Howie Carr thread week of January 17, 2010

howiecarr.com ^ | 1/17/10 | raccoonradio

[raccoonradio]

I think this was Howie’s column for NY Post but Herald wanted to run it too

The elephant in the room named health care
by Howie Carr
Thursday, January 21, 2010

U.S. Sen.-elect Scott Brown bobbed and weaved a bit at his post-election press conference yesterday when asked about Massachusetts’ universal health-care law.

Yes, Brown acknowledged, he voted for it, which has already become a talking point among the chattering classes - see, even this GOP troglodyte knows there’s a need for Obamacare. So go for it!

But, Brown quickly told the press, before moving on to less controversial topics, such as terrorism, there are a few problems with the Massachusetts law that needed to be worked out.

Yes, there are, to put it mildly. Costs are exploding, and although the word “rationing” is gingerly avoided, that’s what the state is talking about, just as the federal government is, even with the current health plan stalled and perhaps doomed.

The fact that Brown campaigned as “the 41st vote” to stop Obama’s plan - well, never mind. But Obama’s plan is increasingly unpopular here.

Even the early federal proposals have been attacked by the wife of the most prominent Massachusetts supporter of Obamacare - Sen. John Kerry. His 71-year-old wife, Teresa, was diagnosed late last year with breast cancer, just about the time a federal “task force” recommended that women begin receiving mammograms at age 50 rather than 40.

“I was so upset about that decision of this panel,” Teresa said, and indeed, the administration quickly backed off.

Mrs. Kerry didn’t say much after that one interview, but apparently she understands the reality of what Massachusetts bureaucrats like to call “cost containment.”

Here is a compendium from a story last July in the Globe, which was predicting a 15-point Martha Coakley less than two weeks ago, and calling the race a “dead heat” as late as Monday. Even the Globe has been unable to put a shine on this sneaker:

“A state commission recommended . . . putting providers on a budget as a way to control exploding health-care costs . . . (to reduce) unneeded tests and procedures . . . patients could find it harder to get procedures they want . . . they might find it difficult to get care wherever they want . . .”

Care - you know, like mammograms.

No one who voted here Tuesday believes that a federal plan will cut costs. It hasn’t worked at the state level. Last November, the state’s Division of Health Care Finance and Policy issued a dry report on the system. In the executive summary on Page 2, the state admitted, “Health care in Massachusetts is projected to cost $3,000 more per person by 2018 than the national average.”

So much for saving money. But what about the “waste, fraud and abuse” that Obama always mentions - or used to - as a way to cut costs?

“It’s not like the fat sits out here easily identified and you just slice it off,” said one of the state bureaucrats. “It’s marbled throughout the meat.”

In 2006, then-Gov. Mitt Romney signed the bill into law amidst great fanfare at Faneuil Hall. Standing behind to his left was Sen. Ted Kennedy, whose seat is now to be filled by a Republican, and then-House Speaker Sal DiMasi, who has since been indicted on federal corruption charges and is facing up to 185 years in prison.

It’s not a photograph you’ll find on any of Romney’s Web sites.
Gov. Deval Patrick will deliver his annual state of the state address tonight. No one expects him to say much, if anything, about the state’s universal health-care plan.

He’s running for re-election.

[raccoonradio]

Fri column ping

Letter from a drunken pol’s cell
By Howie Carr | Friday, January 22, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Photo

And now an ambitious, well-groomed young state senator from Massachusetts adjusts to his new home. . .

No, no, no, this is not another story about Scott Brown. This is about Anthony Galluccio, the drunkard Democrat from Cambridge who recently began doing a one-year bit at the Billerica House of Correction. It’s not a happy time for a man whose entire life was a happy hour.

Now, after resigning from the state Senate, Galluccio writes an open letter to his former constituents, printed last week in the weekly newspapers of his district.

Let’s go to his Epistle to the Cantabridgians.

“I have accepted full responsibility for my actions.”

Then why have you steadfastly refused to admit you were drunk when you rear-ended the other car in October, 13 hours after the Cambridge police had to help you into your house (at 3:30 a.m.) after you forgot where you lived?

Like every other jailbird, Galluccio is innocent. Well, at least not guilty of drinking booze during his home confinement - which is why he’s now in durance vile. He says he just got a bad tube of tooth paste - Michelob Ultra Brite. Now he’s going to appeal the judge’s one-year sentence.

“I hope all of you will take a closer look at the case and the proof put forward.”

Proof? Bad word in this context, Tony. Next time, find yourself a proofreader - get it?

“My life, my mission, and my office is what drove me each day to give politics and politicians a good name.”

A good name? Oh yes, you gave local pols a good name all right - you and your fellow solons, Marzilli and Wilkerson. And another word you shouldn’t be using under any circumstances is “drove.”

Then he mentions his young football players. See, Sen. Galluccio was a schoolboy coach, not to mention a big Pats fan - his final hit-and-run came an hour after a Pats loss in October. For Tony, in jail, the DTs don’t just mean defensive tackles anymore.

But back to his football players. One of them texted Tony while he was still under house arrest in Cambridge, on New Year’s Eve. That in itself must have been a burden for a man with a thirst so great it casts a shadow.

“One said that he would have quit without me and that I would always be ‘the man.’ ”

Correction, Anthony. For you, Sheriff DiPaola is now “the Man.”

“I will miss my district with all heart. . . As I say in Spanish, ‘Mi Gente,’ ‘My People.’ ”

As they also say in Spanish, “Cerveza, por favor.” A beer, please.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1227393