President Barack Obama says he will have his health care bill passed by the House before he leaves for Australia on March 18th. Nobody outside the White House believes that is going to happen. Next week’s blown deadline will join a crowded graveyard of past deadlines including July, August, and September. But blown deadlines are not the only reoccurring storyline from this health care debate. President George Bush economic adviser Keith Hennessey has paired thirteen 2009 health care headlines with thirteen 2010 headlines. See if you can tell which are from this year and which are from last year:
Politico: President Obama takes reform on the road
AP: Obama takes health care pitch to people—again
Bloomberg: Obama Set to Fight ‘Uphill Battle’ on Health Bill
Bloomberg: Obama to Appeal to Public on Health Care as Senate Struggles
AP: Obama’s health care pitch to Democrats: Trust me
AP: Obama makes last-minute appeal to Democrats for health care votes
AP: Obama to appeal for public support on health care
AP: Obama appeals for health care votes
CSM: To pass healthcare reform, Democrats may go it alone
CNN: Democrats May Pass Health Reform without GOP Support
NYT: Obama Takes Health Care Deadline to Democrats
AFP: Deadline looming, Obama urges health care action
Boston Globe: Obama steps up health care pressure
Politico: President Obama steps up health care push
AFP: Obama presents make-or-break health reform plan
NPR: For Obama, Health Care Overhaul Is Make-Or-Break
AP: Top Dems looking to Obama for health care momentum
Reuters: Obama tries to regain momentum in healthcare debate
Reuters: Obama seeks momentum, funds for Senate allies
Reuters: Obama team tries to regain momentum on healthcare
CBS: Obama’s Health Care Push: The Race is On
WaPo: Obama Health Care Push Resumes This Week
AP: Obama turns up the heat for health care overhaul
AP: Obama expands health care push
HuffPo: White House, Dems, Plan For Make-Or-Break Summit
Bloomberg: Obama Sets ‘Make-or-Break’ Deadline on Health Care
ROBERT REICH, AMERICAN PROSPECT: The health insurers are not, George, you said they're popular and everybody likes their health insurer. They like their doctor. They hate their health insurer. And health insurance is going up in terms of rates 20, 30, 40, 50 percent in many states. In fact, Goldman Sachs just this past week has said to its many of its investors, "Invest in some insurance companies because they don't have competition, and they have, are exhibiting huge profits." That is money directly out of the pockets of Americans.
GEORGE WILL, ABC: A, you say they have huge profits. As you know, confiscate all the profits of all the health insurance companies, with those profits you could finance our healthcare for 48 hours. What you do for the next 363 days I don't know. Second, you say there's not enough competition? Fine, let them compete in a national market across state lines.
REICH: Yes, let them compete across state lines, fine. But not a race to the bottom. Set minimum federal standards because we've seen over and over again that the recipients of health insurance don't know what they are buying very often. Until there are common standards, minimal standards, then people are going to be taken. And that is what's happened over and over again.
WILL: There you have the premise of this legislation and the core of today's liberalism: the American people are such dopes they can't be counted upon to buy their own insurance.
For the record, as NewsBusters has previously reported, health insurance companies are amongst the least profitable of all America's industries. Here are 2008's rankings done by Fortune magazine:
2008 Industry Rank as % of Revenues
1 Network and Other Communications Equipment 20.4
2 Internet Services and Retailing 19.4
3 Pharmaceuticals 19.3
4 Medical Products and Equipment 16.3
5 Railroads 12.6
6 Financial Data Services 11.7
7 Mining, Crude-Oil production 11.5
8 Securities 10.7
9 Oil and Gas Equipment, Services 10.2
10 Scientific, Photographic, and Control Equipment 9.9
11 Household and Personal Products 8.7
12 Utilities: Gas and Electric 8.7
13 Aerospace and Defense 7.6
14 Food Services 7.1
15 Industrial Machinery 6.9
16 Food Consumer Products 6.7
17 Electronics, Electrical Equipment 6.5
18 Commercial Banks 5.2
19 Telecommunications 5.1
20 Chemicals 5.0
21 Construction and Farm Machinery 5.0
22 Insurance: Life, Health (stock) 4.6
23 Information Technology Services 4.5
24 Computers, Office Equipment 4.3
25 Metals 3.9
26 Wholesalers: Diversified 3.5
27 Insurance: Property and Casualty (stock) 3.3
28 Specialty Retailers 3.2
29 General Merchandisers 3.2
30 Health Care: Pharmacy and Other Services 3.0
31 Packaging, Containers 3.0
32 Beverages 2.9
33 Engineering, Construction 2.7
34 Health Care: Medical Facilities 2.4
35 Health Care: Insurance and Managed Care 2.2
36 Petroleum Refining 2.1
37 Food and Drug Stores 1.5
38 Pipelines 1.5
39 Wholesalers: Health Care 1.3
40 Semiconductors and Other Electronic Components 1.0
41 Energy 0.9
42 Home Equipment, Furnishings 0.7
43 Food Production 0.6
44 Wholesalers: Electronics and Office Equipment -0.3
45 Diversified Financials -0.6
46 Motor Vehicles and Parts -0.7
47 Insurance: Life, Health (mutual) -3.0
48 Hotels, Casinos, Resorts -4.5
49 Automotive Retailing, Services -7.9
50 Forest and Paper Products -9.6
51 Entertainment -10.0
52 Real Estate -13.4
53 Airlines -13.5
So, in 2008, health insurers ranked 35th in profitability returning a meager 2.2 percent on revenues. What this means is that for every dollar health insurers brought in, they made 2.2 cents.
Sadly, for liberal media members like Reich, that's considered TOO MUCH! Nice job of Will to point out his inanity.
Of course, he'll probably be the next liberal economist in the media to win a Nobel Prize.
But for now, Reich was just the second media darling in eight days to go head to head with Will and lose.
For those that have forgotten, George smacked around New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on last Sunday's "This Week."
Who's next?
—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.