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Friday morning quarterback: the healthcare summit
In perhaps the biggest drama of the Thursday healthcare summit, President Obama interrupted a rant by Sen. John McCain against the “backroom deals” behind much of the current healthcare legislation:
“We’re not campaigning anymore,” the president told his Republican opponent in the 2008 election. “The election is over.”
But the day did seem to be mostly about campaigning as lawmakers lobbied viewers regarding the best way to move forward in this yearlong debate.
Early on, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, largely silent to this point, interrupted Obama to inform him that Republicans so far had spoken for 24 minutes while Democrats had taken 52 minutes. Obama relented he had forgotten to count himself on the Democratic side because he is the president.
Well, Republicans kept a time track of the entire roughly 7-hour day and here is the final tally:
- Republicans: 110 minutes
- Democrats: 114 minutes
- President Obama: 119 minutes
Obama and Democrats spent their minutes trying to tell America that the two parties really aren’t that far apart when it comes to healthcare. Republicans countered with repeatedly using the phrase “start over” in unsuccessful attempts to get the Democrats to scrap the current bills in favor of a clean sheet of paper. Translation: the two sides really are deeply divided on this issue.
Still, Obama, in his final lecture at the end of the session, warned that Democrats are willing to go at it alone when it comes to healthcare. He said ultimately voters would decide if this is the best course of action.
“That’s what elections are for,” the president said.
Well, why wait until this November to render judgment? WORLD web readers, what are your thoughts on Thursday’s summit? Who won? Who lost? What should happen next? Let’s hear from you.
back to top58 Comments to “Friday morning quarterback: the healthcare summit”
Wasn’t the idea to compromise, cooperate and come to a consensus? If so, that there would be a “winner” means we all lost
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1. I’m glad the Republicans went even when the deck was stacked against them.
2. Obama came across as petty, thin skinned and condescending. I was deeply offended at him calling folks by their first name – it was a Barbara Boxer “Call me Senator” moment in reverse.
3. His quip to McCain about campaigning was a hoot – “O” has been campaigning since he was elected.
4. Rep. Paul Ryan laid out a compelling case for a financially devastating bill that will mean much higher direct and indirect taxes for all.
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Obama saw the summit as a process of taking inventory. The store shelves are no different the next morning, but everyone knows what’s there and what’s missing, and everyone knows that everyone knows it.
Obama has clarified the nature of the contest between R’s and D’s. Taking inventory reveals that some stuff is common to both parties, some stuff is a matter of degree only, and some stuff must be submitted to the voters at election time.
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The Democrats and particularly Obama himself showed just how arrogant they are. They continue to be the party of pride and arrogance and Obama continues to show that his days of activism taught him neither governing skills nor people skills. The disrespect he showed in addressing McCain and Cantor show why for the next 3 years we should prepare ourselves for the reality that we will continue to have bills that have no support from the majority of Americans shoved down our throat simply so this young man in an empty suit can make a history for himself.
The Republicans are not much better but I can’t say they didn’t try. Every attempt to show how wasteful and earmarked this bill is and how simple the true fixes to health care costs are were battered away and ignored by the arrogant Democrats.
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Just spent some time reading comments to Krugman’s editorial on this at the NYT website. The left loved Obama, and they don’t care how bankrupt we are. Let’s spend more.
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And I would add up the minutes for the Dems and Obama because guess what, he’s a Dem.
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It was apparent by the republican’s words and actions that they are not concerned at all about the people they represent and doing what’s right for those people. Again we heard them saying through their hissy fit (while people die, “we won’t play because you made up the rules – even though we say we want most of those same rules”.
It is apparent that they know that they agree with a great part of the bill, but disagree with a democratic constitutional process of the (simple) majority rule. Sadly, we all lose.
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President Obama’s incessant use of first names was unprofessional. It seemed subtly contempuous (remember the phrase; “familiarity breeds contempt”). He recevied more respect than he gave, in my view. He seems to want to see himself on a higher level than the others. Americans don’t like this.
