Via dday at Digby: Give them a shrubbery, and they start saying Ekke Ekke Ekke:

Schumer said Finance Republicans had rejected several proposals designed to beef up the suggested nonprofit insurance co-ops. These included setting up a national structure for the co-ops, $10 billion in government seed money, power to negotiate payment rates to medical providers nationwide and creation of a presidentially appointed board of directors.

The essential point here is that Republicans don’t want any competition for private insurers. It’s not about free-market principles — in many cases, insurers are in effect monopolists. It’s about protecting the vested interests.

Kent Conrad, on the other hand, seems sincere: