Al Franken criticizes her for cherry picking, while he does the same thing.

“I have to say that Al Franken is probably my favorite Congressman working today”

There IS A DIFFERENCE between a Congressman and a Senator. Al is a Senator….

Switzerland? Nice choice, Franken. The Swiss is a pretty frickin rich country, and not because of Socialism…

Switzerland also has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world, and any citizen that has served in the Swiss military is required to possess a gun at the home. Just an FYI…

Umm congressman is the general broad term used when describing or combining a description of both senators and representatives.

The United States Congress consists of both the SENATE and the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Therefore anyone who is a senator can be referred to as a congressman.

Get it together, folks

John, how is that relevant at all? People looking for a way to fit “socialism” into their arguement are just trying to scare people away from reading facts and making educated decisions about health care reform. Do you cry socialism at many of the other government run aspects of our everyday lives? When you wake up and watch the fcc approved broadcast, drink your fda approved coffee, drive your environmentally regulated automobile to work, work a day under federal regulated labor laws, drive home to your wife that you had to legally marry, and mail your health care bill via the united states postal service, do you condemn the government for being socialist and wish they’d stay out of your business?

Federal regulated health care HAS to happen. We can’t afford it as a nation, it is crippling us. Did you listen to the numbers he read off? I’ll admit i didn’t research it, but even if any people at all are going bankrupt from medical bills WHEN THEY HAVE health insurance is appalling. The free market system is clearly working very poorly and without reform we’ll see yet another crash like the real estate fiasco.

Set aside your personal opinion and realize that while things may change for you with health care reform, the nation will suffer dramatically without it.

I’m from Europe. Switzerland is like most other country here. He didn’t just say Switzerland – he mentioned France and Germany too. He could have gone on to say England, Italy, Spain and carried on for ages. The debate was about “going bankrupt” not about cancer – so he’s not cherry picking he’s sticking to the point. The idea you go bankrupt to fund your healthcare is a valid point.

The point being made is that the health care system the US is using right now is too expensive and not efficient. Moving to a more socialist health care system will improve the overall health of the population while improving infrastructure, creating jobs, and reducing costs. Why are the american people against that?!

Actual, Congress is composed of the House (which has Representatives) and the Senate (which has Senators).

They are all congressmen.

Some congressmen are Senators.
Some congressmen are Representatives.

Congress = House of Representatives + Senate

Member of the House = Representative, or Congressman

Member of the senate= Senator or Congressman

It’s sure nice to be snarky, it’s even better when you’re right about.

@John M,

Great point! Switzerland is super rich from capitalism while stil providing universal healthcare. Great example of how a country can provide universal healthcare while not becoming socialist. Realy great observation, thank you.

@Daniel

Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s what started this problem in the first place. Big corporations only get bigger while the little guys can’t compete, resulting in exorbitant prices. Also, the quote is not an example of a non-sequitur, because though it’s not an aspect ingrained into democracy, it’s one of high importance and priority nationwide currently. And about the gov’t groceries…uh…I’m pretty sure no one will go bankrupt and die trying to get food this week. Oh, and food stamps and WIC exist, so hey, maybe they already took up that avenue. And all those people you think should care for themselves? I’m willing to bet that most of them DID, only to get dumped by their insurance provider when anything potentially expensive to the company happened to them. So we’ve seen how that road works, and it just doesn’t work correctly. And since you’re so against socialism, I guess you wouldn’t mind having your right to public school, the police force, America’s Army, public libraries, fire fighters, and more revoked, correct? After all, why should I have to pay to put out your house fire? If you can’t take care of yourself, you should lay down and burn!

Senators and Representatives are both Congressman. Both members of the two houses are part of the Congress, that makes them all congressmen.

@sam – what did he cherry pick? entire countries? I think cherry picking is selecting a small part of a larger whole, ignoring other facts to make your point. Franken is using entire countries to make his point, it would be more like cherry picking if he said, well when dealing with medical bills related to car accidents their bankruptcy rate is 0.

