we are being laughed at

The Daily Show has been the only voice in the media that seems to

understand, or really is willing to point out, that the spokespeople for the

Bush Administration and Bush/Cheney campaign are smuggly and arrogantly

laughing as they spew forth their daily talking points of lies and deceipt.

As Jon Stewart remarked a few weeks ago, these guys know they are telling

us lies and know that they are ironically being ironic and enjoying every

minute of it.



Today's news is a classic example.  The Families USA group issues a pretty

simple statistical report on the heels of the Rand corporation's report

about the state of health in the USA.  Rand says living in areas with

significantly increased urban sprawl is dramatically unhealthier than living

in densely populated integrated urban cities, like NYC, Boston, Seattle, San

Francisco.  Families USA's report shows that more and more people are

spending more and more on health care premiums and on health care while

their incomes, adjusted for inflation are dropping.  This results in fewer

and fewer citizens purchasing health insurance.  How does the Administration

respond???





Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Bill Pierce said Families

USA's agenda "is purely partisan."



Pierce said the study ignores increases in enrollment in Medicaid and the

State Children's Health Insurance Program as well as last year's Medicare

prescription drug law, which "will cut the costs of medicines by half for

all seniors who participate and to nearly zero for low-income seniors."



This is one of those classic moments.  "The study ignores increases in

enrollment" for welfare programs that are specifically targetted for huge

cuts in the 2005 budget!!!  And to suggest that the prescription law will do

anything beneficial in terms of costs flies in the face of the current

inquiries into the administration's silencing of officials whose actuarial

data showed enormous deficits in the program, requiring seniors to pay more,

not less, over the next few years.  Truly great stuff.