the audio from Herseth Sandlin’s Pelosi comments. You can view that video below.