Weekend at Gurneys

By Bill Maher

A couple of weeks ago on Real Time, Jack Kingston told us about all the people who come into the United States seeking medical treatment from "the best healthcare system in the world." Not only is this oft-parroted argument out of touch, it's actually out of date: For several years, the number of people leaving the United States for medical care has outnumbered people coming in, and that gap is growing.

According to a study by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, it breaks down like this: Inbound medical tourism is growing, but slowly. Somewhere between 60,000 and 85,000 came here to seek treatment in 2008, and the number is projected to grow to slightly over half a million by 2017. But outbound medical tourism, Americans going abroad, was 750,000 in 2007, a big uptick from the year before. And the number ballooned to 1.3 million Americans in 2008.  

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Why a Mormon President Might Not Be So Swell

By Bill Maher

On his recent Real Time appearance, Walter Kirn had a lot of insightful things to say about the Mormon Church, but I'm not sure about his claim that if Mitt Romney were -- Kolob forbid -- elected, he wouldn't impose Mormon dogma on government policy.

Now, I don't think Mitt would use Social Security records to secretly baptize everyone in America, although -- now that I think of it -- that's a pretty good plan. I don't think he’s going to use seer stones to make policy ("I see.... I see... school vouchers!") But what about gay marriage? 

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Let’s Get Fiscal

By Bill Maher

When Republicans aren't inventing straw men to attack President Obama (he hates success, he hates capitalism, he thinks Americans are stuck in their station in life, he's always apologizing for America, etc.) they're almost always attacking him for paying for his programs. Which, I know, sounds crazy because it's the fiscally responsible thing to do, and the Republicans are supposed to be the party of the fiscally responsible. But they're hypocrites like that. The standard isn't truth. It's saying anything that makes Obama look like a socialist who hates America. See: Dinesh D'Souza.

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Bookshelf: September 14, 2012

Twilight of the Elites

By Chris Hayes - (September 14, 2012) "Mixing deft political analysis, timely social commentary, and deep historical understanding, Twilight of the Elites describes how the society we have come to inhabit -- utterly forgiving at the top and relentlessly punitive at the bottom -- produces leaders who are out of touch with the people they have been trusted to govern. Hayes argues that the public's failure to trust the federal government, corporate America, and the media has led to a crisis of authority that threatens to engulf not just our politics but our day-to-day lives." (Random House, June 2012)

Backstage with Christine O'Donnell

Former senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell talks to Miles about being back in the House of Bill.

New Rule: Weiners & Losers

Mitt Romney Didn’t Build That

By Bill Maher

I encourage everyone to read the latest issue of "Rolling Stone." And not just for their glowing review of the new Dylan album (Five stars! And the guy sounds even more like a frog than ever!), but for Matt Taibbi's cover story on how, exactly, Mitt Romney made his millions. The short answer: debt. He saddled companies with debt, extracted what value he could, paid himself a big bonus, and walked away. As Matt puts it:

"This is the plain, stark reality that has somehow eluded America's top political journalists for two consecutive presidential campaigns: Mitt Romney is one of the greatest and most irresponsible debt creators of all time."

Matt's right: nobody that I'm aware of has made the connection between the theme of the GOP convention -- "We Built It" -- and what leveraged buyout outfits like Bain do, which is to un-build things. KB Toys had 1,300 stores when Bain took them over; now they have 0.  That's not building, that's un-building.  When Bain took over Ampad paper and stuck the company with $60 million in annual debt payments that resulted in bankruptcy and the firing hundreds of workers -- that's not building, that's un-building. There's a reason the euphemism for this is "creative destruction," and not "creative building." Because everyone involved knows that it's not about building.

And it's certainly not about creating jobs.

Behind the Screens: September 7, 2012

By Miles Leicher

Check out what went on behind the scenes of last week’s Real Time: