Why Denny Rehberg Doesn’t Need a Public Option

Posted Oct 31, 2009

Read the original at 4and20blackbirds.

High Country News has a chart in its October 26 issue highlighting the wealthiest Western Congressfolk. There’s only one Montanan on the list of the 50 richest: Rep. Denny Rehberg.

Out of 100 Senators and 435 Representatives, Rehberg ranks 27th. And as the News reports, these are lowball figures because members of Congress report in ranges ($1 million to $5 million, for example).

Now, I don’t particularly have a problem with Denny’s wealth; heck, we should all be so lucky. But Denny has the best health care your and my money can buy. He obviously doesn’t need a public option. So, when he holds an “emergency” town hall meeting to spout right-wing misinformation like a “new board of federal bureaucrats to dictate the health plans that all individuals must buy” … well, how disingenuous.

It isn’t just Denny’s wealth that separates him from your average Montanan, however. It’s his health insurance. You see, Denny gets his insurance from the same pool as all federal employees — about eight million of them — making it one of the most flexible, affordable and transportable plans in the nation. Sort of like what a public option would offer the rest of us not on the public payroll.

I’m sure Denny likes his plan. He just doesn’t want you to have one like it.

And check out more of Denny’s misrepresentations covered by Pogie in two recent posts over at Intelligent Discontent.

(Sorry I couldn’t link to the High Country News chart. Couldn’t find it on their site. Here’s the Roll Call report where the News got its information.)

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