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CZ- your point about Republicans not caring for people is absurd on its face. Who has died for lack of available health care? Better, who will die – the old, the disabled, the chronically ill (too costly) – when Obamacare hits the streets. If Obamacare passes – “Sadly, we all lose.”
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CZ,
“It was apparent by the republican’s words and actions that they are not concerned at all about the people they represent and doing what’s right for those people.”
Now, do you actually believe this, or are you just trying to stir the pot and get people upset? Or maybe this is just Dem talking points? Either way, it’s wrong. Republicans are doing a pretty good job of representing us (their constituents), with the odds stacked against them.
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CZ – I am going to tell you a real case scenario of somebody without health insurance and the fact that they didn’t die because it seems that all these supposed people who are dying because they don’t have health insurance do not exist.
My office manager has a rental condo that he rented after much debate to a recovering alcoholic in his 30’s. For months everything was great with this young man, he was working, paying his rent and staying off the sauce. Something happened over the holiday’s and he stopped paying rent and started drinking. Last week my office manager showed up at the apartment to tell the young man after 5 notices that he was going to have to leave. The young guy’s brother was with him. They found the young man in a comatose position on the couch with bottles all over the place and called the ambulance. This young man is in a hospital receiving care.
Here you go CZ – the young man does not have health insurance, the young man’s family does not have health insurance. The young man is in intensive care having suffered intense alcohol poisoning and severe dehydration. My office manager asked the hospital how this was going to be paid for. He was told that despite the president and Democrats portraying this young man as dying because he has health insurance that his care will be written off as a loss by the hospital, that the young man will be taken care of and here is the kicker there CZ and the rest of you liberals who think all of us people who are out to make a profit are a bunch of uncaring people -
NEVER IN THE HISTORY OF THIS HOSPITAL HAS ANYBODY BEEN TURNED AWAY BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE……NEVER, NEVER, NEVER!
Get it….so get off your high horse and deal in facts. People are not dying for lack of health insurance. People die because of HEALTH REASONS AND THE FACT THAT THEY THEMSELVES DO NOT SEEK CARE.
Us sick profiteers often write off this care as a loss, something liberals don’t know anything about since they have never run businesses.
I am so sick and tired of these made up letters of people dying because they don’t have health insurance it makes me really mad.
So for all you liberals….I care about my country way too much to let you continue to put out this stupid lie. You will not saddle me with more taxes so you can create more government, union jobs so less people can enjoy life in this great country of ours.
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Adios – that’s only what they said it was about. When Obama said “I don’t want this to turn into Political theatre”, that was a sure sign it was going to be exactly that (and he wanted to avoid repsonsibility). It’s obviously the effect of having TV cameras in for once – since they haven’t been there all along, it makes it all about stating your positions, not about trying to think creatively or compromise. None of that plays well in soundbite clips.
I’m all for transparency, but selective transparency simply pushes the less savory parts into the meetings not shown.
CZ – listen to Dems on the “Nuclear Option” on judicial nominations a few years ago. Then tell me it’s a matter of needing a simple majority. Those are some pretty entertaining clips from Pelosi, Reid, Obama, Clinton, Shumer, and the rest. Back then, revoking filibuster power for judicial nominations spelled the end of the country as the founders intended it. Now the Dems want to do that with actual legislation, and it’s the Republicans who are undermining democracy?
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CZ may just be the first of many “spammers” spawned by the WH’s website that is geared to encourage Obama’s sycophants to call talk radio and flood them with the Leftist’s propaganda.
Be prepared. They will not be interested in honest debate. Their side is bankrupt when it comes to real life ideas and solutions.
The only Republican that Obama seems to fear is Rep. Paul Ryan. Paul mopped the floor with Obama.
I will not call him “Mr. President”. Respect is earned and lost. He has lost my respect to the point that I cannot honor him with the honorific “Mr. President”. In the past, I have given him this out of respect for him and the office. No more. He will have to earn that back from me.
