The ongoing cowardice of Ridgefield Barbie continuuuuues.

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Open up the democratian web page and there's yet another press release job by Harshman... and yet another meeting between the Camas Manikin and her hand-picked loyal subjects... all carefully orchestrated for maximum press and minimum policy impact.

I never had much use for our local Cowardman, Brian Baird. Unfortunately for us, Babs thought he was fine as a congresscritter, stating during the campaign that we had never heard her criticize him.

“Not once have you heard me criticize Brian Baird’s performance in Southwest Washington.”

Well, since there's damned little difference between them, that's not surprising, particularly.

The reason I mention all that is, well, like him or hate him, for many years he was readily accessible, holding literally dozens of town hall meeting per year for a decade.

Babs, on the other hand, holds carefully orchestrated, typically tightly scripted meetings with hand selected people who will behave.

Courage and integrity have never been particular strong points on her part; her ongoing failure to meet with the people without running them all through TSA-style nonsense serve to re-enforce how frightened she is to speak unscripted, and how, instead of being quick on her feet, she moves intellectually with the speed of set concrete.

The result?

This kind of nonsense:

Herrera Beutler focuses on health care

She says feds shouldn’t cut rates for Medicare reimbursement

Kathie Durbin

“Making sure providers can continue to provide quality health care is important to me,” U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, said Monday.

By Marissa Harshman
Columbian Staff Reporter

Monday, August 29, 2011

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A handful of local providers gave Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler their thoughts on the rising costs of health care, Medicare and health care incentives during a roundtable discussion Monday afternoon.

Herrera Beutler held the hourlong, invite-only listening session at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center. The discussion included PeaceHealth Southwest President Joe Kortum; Dr. Bob Djergaian, physician director for rehabilitation services; Dr. Brad Jensen, laboratory medical director; Dr. William McBride, a pulmonary and critical care provider for Southwest Medical Group; and Dr. Robin Virgin, a primary care provider for Southwest Medical Group.

The congresswoman invited the physicians to offer ideas for changes that could be made at the federal level.

“Making sure providers can continue to provide quality health care is important to me,” Herrera Beutler said.

Looming cuts to Medicare reimbursement rates are concerning for physicians, Djergaian said. Current rates don’t cover costs. Reducing rates by another 25 to 30 percent would make it even harder to provide care for Medicare patients, he said.

Herrera Beutler agreed and said the federal government shouldn’t reduce rates when current rates don’t cover costs. Reducing reimbursement rates is not a way to solve the problem with Medicare funding, she said.

“I would support a fix,” she said. “What I’d really like to see is a long-term fix.”

When reimbursement rates don’t cover the cost of providing the care, hospitals have to make up the difference elsewhere, Kortum said.

For example, PeaceHealth Southwest will bill about $1.3 billion for services this year. The medical center will only collect about $650 million. As a result, the medical center has to “jack up” its charges to make up the difference, Kortum said.

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Our economy is a mess. Barbie has done her part by taking a vote that resulted in our downgrade by jacking up our debt ceiling... again... ladling us under another couple trillion dollars in debt.

We all make sacrifices. While some local state legislators have taken pay cuts and reduced their travel budgets and printing budgets, I haven't heard that about Babs. Of course, I could be wrong, but I have yet to hear about HER voluntary pay or benefit cut. And, what's say I don't hold my breath, eh?

Hopefully, as some point, she'll kick her training wheels loose. Meanwhile, we're stuck with the same kind of clueless idiocy that marks our leadership at the very top in the White House. And that can't be a good thing.