@daniel – the free market has already proved itself horribly flawed when it comes to health care, and if you think the food you’re buying at the grocery store isn’t already regulated before it gets there you’re insane. Government run health care or mandated health care is no more socialism then a government run police force that keeps you safe.

@John – this is so weirdly flawed I don’t know how to argue it, the swiss ARE a rich country and it’s not due to socialism, it’s because they are a tiny country with a well regulated government and economy and for the most part have not taken major parts in any wars (which tend to send economies into a downward spiral). The point Franken made is that their healthcare system works, which it does, which either you’re agreeing with or had no idea how to refute.

Point being, if all of you think that health care reform is unneeded, then you’ve either never had to deal with the health care industry or you’re to young to know a difference. There’s a reason the health care lobbyists have dumped more money into lobbying recently then any other industry, and it’s not because the system works so well that they have no worries, its because the system is screwed in their favor making them billions and they’d like to see that continue for obvious reasons. Government regulation isn’t bad, and it doesn’t mean we’re socialists, I’m pretty sure there isn’t a bill out there to take over Best Buy and to force you to split all your groceries with your neighbor, so maybe we calm down a bit and do some smart thinking on a topic that is affecting millions in this country instead of making crazy accusations not based on fact that have little to do with the argument on hand.

@John M: “Switzerland had a homicide rate of 1.2 per 100,000 [and] a robbery rate of 36 per 100,000. Almost half of these criminal acts were committed by non-resident foreigners.

In the United States, the homicide rate was almost 9.0 (70% involving firearms), and the robbery rate 234, per 100,000.” (Source: http://www.stephenhalbrook.com/articles/guns-crime-swiss.html )

Statistics and studies prove time and again that America has a gun problem. See http://www.guncontrol.ca/English/Home/Releases/GlobalGunEpidemicRev07.pdf for example. It’s time for you Americans to stop making fools of yourselves and pay attention to your own problems, not cite the lack of problems elsewhere as evidence that you can be trusted with a gun as much as the Swiss.

Franken is one of the “menaces” (besides being brain dead and illiterate like the majority of diggers).
Read on If You Have Intelligence!

The youth-felons (14-18) I teach in an S-4 High Security prison for the most part despise their previous public school education from which they all dropped out, many as early as the 6th-7th grades. They hate the coiled exhibitionist in Putz Obama, and delegate him a weird Uncle Tom status in their inner city hoods. He has no place, less than their fathers who most boys wish dead, and would gladly comply with their own wishes if they had access or reason to find their makers. Sharpton, Jackson, the flamboyent crop of liberal preachers mean nothing to these young men whom I’m honored to reach with an ABE and GED curricula. Obama is the last in a line of false preachers filled with Democratic crumbled dreams that filled their disillusioned mothers’ wishes, but came to nought in their mothers and grandmothers’ lives. At the PPTs in prison you’ll see these pathetic women, and I mean that with sincere sadness, as they are bleached by heartsick love for their teenage sons thrown into jail often for 2+ years, who “wouldn’t listen to me,” and I want to tell them how bottomless is their uncontainable anger for white and black societies for they know Obama will do NOTHING to avail them, but their mothers and their grandmothers know that even more strongly. I’m amazed when 1 out of 10 will read a textbook with independent passion, for the other 9 will fight and resist and try every trick that worked in their failing public schools which they all still dispise, even 3 or more years after dropping-out. Every one is a hooked 700 lb. tuna on 100 lb. testline and the fight between teacher and student is a classic struggle for days, weeks, and months, until he leaves or gives-in in most prison schools. They sense Obama is the primal lie, and I’ve asked them to explain: It comes down to the Democratic vision transplanted of living deeply wounded in spirit, instead of rising from the vacuous well, they hold firm to the bottom edges and tred water, the slime Obama-Jackson throws into the well. When they leave prison they go back to the “MENACE” or jungle; where else is there after the half-way program which never conclusively point a way out of the jungle. Their lives are fears instilled by the Dodds, Kennedys, Obamas, etc. now generations old and responsible all the more who never spent 10 minutes as an educator in 1 Level 4 juvy-prison because (I’ve always wanted to tell some of the students, but never have of course)…to the Democrats, these boys in prison are testtube specimens, and as alien to Obama and Michelle as a Chopin waltz, or carbonic acid, or a gibous moon