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He has lost my respect to the point that I cannot honor him with the honorific “Mr. President”.
What happened?
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(and he wanted to avoid repsonsibility).
When politicians want to avoid responsibility they don’t go out in front of cameras and subject themselves to uncontrolled and unedited confrontation. Further, Obama never engaged in negation, so far as I observed.
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Civilization to collapse by the end of the century.
We all will die, and there is no evidence or indication that we have any life after this one. Therefore, a kind and sensible country would strive to keep people alive as long we reasonably can, without putting them through unnecessary suffering in the process.
It is just plain crazy that we spend more money and engage in more effort on killing each other than we do on keeping each other alive and in good health. As individuals you can act responsibly: eat reasonably well by shopping at farmers markets or community farming networks; exercise sensibly and vigorously; be kind and sensible to each other; and don’t give the web editor indigestion and migraines.
As a country, we can do better, in our own incoherent and contradictory way, then all the other first world countries that now have better health care than we do. You don’t have to love face by admitting it; bite the bullet and just do it.
It’s a waste of time, but if you want to pray while you do it, go ahead.
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President Obama’s incessant use of first names was unprofessional.
As there was nothing else to gripe about, this will have to do. But it wasn’t disrespect, it’s just Obama. They guy absolutely loves being chummy. First name-basis is who he is, behind the scenes or in public view.
None of the participants objected.
Obama played roles of moderator – respondent that US presidents almost never do, and many people who share his background and sensibilities (David Brooks, for example) think he did an excellent job. Geo. Washington, John Adams, and Thos. Jefferson would have been proud of him.
Who kept making loud sighs into the mic? I’m with those who suspect McConnell.
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Scroop-14
Obama’s over-the-top disrespect for the Republicans. Even his supporters cringed when asked by Frank Lunce.
Scroop, did you not notice his arrogance? His condencension? His disrespect?
Oh, and his constant reminder that, “Well, I’m the President”. Bad form for the POTUS.
And his refusal to acknowledge the will of the overwhelming majority that wants this bill scrapped and another started from scratch. His response, “That’s what elections are for.” TRANSLATION: “If you don’t like it, tough. Vote us out when you can. Until then, eat cake”. Sounds like an elected tyrant.
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“We’d love to have a five-page bill. [But] baby steps don’t get you to the place where people need to go.” Obama
His way of craming HIS agenda down America’s throat.
You don’t put a child on a bike and say “you will ride because I say so.” You give them “baby steps” in learning how to ride–with safety lessons.
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Random-16
Just as soon as you get our enemies to stop trying to kill us, then we can stop spending money on killing them first.
Let me know how that works out.
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The problem with calling participants by their first names is that it’s nearly impossible to credit some of them with having first names. Lamar? Please. Surely, it’s Sen. Alexander. Mitch? John? It’s not Obama’s fualt that these guys sound so terminal.
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Now OBAMA is THREATENING Dems that he will put his own plan thru if they don’t vote for the one they have been working on. And Obama’s plan includes abortion on demand.
He WANTS Republicans to vote for the healthcare agenda so people will vote against them in November. You can’t say you are different if you vote WITH Obama. And they WILL hold it over them come election day.
Obama says Republicans are all about politics when he talks about why they won’t agree with his agenda. The Republicans BETTER be voting like they want to please the people who will be voting for them in November. THAT is exactly why they were sent to Washington, to represent the people.
OBAMA is TOTALLY about what HE thinks is best for everyone, NOT what the people want, NOR what IS best for everyone.
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Scroop 17
I didn’t know that you can channel our founding fathers! Is that via an self-induced trance? Crystal ball? Drugs? LOL
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What is happening and the mentality of Obama is EXACTLY why the framers of the Constitution said that a foreign born shall NOT be President.
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What should happen next?
IMPEACHMENT of President?
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#17 Scroopy:
“None of the participants objected.” Right, that would have given the greatest sound bite to the Dems and would have been played by the MSM two gazillion times to the exclusion of anything else.
