Obamacare Will Not Be defunded (Thankfully!)
Posted by Michelle Moquin on September 25th, 2013
Good morning!
But some GOP are still trying. And a number of the key GOP players are not so keen at “defunding at all costs.” Did they finally get smart? Or are they just trying to protect their party because almost six in ten Americans oppose defunding the health care law if it means a government shutdown, while just 19 percent support? And a poll released last week found that only 23 percent of Americans want to make the health care law fail. I think the previous stat says it all.
Here’s a write from The Progress Report:
$#!^@#%!
BY CAP ACTION WAR ROOM ON SEPTEMBER 23, 2013 AT 5:01 PM
GOP Takes Obamacare Meltdown To A Whole New Level
A mere seven days remain for Congress to pass a spending bill in order to avoid a government shutdown. But Republicans are farther away than ever from agreeing to a reasonable plan that would keep the government open.
On Friday, the House GOP continued its march toward shutdown by passing a bill that ties keeping the government open to–surprise!–fully defunding Obamacare. Once again, Republicans refuse to do the hard work of actual governing in favor of playing political games that threaten to sabotage the economy. But while the vote only solidified the GOP’s ideological and dangerous strategy, it opened the floodgates for more infighting among its owns members. Here is what a number of key GOP players and establishment thinkers have to say about the “defund at all costs” plan:
- GOP Sen. John McCain (AZ): “I can tell you that in the U.S. Senate, we will not repeal or defund Obamacare. We will not. And to think we can is not rational.”
- GOP Strategist Karl Rove: The GOP defunding strategy is “self-defeating…It is an ill-conceived tactic, and Republicans should reject it.”
- Fox News Host Bill O’Reilly: Defunding Obamacare is “fanaticism on the right,” O’Reilly says. “There’s no way Obamacare is going to be defunded. It’s not gonna happen.”
- GOP Sen. Tom Coburn (OK): “Tactics and strategies ought to be based on what the real world is, and we do not have the political power to do this.”
- GOP Sen. Rand Paul (KY): “I’m acknowledging we can’t probably defeat or get rid of Obamacare.”
- GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte (NH): “I don’t believe they should shut down the government to [defund Obamacare], and I don’t think that is a strategy that is good for America.”
- GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson (GA): “It’s total atrophy. We’re earning our 11 percent popularity. It’s easier to talk about Obamacare than the major sources of our problems.”
- Wall Street Journal Editorial Board: “Kamikaze missions rarely turn out well, least of all for the pilots… The kamikazes could end up ensuring the return of all-Democratic rule.”
Now, they all may just be trying to protect their party’s interests. But they seem to know what most Americans already do: the extreme demands by the GOP to push a narrow ideological agenda are out of touch. A new bipartisan CNBC poll released today proves that point. Almost six in ten Americans oppose defunding the health care law if it means a government shutdown, while just 19 percent support. A poll released last week found that only 23 percent of Americans want to make the health care law fail.
BOTTOM LINE: Republicans’ political games are threatening our nation’s economic recovery. Americans don’t want to shut down the government and want an end to the hostage-taking political tactics that place ideology over practical solutions for stability and growth.
And if that isn’t enough GOP saying Obamacare cannot be defeated, here is a write that I read this morning on the New York Times. Sen. Ted Cruz (R) is one who is persistent in his efforts to defund at all costs, and his party isn’t exactly applauding him.
Senator Persists on Health Law, Irking Many in His Party
WASHINGTON — Senator Ted Cruz, the Republican from Texas who took to the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon and declared he would speak “until I cannot stand,” was still standing about 21 hours later as he pressed ahead with his impassioned and often lonely verbal assault on President Obama’s health care law.
It is a fight he will almost certainly lose later on Wednesday when Republicans and Democrats are expected to vote overwhelmingly to move ahead so the Senate can begin considering a bill, approved by the House last week, that would finance most of the government but not the Affordable Care Act.
Around 11 a.m. Mr. Cruz was looking weary, his eyes slightly droopy. He had loosened his tie. Stacks of thick three-ring binders — containing his notes and other materials he read aloud — were scattered around his feet and on the desks near where he stood.
A spokesman for Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, said Wednesday morning that Mr. Cruz had not left the Senate floor since he began speaking on Tuesday. He has had intermittent breaks from talking while other senators like Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky have posed open-ended and sometimes long-winded questions that allowed the senator from Texas to pace around and stretch his legs.
Mr. Cruz will be permitted to talk until noon, when the Senate convenes to officially start its new legislative day. At that point, senators will recite the Pledge of Allegiance and Mr. Cruz’s microphone will be cut off. Then, if he maintains his stamina, he will be allowed to carry on until 1 p.m. but no longer. That is when the Senate is scheduled to vote.
The scene inside the Senate chamber in the late night and early morning hours was sometimes an unusual one for the staid body, especially when Mr. Cruz paused briefly in his attack to read his two young daughters a bedtime story — “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss.
At other times, he compared his fight to efforts by leaders who stood against the Nazis, ended the cold war or started the American Revolution.
“Everyone in America knows Obamacare is destroying the economy,” said Mr. Cruz, who began speaking at 2:41 p.m. “Where is the urgency?”
His speech was already rivaling some of the longest Senate filibusters on record, including those by Robert M. La Follette, who spoke for 18 hours and 23 minutes in 1908 and Alfonse D’Amato, who went on for 23 hours and 30 minutes in 1986. The record was set by Strom Thurmond at 24 hours and 18 minutes in 1957.
Mr. Cruz called on his colleagues to stonewall the House measure they technically supported, arguing that Senate Democrats would be successful in stripping the health care provision from the funding bill once the way was cleared to a Senate vote on the issue. His basic demand was an agreement that a final vote require 60 supporters, a demand Democrats rejected.
Other Republicans said they saw no reason to oppose debating a measure they actually backed.
“We’d be hard-pressed to explain why we were opposed to a bill we’re in favor of,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.
Others warned of political repercussions if Republicans, who hope to regain control of the Senate in the elections next year, were seen as contributing to a shuttering of the government. “Getting the majority in the Senate in 2014 is possible, and we don’t want to go down roads that make it harder,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who is up for re-election next year. “Repealing Obamacare is a goal all Republicans share,” he added, “but the tactics of achieving that goal can have a backlash.”
Mr. Cruz’s critics have said that he is not engaging in a filibuster in the sense it is most commonly understood: a tactic meant to block legislation from moving forward. But Senate historians said that there is, in fact, no hard-and-fast definition for the word.
After 21 Hours, Cruz Ends Senate Speech
Yeah and that speech included reading a Dr. Seuss book “Green Eggs and Ham” to his children.
Senior Senate Republicans pushed Mr. Cruz on Tuesday to give up his stalling tactics and let the Senate take its final votes as soon as possible to strip out the health care language and other policy prescriptions, then approve new language to keep the government operating until mid-November. An early vote would give the House speaker, John A. Boehner, more time to plan his next move: whether to put the Senate-passed bill up for a vote and ensure no government shutdown or to add new Republican-favored language and send it back to the Senate.
Such procedural niceties carried little weight with the conservative activists backing Mr. Cruz, and the conservative advocacy groups egging them on. Phone lines were jammed by Cruz supporters. E-mails flew, encouraged by organizations like the Tea Party Patriots and the Heritage Foundation. The Senate Conservative Fund, a group that has been running advertisements attacking Republicans who are not supporting the “defund Obamacare” effort, called Mr. McConnell and the No. 2 Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, “turncoats.”
But most Republicans showed little fear of a backlash for voting to take up the House bill. “If this is what you wanted, consideration of this bill, I don’t know how you can be against taking it up,” said Senator Richard Burr, a Republican from North Carolina.
Mr. Reid moved Tuesday to change the House-passed bill, shortening the stopgap spending measure so it would finance the government only through mid-November instead of mid-December. Senator Barbara Mikulski, the Democrat from Maryland who leads the Appropriations Committee, requested the change to raise pressure on the House to address the automatic spending cuts that are squeezing federal programs and are reflected in the spending plan passed by the House.
But such narrow issues took a back seat to Mr. Cruz’s crusade, with bit parts granted to his Senate Republican supporters. They included Mr. Rubio, Mike Lee of Utah, Pat Roberts of Kansas, David Vitter of Louisiana, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Mr. Paul, whose own filibuster this year over the government’s use of lethal drone strikes lasted 12 hours and 52 minutes.
Topics Mr. Cruz addressed included his affection for the little hamburgers at White Castle, the fast-food chain that says its growth is slowing because of the health care law, and a tough-love speech by Ashton Kutcher. He doled out insults to the Washington establishment, blasting politicians in “cheap suits” and “bad haircuts,” and branding journalistic fact-checking as a “particularly pernicious bit of yellow journalism.” At one point, he read some of his daughters’ favorite stories.
Under the current timetable, the Senate will vote Wednesday to cut off debate on a motion to take up the House bill and vote Thursday to actually take up the House bill. Mr. Reid will then introduce his version of the stopgap spending bill, stripped of the health care language and other policy measures.
The real showdown vote will probably come on Saturday, when the Senate votes to cut off debate on Mr. Reid’s version of the bill. If that receives 60 votes, a final vote would come on Sunday, leaving the House one day to act before much of the government closes its doors.
That would give Mr. Boehner a stark choice: pass a short-term spending bill with Democratic votes and risk the wrath of conservative activists or try again to take a bit out of the health care law with no time left on the clock and ensure a shutdown.
“I don’t know what all the scenes are, but I’ve seen how this movie ends,” said Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona. “We will end up not shutting the government down, and we will not defund Obamacare.”
*****
Readers: What say you? Blog me.
Ruth: McClintock like most republicans are either too stupid or know exactly what they are saying and hoping that you don’t. So yes, he has redefined “e pluribus unum” to fit his needs. Just like the repubs have rewritten history to fit their needs. It’s all the same same lies and deceit.
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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September 25th, 2013 at 12:18 pm
GOP has got to GO! They’re a cancer on society.
On a positive side of politics, let’s be thankful for a brief moment at least that the Monsanto Protection Act extension was pulled from the bill.
—-
(from HuffPo): Senator Merkley from Oregon worked with legislative leaders to ensure the Farmer Assurance Provision rider would expire before it could be extended. In a statement Tuesday evening, the senator applauded those who helped him to avert the extension:
“This is a victory for all those who think special interests shouldn’t get special deals. This secret rider, which was slipped into a must-pass spending bill earlier this year, instructed the Secretary of Agriculture to allow GMO crops to be cultivated and sold even when our courts had found they posed a potential risk to farmers of nearby crops, the environment, and human health. I applaud the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have worked hard to end this diabolical provision.”
The rider is set to expire at the end of the month.
—-
A tiny step in the correct (not RIGHT) direction. Thank you Sen. Merkley for fighting the good fight on this one.
/SB
September 25th, 2013 at 6:04 pm
…shall I sum up 21 hours of talking in one word?
Blowhard
- ZL
September 26th, 2013 at 11:11 am
Social Butterfly when I checked to see what you were talking about. I was floored. those crooks for a few dollars would allow the whole country to be poisoned.
Thanks for opening my eyes.
September 26th, 2013 at 11:52 am
‘Sleepless In Austin’ Man Will Pay Good Money For A Thin, White Girlfriend
Posted: 09/24/2013 5:22 pm EDT | Updated: 09/26/2013 11:59 am EDT
=================================
LeTa0
When I see an article with this title and content, the first question that comes to mind is why would anyone publish this article?
Why would a publication give a forum to this declared racist? Why would a publication deliberately set out to embarrass black women? Oh, yeah, to perpetuate the white insinuation in this country that it is better to be white.
The lack of sensitivity alone is galling. Huff’s only saving grace is that it didn’t post this article directly to its “BLACK VOICES” section, but they did post it to the “WOMEN” section. As if women would take pleasure in a male chauvinist’s desires.
My next question is what self-respecting woman would be among the 17,119 people Huff said liked this? If they are not all men, excuse me, white men, who would they be?
September 26th, 2013 at 5:29 pm
Hafa Adai:
This last weekend gave us all a taste of what we may be in store for us during this year’s storm season. While we certainly didn’t have what more seasoned residents would consider “real storm,” with damaging winds, we most certainly had more than our share of damage.
We had roads closures, traffic lights blown down, trees fall over and small valleys flooded, stranding people who lived on the other side of them, and numerous power outages across the island.
From my perspective, what this rain storm clearly accomplished was to point out the weaknesses that have accumulated after having gone for such a long period (10 or more years) of time between really powerful typhoons hitting our island and testing our infrastructure and homes.
According to the National Weather Service online site, during the period from Sept. 19-20, we received a little more than 18 inches of rain. We were subjected to an average wind speed of 18 mph. with the maximum gusts reaching 52 mph.
Now that was most certain wet, but a real storm it was not!
While these days were wet, had we been in snow country, we would likely have been wading through somewhere in the vicinity of 15 feet of snow — not to mention drifts that more than likely would have exceeded 30 feet.
So much for perspective; back to Guam.
Not a damaging storm
This was most certainly quite a bit of rain and it did cause some significant flooding, but the winds never reached anywhere near the level that those of us living here in “Typhoon Alley” would consider damaging.
Yet we suffered quite a bit of damage.
September 26th, 2013 at 5:35 pm
Read back about the lives of people who had cancer treatment in the U.S. and died from chemotherapy, radiation therapy, prescribed medications. One potential celebrity spent so much money at L.A. Cancer Center to be cured from cancer.
Chemo and cancer medications kill! When L.A. Cancer Center informed celebrity that her cancer is cured…celebrity continued to suffer grave pain and weaknesses that celebrity had to hire a German Expert Specialist for Cancer Treatment cure.
German doctor found out that malignant-benign tumor was growing huge and spreading behind celebrity lungs. German doctor said it is too late to cure you from cancer…so celebrity had to wait in time for deathbed and continued cancer medications that did not help.
God is your Savior! He performs Healing Miracles. You must have the Faith to Believe to Expect the Desire Outcome. Call unto his name Dear Father God, say the Lord’s Prayer…Our Father who art in heaven..make your request. Matthew 21:22 –
“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” God is only obligated to those who obey to perform his Healing Miracles. Seek out Energy and Holistic Healings!
September 26th, 2013 at 5:48 pm
Hafa Adai:
Judymae, I don’t agree that one should just seek prayer. I do agree that it is a powerful aid. So is marijuana and yet the government is still keeping it as a schedule one drug.
———————————————
Former chief justice, doctor debate medical marijuana
Posted: Sep 25, 2013 11:57 PM PDT
Updated: Sep 26, 2013 2:10 AM PDT
by Ken Quintanilla
Guam – Should marijuana be legalized on Guam? It’s a question that’s not only been raised in the island community over the past few months but before the Rotary Club of Guam today.
It was exactly one week ago when Dr. Chris Dombrowski spoke before Rotarians on medical marijuana. Today they were once again treated to the subject this time in debate form with another medical professional and a former hand of the law.
Former chief justice Peter Siguenza asked Rotarians to evaluate today’s arguments and apply common sense and their own experiences, noting, “I urge you to do that and I think you will conclude that medical marijuana and marijuana for social use should be allowed.”
As for Dr. Thomas Shieh, he says consider the dangers and consequences of marijuana abuse. “Now marijuana, should we legalize this for recreational use? I don’t think so,” he said.
Siguenza related the debate on marijuana on learning from past mistakes such as the prohibition of alcohol. He says its been more than 40 years since the war on drugs started with apparently no end in sight only until somebody makes the change.
He adds marijuana is labeled as a scheduled one substance joining the ranks of LSD, heroin, peyote and mescaline ahead of some scheduled two substances such as PCP, morphine, methodone and opium.
He further criticizes how alcohol is not even on the schedules despite how addictive it may be, saying, “So ask yourself why is it that alcohol, nicotine and for that matter caffeine are not on scheduled controlled substances and yet marijuana is a Scheduled I substance,” he stated.
Dr. Shieh agrees that marijuana should be taken off of Scheduled I and put on Scheduled II so that physicians can study the drug and manufacture it. He does however disagree that just because alcohol is legal so should marijuana. “Well, we already have one harmful chemical out in the public, you don’t need another one and as doctors and nurses we see that everyday,” he said.
And medically speaking, he further stressed how marijuana is a psychotropic drug meaning the affect goes straight to your brain. “It can impair short memory, impair attention, coordination and balance, you wouldn’t smoke marijuana and drive a car let alone ride a bike or go on a race track and drive a hotrod, you’re not going to do that,” he said.
He adds marijuana can cause hallucinations, dependency, withdrawal and have carcinogens causing cancer. In the long term he says can even lead to addiction. He states the benefits to using marijuana recreationally are simply anictodal affects and are not scientifically based adding when you’re in a court of law, it’s about evidence not common sense as Siguenza had noted.
Siguenza continued to relate his argument to alcohol saying if alcohol can be legalized with restrictions, why can’t marijuana not only for medical use but socially as well. “We are responsible adults we can handle alcohol those who have problems with it, we have measures to deal with that though we’re 50 thousand deaths on average directly caused by alcohol each year, direct deaths from marijuana as far as the material that I have read, zero, none,” he said.
Shieh meanwhile says while smoking marijuana may not directly kill a person, it does have an even dangerous affect when mixed with alcohol, something he says is a common practice in regards to recreational use.
He further discussed the states of Washington and Colorado which recently approved the legalization of marijuana. Not everything is high on life there as he says problems have occurred with conflicts between state and federal law.
He said, “That’s going to be a problem for us doctors 1702because we don’t want to lose our license the DEA is going to come down on us for prescription violation, etc. they’re going to catch us and put us in the jail, we don’t want that period.”
Rotarians further questioned both speakers such as whether marijuana is more dangerous on the human brain than alcohol to what are the economic consequences should marijuana be legalized.
Siguenza says if controlled like alcohol and taxed, it could generate high revenues. Dr. Shieh however says if legalized, he could almost guarantee that marijuana stores could be opening up everywhere adding if its anything like alcohol and the level of impact it has on healthcare, he estimates an affect in the millions of dollars.
===============================
It’s just stupid and heartless not to allow those with cancer the ability to use a substance that alleviates their suffering.
Hafa adai
Leland
September 26th, 2013 at 6:15 pm
Ditto Michelle to your advice to Ruth. The republicans will say anything to justify a position. Their idiot base will go along with anything so long as it is said by a white opposing an OTW.
September 26th, 2013 at 6:15 pm
Guam is the only place I’ve ever lived where utility rates are the highest I’ve ever paid and still they constantly increase, and the only place that your trash collection fees could effectively increase 400% in less than four years. WTF
Hafa adai.
September 26th, 2013 at 6:17 pm
Hafa adai Larry, I agree. That is why people throw trash all over the Island. They don’t want to pay for trash service.
September 26th, 2013 at 6:19 pm
Hafa adai, Judymae:
Listening to the debate and judging on what was presented and said, Judge Siqenza won that debate. Doctor Shieh, speaking medically, what I gather is that marijuana is just plain “poison” (you’ll end up in prison, kill someone or end up killing yourself….
I don’t agree with his medically analysis). Speaking through 40 plus years of experience, I’m not in jail, haven’t killed anyone and I’m still alive. A gun does not kill, however it’s the person’s finger pulling the trigger that hurts or kills.
September 26th, 2013 at 6:22 pm
Hafa adai Judymae Says:
September 26th, 2013 at 5:35 pm
The way I see it, Marijuana makes the user dumb and sleepy. So, if legalized, the nonuser will have a leg up on an estimated 60% of the population. We might just be dumbing-down Guam if we go down this road but I will be on top. So, Yea! Lets do it, I need a pay raise.
September 27th, 2013 at 12:49 am
The Truth About “Designer Vagina” Cosmetic Surgery—Labiaplasty, Vaginal Tightening and More
Two years ago, I reported on a cosmetic surgery trend, called labiaplasty, in which the labia minora, the inner “lips” surrounding the vaginal opening, are surgically trimmed and shaped. (To read that article, click here http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/content/article/health-a-healing/labiaplasty-cosmetic-surgery-for-down-there.) After all, I cover the news—and this was news.
But given that it is almost always done for strictly aesthetic reasons, I had hoped that labiaplasty and other so-called “designer vagina” procedures, including vaginal tightening, would prove to be fads that would soon go the way of pet rocks and hula hoops.
They haven’t.
In fact, such surgeries have become increasingly popular—despite the fact that The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) issued a strongly worded statement to members noting that female genital cosmetic procedures are not medically indicated and that there is no documentation of their safety and effectiveness.
ACOG even admonished, “It is deceptive to give the impression that…such procedures are accepted and routine surgical practices.”
So when a recent study raised some serious concerns about the quality of information on the Web sites of surgeons who perform genital cosmetic procedures, I figured it was time to revisit the topic.
Even if you would never have such surgery yourself, you may have a loved one who would consider it…and who should be duly cautioned about the dangers of the procedures and the sneaky marketing tricks used to sell them.
MEDICINE’S “WILD WEST”
Various operations are offered under the umbrella term of female genital cosmetic surgery, including labiaplasty, clitoral hood reduction, vaginal tightening, hymen repair and more. Such procedures do not come cheap, typically running from $2,500 to $8,000, depending on the procedure and surgeon—costs generally not covered by insurance.
So why are women flocking to have their nether regions redesigned? The study authors cited direct-to-consumer Internet marketing as the force behind the growth in demand and noted that there is scant medical scrutiny of this kind of advertising.
Even cosmetic surgeons themselves have said that the current marketing environment is like “the old Wild Wild West: wide open and unregulated.”
To see what kind of information consumers typically get online, the study researchers Googled designer vagina (a familiar if erroneous term in popular culture), looking for private physicians who offer genital cosmetic surgery. Then they analyzed the top five Web sites that Google listed in the US plus the top five in the UK.
Results:
The quality of information available for women considering such procedures was poor in most cases and downright inaccurate in some.
Examples…
The Web sites often used terms that implied the existence of a medical abnormality needing treatment, even when there was no such abnormality. For instance, labial hypertrophy suggests that the labia are abnormally large—yet in the before-and-after photos, all of the “before” shots showed labia that were within the normal range.
All the sites claimed that surgery would have physical, psychological, social and/or sexual benefits (improved hygiene, restored confidence, enhanced sexual pleasure, improved relationships, even better career prospects!)—claims that are unsubstantiated by research.
Much of the information on the sites was “imbued with value judgment,” the researchers noted. For instance, one site said that “you should bleed on your wedding night” and recommended surgical hymen repair (also called revirgination) as a way to “keep your head high.”
There was no mention of less invasive ways of addressing concerns about body dissatisfaction, such as through psychotherapy.
The sites generally downplayed the risks of surgery, which include bleeding, infection, pain, scarring and/or altered sensation…and failed to mention that the long-term risks of the procedures are unknown.
Most sites gave no indication of success rates. Those that did claimed success rates of 95% to 100%—but offered no information on what constituted success or how the statistics were derived.
None of the sites gave a lower age limit for surgery, which the researchers deemed “most disturbing of all,” especially given that anatomy changes throughout a woman’s lifetime.
IF YOU ARE TEMPTED
Clear and detailed guidelines regarding genital cosmetic surgery are urgently needed, the researchers said, so that women can make fully informed choices. But until such guidelines exist, what should you do if you are interested in this type of surgery?
First, understand that there is wide variation in the appearance of normal female genitalia. Your gynecologist can tell you whether your genitals really do fall outside the normal range.
It’s also worthwhile to consult a psychologist trained in assessing and treating problems related to body image and sexuality—because surgery is unlikely to fix such problems. As the ACOG statement pointed out, “Patients who are anxious or insecure about their genital appearance or sexual function may be further traumatized by undergoing an unproven surgical procedure with obvious risks.”
If you do decide to have an operation, understand that there are no specific training or licensing requirements for genital cosmetic surgery—so it is best to choose a board-certified plastic surgeon, board-certified gynecologist or board-certified urologist who has years of experience performing the specific procedure you’re interested in.
Have an in-depth discussion with any surgeon you’re considering about his/her before-and-after photo gallery to satisfy yourself that the pictures are of procedures that this doctor actually performed…then ask for references from satisfied patients.
With the doctor, discuss realistic expectations for results and review any possible risks and complications. If you perceive a patronizing or dismissive attitude (“Don’t you worry, sweetie, everything will be fine”), go elsewhere.
Source: Study titled, “An analysis of the content and clinical implications of online advertisements for female genital cosmetic surgery,” published in BMJ Open.