@H2O MAN,
And your brain stumbled onto a2k, and since then have not contributed anything of value. But your pissing is noted, because you intrude into so many good threads.
You haven't noticed as usual, but the topic of this thread is about
health care for Americans; it's not about Obama.
@cicerone imposter,
You must enjoy golden showers.
Obamacare is all about Obama and he could care less about health care.
The Republicans just want to destroy Obama in their opposition to a government universal health care option.
Hoping Obama Fails
Days before President Obama took office, hate radio talker Rush Limbaugh, the de-facto leader of the Republican Party, summed up his desired outcome for the Obama presidency in four words: "I hope Obama fails." Just days after he uttered that statement, Limbaugh told his audience, "There's one thing we gotta stop is health care. I'm serious, now. If they get that, then that's the tipping point." Nearly eight month's later, the right wing's approach to health care reform remains guided by Limbaugh's vision -- they simply hope it fails. And so the conservative movement is increasingly banking on a political strategy of opposing health care in the hopes that it will help resurrect the political fortunes of the struggling Republican Party. During a recent appearance on right-wing radio show, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) bluntly stated that defeating Obama's health care agenda is "going to be a huge gain for those of us who want to turn this thing over in the 2010 election." In a separate radio appearance, Inhofe -- speaking for the right wing -- explained, "We are plotting the demise on a week by week basis of where Bill Clinton was in 1993 and where Obama is today and his demise ratio is greater than Clinton's was in 1993."
BATTLE OF WATERLOO: Speaking on a conference call with "tea party" activists, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) let slip why he hopes that health reform fails: "If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) half-admitted the truth about conservative opposition to health reform, telling CNBC that the balance between opponents' desire to express disagreement with the President and their desire to exploit a failed bill for political gain is "probably 50-50." Yet even as conservatives plot to leave tens of millions of Americans without health care in order to score political points on Obama, they refuse to release a single new idea to address the health care crisis. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), head of the "House GOP Health Care Solutions Group," at first announced that his group would not be releasing a health care plan because they believe doing so would be a waste of time, only to have Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) follow up that statement by saying that Republicans will have an alternative healthcare reform bill to offer, "but [he] did not say when it would be ready." For his part, DeMint introduced a bill which appears to be plagiarized from the McCain-Palin health plan that voters soundly rejected last November.
BACK TO THE FUTURE: DeMint is not the only conservative recycling old playbooks in the hopes of breaking Obama. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), who knows something about exploiting a failed health care bill for electoral gain, endorsed DeMint's "Waterloo" statement, proclaiming that "this could be the bill that drags [Obama's] whole presidency down." During the Clinton-era health care debate in the '90s, right-wing strategist Bill Kristol urged conservative lawmakers "to defeat any Democratic health reform bill" as a political strategy to "send them to voters empty-handed" in 1994. Sixteen years later, Kristol is offering the same advice, urging conservatives to "[r]esist the temptation" to compromise and "[g]o for the kill." Much of the right's substantive rhetoric is also plagiarized from past efforts to kill health care reform. Nearly fifty years ago, when members of Congress first proposed the bill that became Medicare,opponents of reform distributed a recording called "Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine." Similarly, conservatives created a disingenuously complex chart of the Clinton health plan to defeat reform fifteen years ago. Unsurprisingly, conservatives are now waving a similarly fabricated chart in an effort to discredit Obama's plan.
SILENCING DISSENT: Despite the right's tightly-controlled strategy to place political gain ahead of the American people's health, some cracks are starting to form in their coalition. Most importantly, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) distanced himself from Kristol's advice to "go for the kill," worrying that "there have been some Republicans who haven't been looking at the polls." Specifically, Grassley referred to a poll showing that if health reform fails, "voters would assign blame 30 percent to the health industry, 22 to Republicans, 11 percent to Democrats and only 4 percent to Obama." Despite his insight, however, Grassley is "under immense pressure from Republican colleagues not to deal at all," and he has agreed to brief his entire caucus before agreeing to compromise with supporters of health care reform. In addition, Grassley apparently informed Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) that he "cannot sign on to a bill if it is supported by only one other Republican." In other words, the nation's health and the health of the economy will rest, not on the needs of the American people, but on whether conservatives instead decide that they care more about their own selfish desire to see Obama fail.
--americanprogressaction.org
@Advocate,
It may be the conservatives in the democratic party that kills the health care plan.
Quote:Democrats see healthcare deal hopes collapse
By Susan Cornwell and Kim Dixon Susan Cornwell And Kim Dixon Fri Jul 24, 2:58 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) " The leader of a group of Democratic fiscal conservatives in the House of Representatives said talks on a U.S. healthcare overhaul bill fell apart on Friday and that he saw no possibility of a deal now.
Representative Mike Ross said that "after over a week of very intense and what I believe to be good faith negotiations ... it pretty much fell apart this afternoon."
What we are going to see is continued escalation of premiums until a very small number will be able to afford health insurance, and we'll continue to see workers lose their health insurance too! Companies will start dropping health insurance, because it'll just become too costly to keep as a benefit for employees, because they will not be able to compete in the world marketplace with this extra high cost of doing business.
It's really a huge loss for Americans, because only the rich will be able to afford the high premiums. Most middle class families who have any insurance will mostly be inadequate to care for major illnesses.
People complained that a nationalized health care system would drop the quality of care; what difference does it make if you can't afford to have health insurance?
CI, you have it right. Not many years ago, about 55 % of employers offered health care insurance. Now it is down to about 35 %. Just try to get insurance as an individual. You would have no money left for food and rent.
@Advocate,
This economy has already ruined many families and businesses. We're going to see it get worse without universal health care, because our hospitals will begin to shrink, and any major pandemic will result in chaos and more lost lives from lack of treatments. Health is all about our country's security, and probably much more important than having a huge military spread all over the globe. That kind of military policy is only a waste of our resources. Why are we still keeping so many bases in Europe? They should be be spending their own money for their own security.
Our country is also scrapping our educational system which is one of our most important resources; our children. Funding cuts in schools this year will eliminate many courses, increase class size, and those attending college will see a huge tuition increase.
It's really discouraging to be living in the US today.
@cicerone imposter,
Quote:It may be the conservatives in the democratic party that kills the health care plan
And the funny part is, the dems are running ads on TV blaming the repubs for health care not being passed.
They dont realize that they (the dems) control both houses of congress and the White House, and all they have to do is get all of their own members to vote for whatever bill they come up with and it will pass.
I think the American people will see thru the dems attacks on the repubs and will place the blame where it belongs, squarely on the dems themselves.
@cicerone imposter,
Quote:Our country is also scrapping our educational system which is one of our most important resources; our children. Funding cuts in schools this year will eliminate many courses, increase class size, and those attending college will see a huge tuition increase.
So the current admin is cutting funding for schools?
I thought only the repubs did that.
@mysteryman,
Obama unveils four-billion-dollar education plan
As far as the health care reform, there is infighting among the democrats (the blue dogs and the rest of the democrats), however, as advocated pointed out, in their own words there is a large segment of the republican party who are bent on shutting down the whole health care reform plan to make it his "Waterloo." Kristal has suggested a policy of just obstruct and delay for anything Obama tries to get through. There have been links left on other threads as well as this one with the direct quotes from those involved.
@revel,
Quote: Kristal has suggested a policy of just obstruct and delay for anything Obama tries to get through.
That may be, but the dems still control both houses.
All they have to do is get their own members to vote for whatever bill comes out.
And it seems the dems cant do that.
So, if they cant get their own members to go along, how is that the fault of the repubs?
Remember, the repubs dont have the votes to stop anything the dems want to do.
@mysteryman,
The Blue dogs have always represented a stumbling block in the democrat party on issues like health care reform and anything else which involves money but perhaps it is not over yet and sticking points might be worked out, I think August was a little too wishful thinking, maybe by the end of this year an agreement will be worked out if they don't give up and don't give in to the Kristal/ Limbaugh tactics.
@revel,
revel, When I read about Obama's $4 billion education funding, I had to laugh. Relative to all the important issues facing our country today, he's pretty much put the education of our children at the bottom of his list. $4 billion is peanuts when we look at all the school districts in financial trouble.
When anybody looks at relative importance for our country, $4 billion for education is an insult.
@revel,
I wish the blue dogs had more balls when it came to the stimulus package.
As it stands, I'm 100% in support of their opposition to the health care bill as I understand it. This bill CANNOT have unfunded liabilities.
@maporsche,
I agree with you on this 100%. Nobody in the planning stages are telling us everything we need to know about actual cost vs savings. We also know something must be done, but that also has to include where the higher costs and cost savings will come from, and what impact they will have on the short-term and long-term.
It seems to most of us that they're trying to hide something; not a good way to win confidence of the American people.
@cicerone imposter,
Not a good way at all. Especially given all the rhetoric towards transparency and reforming politics in Washington.
I had such high hopes; I guess I'm feeling more than a little let down.
@cicerone imposter,
Quote:It seems to most of us that they're trying to hide something; not a good way to win confidence of the American people.
But what happened to their promised "transparency"?
They said that everything they did would be open to the public, that they would show the meetings on C-Span, that the public would be allowed to comment befoe any bills were signed, that they would be everything the Bush admin wasnt.
Guess what, they lied.
@mysteryman,
Why are you asking me that question? You are a stupid jerk!
@cicerone imposter,
Where was the question?
I made a statement, there was no question anywhere in the post you reference.