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“Geo. Washington, John Adams, and Thos. Jefferson would have been proud of him.” Scroopy #17
No, they would have run him out of town.
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Brotherdan–
Conservative posters are misreading Obama’s diffidence as arrogance. Shyness can be a mask for arrogance, but O. isn’t shy. Obama’s diffidence is a liability, however, like W’s swagger, which is also confused with arrogance.
The Republican vice is blaming others for the unintended consequences of their positions. Opposing HCR is politically smart, and ideologically necessary, but it’s utterly wrong. Republicans know their opposition is a long-term liability which they’ll eventually have to pay. Obama put them in the wrong, so Republicans blame him for arrogance.
I hope this helps.
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#20
How did Christianity change from being a religious belief that celebrated its leader who meekly let himself be killed to a religious belief (at least here on worldmagblog) that celebrates militarism?
Aside from taking out the occasional bunny and gray squirrel, I am not a very war like person. I was deferred from serving in Vietnam. This bothers me, but I don’t feel guilty about it.
I don’t know how to bring peace to the world. I am not a pacifist. Nevertheless, I stand by what I said, and don’t find your comment to me very convincing in persuading me otherwise.
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Scroop 28
“Opposing HCR is politically smart, and ideologically necessary, but it’s utterly wrong. ”
This is a false claim, Scroop. We do not oppose HCR. We oppose this form of HCR. That was patantly obvious yesterday, and that little talking point of yours is not valid.
Another thing about HRC, it is not something that needs so much focus. It is not what the POLs should be concentrating on. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, remember? You can try to keep people insured all you want, but in the end, even if you achieve this, all you’re going to end up with is unemployed people with insurance, standing in soup lines and waiting to vote these guys out.
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Random 29
When you take the whole council of God into your belief system, and not just one verse or chapter here and there, then you know that God never advocated that a country just roll over and be killed. He never prohibited national defense, nor even personal defense as such. Context of Jesus’ statements are centered around the heart full of hate.
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What do you, Brotherdan, mean by “this form” of HCR?
It appeared to me that Sen Durbin, VP Biden, and Obama did a good job of exposing R’s lack of ideological consistency. You call for some Federal interventions and spending, just not enough to help 30M people. You don’t really trust the market, do you?
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Scroop, did you listen to Rep. Paul Ryan?
This bill WILL NOT WORK! IT’S SMOKE AND MIRRORS. AND PUAL PROVED IT, ALONG WITH THE REST OF THE REPUBLICANS.
You represent a very small though loud minority, Scroop. Americans are not stupid. We get fooled once in a while, but we don’t stay fooled. WE DO NOT WANT THIS BILL!
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If the bill is SO great, then why didn’t the DEMS put it thru when they had a chance and had the votes?
They had meetings behind closed doors and it still DIDN’T PASS.
And OBAMA still BLAMES the Republicans for the hold up.
That’s just like him.
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DAN #33
As long as the media is used as Obama’s front line of defense, nothing will change.
Obama keeps blaming the hold up of the health care on the Republicans. Very clever.
And the media don’t SEE what’s going on?
Are the MSM as stupid as they sound?
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Sen. Ryan put forth a compelling argument of how this proposal will not work fiscally. I have been looking, but have so far been unable to find,an equally compelling argument for the flip-side put forth by a rep from the democrats side.
Is someone aware of a clip from yesterday’s summit that can forcefully and factually make the case for how our country can pay for this extraordinarily expensive proposal?
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Are the MSM as stupid as they sound?
I think they just might be.
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If the bill is SO great, then why didn’t the DEMS put it thru when they had a chance and had the votes?
The dems watered it down on the altar of getting 60+ votes.
Rep. Ryan’s points were based on disputing the “reality” though not the “quality” of the CBO score of the Senate Bill. Look for Rep. Xavier Becerra’s follow-up exposing Ryan’s incoherence in both accepting and rejecting the CBO as a referee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejBLHatglMw
According to the ref, the Senate Bill reduces the deficit in both the first and second ten years.
