Mike Rogers Sounding Desperate on Health Care Bill

Rep. Mike Rogers' interview in the Livingston Press and Argus is a low-point, even for him. He piles one lie on top of another to justify voting for big insurance companies and against his own constituents, and then tops it off with a stunning who-gives-a-damn-about-anybody-else statement.

The whole performance has a desperate-sounding tone, as if he knows that once health care reform passes, he is going to have to explain voting against his own district's best interests.

Rogers lies when he says the bill will cut Medicare. He knows its only the private Medicare Advantage programs, that are exorbitantly wasteful, that are being cut. He knows that in fact seniors will receive a big bonus when the Medicare prescription drug donut hole is closed by the bill.

Rogers lies when he says small businesses will face heavy taxes, when it fact the bill includes subsidies for small businesses -- including more than 15,100 in his district alone.

Rogers lies when he says the bill is too expensive. It actually cuts the deficit -- by $1.3 trillion over the next 20 years. And cutting the deficit is something that Rogers and the Republicans never managed to do, not once, when they were in power under George Bush.

Rogers lies when he says some states get special deals in the bill, when he knows those are being stripped out.

Rogers lies when he says letting small businesses join "pools" would be a better alternative, when he knows that the bill's exchanges will create far bigger pools and thus greater savings than any group of small businesses could achieve on their own.

But Rogers is downright stupid when he says, "I don't really care about the other 49 states when people are losing their homes in the state of Michigan." Apparently, he doesn't understand that the reason people are losing their homes here is that people in the other 49 states aren't buying cars and other products Michigan sells. Is he really so stupid that he doesn't understand that Michigan needs a healthy American economy to thrive?

I'm used to lies from Mike Rogers. But the stupidity is breath-taking.