you thought al franken was just an unfunny comedian before he ran? did you pay attention to any of his books or interactions with bill oreillly? the man has been sticking it the limbaugh, oreilly and the idiotic right with for years.

The difference between myself and someone like Daniel, who posted above, is that i live in a reality where people make the right choices and do the best for themselves and their families and STILL can’t afford insurance. I am willing to help those people with my taxes. The comment that people should just take care of themselves is obviously made from a place of extreme selfishness. I wonder how Daniel would like a world whrre there were no fire departments, unemployment insurance, social security, etc. Would it just be “too bad, take care of yourself. Good luck. ” what it comes down to is that Daniel wants too keep all his money and not help anyone else. Well, that’s selfish, unrealistic and too damn bad for him.

Franken actually thinks he supposed to play senator. Its proven by how much he loves the sound of his own voice as here in his game of ‘gotcha now bitch, oooh, gonna buuurn’ wannabe lawyer on the playground bullshit.

But the fact is, medicaid already is a 70 trillion dollar deficit run blackhole. How does Pat the lesbian actually think we’re going to pay for it when the CBO has already B-slapped the entire DNC with their false numbers game?

The DNC already did free government housing with Fannie and Freddie and see where that got us. Now they want to do free government booboo and owies too and turn our government into a Band Aid vending machine. I’ll tell you what. That vending machine that we all pay higher and higher taxes into is starting to break and no matter how hard you kick the machine once you put your coin in, it won’t drop any more Ho Ho’s or Zingers.

Oh yeah, as far as Switzerland goes, 70% tax rates to pay for ‘free’ healthcare is a dead horse. Nice try Pat. The entire country almost BK’d just last year. And they don’t have much overhead as a country unlike the US since we’re the damned global cop and have higher military expenses, but I guess if you want us to be like Switzerland, like Pat does, then we don’t have to have a military anymore either and just let the world kind of go wherever it wants to without that hedge. Should be interesting to live in that world of winner take all.

I think Al Franken makes some good points and is able to answer both legitimate and illogical reasons very well. Certainly he is cherry-picking some countries for their outstanding job at socialized or heavily regulated health care, but shouldn’t that mean we should try our best to replicate those great results? America has always been a melting pot of different cultures, religions, and ideas, so I don’t see why we can’t we use that to our advantage? Let’s figure out what works and doesn’t work with different systems around the world and then develop a great low-cost health care system that benefits from the advantage of other countries’ experience.

how come firefighters, and police aren’t socialism? doesn’t the government and tax payers pay their salary’s? isn’t their “mandate” to help people, and save lives? socialism confuses me…. I’m just glad when my house is burning down, putting out the fire isn’t done on a volunteer basis.

Yes there uis a difference between congressman and senator. A congressman can be a senator or representative but a senator is only a senator. By definition a congressman is a man of congress. In other words an elected official working in one of the two congressional houses.

“My position is that people should care for themselves, choose which things are their priorities, and let a free market manage prices.”

Some facets of a civilized society should be socialized. Would you like the “free market” to take over our roads and infrastructure? There would be a lot more toll booths. How about the socialized education system? Never hear it referred to as anything but public, probably because socialized is a scary word in the US. How would you like our children’s education to completely optional? You may not mind because you can afford private school. In my opinion our public schools should extend past K-12 to either community, or vocational colleges.

Left, Right, Center…we all agree we need reform. I personally agree with Senator Franken.