The SB also reduces costs, though not enough, and not nearly as well as single payer or a strong public option, solutions that Democrats dropped to appease conservatives.
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METANOIA — Health care is extraordinarily expensive and getting ever more so. How will the American people pay for it come 5 or 10 years from now? It appears to me that more and more will do without basic care and die, if the government doesn’t act.
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Here’s the whole thing on this…..the Dems paint this whole thing around this erroneous fact that people are dying in the streets. I say find me that person, find me the person who is dying because they don’t have health insurance. And you know what, I will be willing to bet that a bunch of us compassionate capitalists can take care of these people better than anybody in the government can.
Liberals assume that just because the government is going to give people tax credits and subsidies to buy health insurance that they are all going to run out and make their purchases. They assumed the same with school lunches, with food stamps and with the thousands of other entitlement programs. You know what you find? You find the very people that are receiving these subsidies and entitlements out ginning the system and using that money for something other than it was intended to be used.
So stop it already. The people you are claiming you are going to help are not going to be helped, they are going to be harmed.
This health insurance entitlement bill is simply a government takeover with a different name, just like the jobs bill is just another stimulus bill with a different name. Same results, different name.
We, the people, are not stupid and I am tired of being treated like I am.
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“…solutions that Democrats dropped to appease conservatives.”
And the left blames the conservatives.
Still getting your talking points from MSM and Obama’s helpful sites?
SORRY, no matter how you slice it, the DEMS ARE TO BLAME whether it goes thru OR not.
Rest assured Obama will put it thru if he has to do it while everyone is on vacation–emergency Presidential agenda.
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Scroop, 39, these back and forths remind me of an old record that starts to skip.
TORT REFORM. Works everytime you try it. Prevents defensive, redundant medical procedures.
STIMULATE MED. INSURANCE COMPATITION. Works everytime you try it.
These are two things the Obama and his disciples won’t allow. I wonder why.
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The GOP should NOT add anything to this fiasco, because they will be blamed.
Dems are stuck between a rock and a hard place–it seems like a lose-lose situation for them.
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Reducing the deficit is such a load of malarkey it isn’t even funny. How can you reduce the deficit when the money you are using to reduce the deficit is dependent on taxes coming in from small, medium and large businesses and this very bill will destroy jobs? Get it? The money isn’t there and the Dems are planning a bill on “IF-come”, much different than “IN-come” which is something that can be planned for.
By increasing the deficit we will reduce the deficit because we are putting in place a bunch of entitlement programs that rely on someone else’s pants pocket being reached into by the government (the same government that wasted the same deficit reducing money from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on other entitlement programs) and then redistribute that money into the hands of people in the form of a subsidy or entitlement and then that person is going to purchase what you say they are going to purchase.
Load of malarkey – they are going to buy bigger TV’s and bigger sofa’s on which to place their large behinds so they can watch Oprah and The Vue on TV and answer the door only when the welfare man gives them a check and now they will be able to supplement their oh so busy lives with a daily trip to the doctor paid for by people working their hind ends off just to employ people so our country doesn’t have more soup lines.
Get off the crack libs, your entitlement programs don’t work and us fat cat business people are tired of paying your bill.
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From Representative Paul Ryan:
“This year, doctors in Medicare are going to get cut 21 percent in their fees. Everyone is trying to fix that. That’s $371 billion. What did the Democrats do — they took it out of this legislation and are moving it as a separate piece of legislation. So they have hidden $371 billion of spending right there.
“Here is a second thing they are doing, which CBO [Congressional Budget Office] has no control over, 10 years of tax increases and Medicare cuts to pay for six years of spending. They can manipulate a score anyway they want to to make it appear as if it’s not a deficit, but if you actually take away all the smoke and mirrors, all the gimmicks, the bill from our estimation costs about $460 billion in deficits in the first 10 years and about 1.4 trillion in deficits in the second 10 years.”
“If you use real world economics and reality-based scoring, not the spreadsheets they cooked up to manipulate a score, this thing represents a big deficit increase and it makes healthcare costs go up, not down and that is not my opinion, that’s the opinion of the chief actuary of Medicare/Medicaid,” he contends.
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“According to the ref, the Senate Bill reduces the deficit in both the first and second ten years.”
Sounds like a whole new type of voodoo economics to me. It didn’t answer the question of the numbers manipulation that it took to reach the conclusion.
This is what it sound like to me. If I have a mortgage and a car payment, I can take my mortgage money to pay my car payment. But sooner or later, doesn’t the mortgage come due?
This is an old politics trick. Take money out of SS and replace it with IOU’s. Legalize the lottery to pay for education and then take the money that was originally going to pay for education and spend it on something else.
No one, and I will bet my life on this, no one in this country is being denied basic health care. Yes it may be a little embarrassing to some to show up in an emergency room or free clinic because they don’t have a health insurance card, but health care is available to anyone who wants and needs it.
Is that coverage “comprehensive?” Of course not, but even the best insurance policy has limits, exclusions and disqualifications. It is unreasonable to think that everyone is going to get complete access to every kind of health care they want at taxpayer expense.
Find the pockets of people that legitimately need it (and I can assure you that number is far less than 30 million) and create a small program to make it available to them.
If this is nucleared into existence, I can guarantee that the biggest part of the explosion will take place in November. The Dems are playing right into the Repubs hands as far as politics is concerned, but only because the people will hold their collective noses and move to the center where the Repubs are closer.
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Metanoia-46
True to my promise to joust with the right, I must say that I think we can do better as Americans that the current situation as you described it. I don’t think that insurance is affordably to enough people. Actually, I believe that it is exorbitantly expensive and that it is just going to get worse. But I believe that the solutions are those that the Republicans are offering.
The truly sad thing is that it took the radical Left’s socialistic proposals to spur our conservative Republicans to even offer anything at all! For that, I say shame on the Right in political office. Now, if these two knuckle-headed groups would stop playing politics, do the no-brainer things that need to be done, we would all be better off.
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METANOIA, It sounds like you’re talking about cash flow manipulations. Tell me, what do car payments and mortgages have to do with the 10- and 20- year deficit/surplus resulting from the revenues and expenses of health care reform? I’m afraid you’re practicing voodoo.
Businesses play with cash flow all the time (very carefully and intermittently, if they’re prudent, so as not to kill future working capital). But such manipulations have nothing, nothing to do with their income statements (profit and loss).
Whatever ingredients the CBO scored, they were consistent over 20 years. To me, that’s as good as it gets.
If you refuse to accept CBO’s prediction of a surplus, what use is their prediction of a deficit, other than political?
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Scroop; One cannot pick and choose the numbers that one wants to manipulate and expect for those numbers not to be challenged.
The government has obligations Soc Sec (mortgage), medicaid (car payment) military (groceries) etc.
The have a paycheck (tax revenue) that they use to pay those bills.
If they own the company (they don’t, we the people do) they can give themselves raises arbitrarily (they do although they shouldn’t). We the people (the true owners) are telling the government (our employees) that we’re tired of them raiding the till.
If I ran my household finances the way the government runs their fiscal house, I’d be bankrupt. And guess what, that’s exactly where they are running our contry toward. Both donks and pachyderms.
No one has the right to continue to stick their hands in my pockets and take away what I have worked hard to earn and have the right to disburse the way I please. My children and grand-children’s future is being taken away by a bunch of irresponsible people in Washington who continue to kick the can down the road.
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You’re declaring your truths, but aren’t explaining what this has to do with the effect of HCR on the deficit.
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Scroop: It is as obvious as the nose on your face. HCR increases the deficit resulting in higher taxes, or rationed healthcare. And no cooking of the books will explain that away.
Every program that I can think of which has been conjured up in Washington ends up costing way more that they prognosticate.
The CBO’s numbers only add up if all the numbers aren’t included.
Cutting $300 billion in Medicare waste? Come on! If that were possible, just start cutting it today and make it available to doctors and hospitals for indigent care. Not another new dollar would have to be raised or spent and voila, we have 300 billion dollars in available healthcare.
Like that is going to happen! Fed is out of control and there are a ton of Good, hard working, god-fearing patriots who will be holding a lot of pols accountable in the coming elections.
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If the numbers the CBO failed to include are so important, METANOIA, you could have mentioned them and stated their magnitude.
The argument that Democrats will suffer defeats in Nov. isn’t an argument about the merit of HCR.
Here’s the strategic choice. If Democrats give up, Republicans will claim credit for stopping a devastating plan, and Democrats will gain nothing from retreat. If Democrats press on and pass HCR, however, voters themselves get to decide whether or not they like the reforms.
Fed is out of control
Are you related to PARANOIA? The Democratic plan is a moderate plan written by moderates and conservatives and it’s been thoroughly analyzed against practical results in many other countries.
When HCR passes, Republicans will be in a painful predicament. They’ll have to advocate repeal, even if voters like the reforms. Republicans will have to argue that government intervention would have been OK on behalf of 3 million uninsured Americans, but not on behalf of 30 million uninsured. You can’t explain that contradiction, Republicans couldn’t explain that contradiction at Obama’s summit, and they won’t be able to explain it after HC passes.
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Since no bill, other than the one that couldn’t garner 60 votes and then would have been sent back to the House, where passage was dubious at best, is on the table, Scroop you are correct in what you see as the Dems choices.
It’s a big gamble, and one that it seems the Dems are willing to take.
I see it as a sign of desperation because the clock is ticking away. The closer we get to the election, the more pressure the Dems will feel to pass something in the something in hopes that they will have some time before the election to either, show that it is working, or hoping that the public will “forget” or settle down.
Scroop my main point has always been affordability, and most common sensical people can see that PresBO’s plan and the numbers just don’t add up.
The summit will be looked back upon as a sham and setup. But most of will not fall for the smoke and mirrors.
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I think you mean, the bill that couldn’t garner more than 60 votes.
No problem! 60 was plenty enough.
Sorry for being picky, but it matters. Thanks to that 60, Republicans can’t say the Dems are “ramming” this bill through without bothering with cloture.
I hope you remember, in coming weeks, that the Senate had a cloture vote, and the Dems won that one.
Reconciliation will be for reconciling differences with the house, not for “ramming.”
Alles klar?
You still haven’t said why the numbers don’t add up, despite what, 5 requests? You certainly enjoy the indulgence of your readers, MET.!
Sham and setup? Look up the definitions of these words. The summit was wide open and transparent. Republicans were handed a megaphone and the liberty to use it. They have declared it a triumph, so don’t be trying to tell them it wasn’t real. Get with the right talkin points, dude.
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#39
“Health care is extraordinarily expensive and getting ever more so.”
There is a law of supply and demand. How do we increase the supply in this case? Does HCR address that?
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Whose talking points are you referring to? As in the past I have addressed everyone of your requests.
The numbers don’t add up because they are talking about an imaginary 300 billion of Medicare cuts.If those numbers truly existed they would have been tapped into by now.
The summit was a sham because the intent was to create political theater. If the Repubs didn’t show up, they would have been accused of being unwilling to seek compromise. If they showed up they would be accused of not offering anything new.
The intention was to create a false premise to push reconciliation. Anyone with half a brain and a lick of common sense could see that.
One final thing. Let’s wait for the House vote. Without their approval there will be no reconciliation. We’ll see what kind of new deals will have to be cut to buy votes. The revelation of every backroom deal will only create that much more problems for the Dems come November.
PresBO says something will happen in 6 weeks. I’ll stay tuned to follow the developments.
I am in favor of HCR, just not this kind. And I’m not alone.
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One more thing Scroop. The spin from the summit from both sides was also pretty predictable. The truth of what happened there will be revealed in the polls taken of the American public’s belief as to what really happened there.
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