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In an unprecedented meeting broadcast on television between President Obama and Republican members of the House, with House members permitted to ask pointed questions of Obama regarding policy and engage in a debate, Obama was able to expose almost every Republican assertion as being factually false, making the Republicans either terminally incompetent, ( as the Bush years showed), or that they have been so brainwashed by their own propaganda that they actually believe the nonsense they put out for political consumption.
What became the biggest issue exposing Republican incompetence was the complaint from House members that Obama had shut them out of the policy making process especially when it came to the health care bill.
The problem, as Obama pointed out, was not that they were being shut out but that their ideas stunk.
One assertion for example was that the Republicans had a plan to insure every American with affordable health insurance without raising taxes or adding to the bureaucracy. That's news since that assertion was never made before, no plan ever presented on any television news show or to my knowledge on the House or Senate floor, and the reason, as Obama pointed out, is because its pure fiction.
Obama was able to detail in chapter and verse ( not very hard given how obvious Republican polices would fail) how the specific ideas that had come from Republicans simply wouldn't solve the problem while some others were in fact, incorporated into the healthcare bill which every Republican eventually voted against anyway.
Republican ideas included in the bill were the idea of an interstate insurance exchange which would allow consumers to purchase insurance across state lines. Another was tort reform. Both were accepted and included in the legislation even though the effect of tort reform on bringing down insurance premiums and healthcare costs were miniscule.
But the most important aspect, the public option whose purpose is to really bring down costs and expand coverage to people who cant afford it, had no Republican response. They said they did, but as Obama pointed out, they lie. They never offered any alternative to a public option that would insure everyone.
In instance after instance Obama was able to rebut every complaint of the Republican House members showing just about everything to be false, not hard considering the Republicans have been the easiest, fattest political targets any opposition could have hoped for over the last 15 years, which only shows the gross incompetence of Democrats and Democratic "strategists" to rebut them and be effective politically.
In exchange after exchange, and time after time Obama made the point that ideology wasn't good enough -- that if Republicans gave him ideas they would have to pass the taste test -- that experts Obama relies on, or even experts they could provide, would have to tell him an idea would work, and if they say it wouldn't, then the idea is then obviously useless. The Republicans had no response.
Most Republican ideas as presented, fell into the useless category. Proosals based more on ideology than anything else with no data or even common sense to back them up. Which given the damage done to the country during the Bush years shouldn't come as a surprise.
Obama pointed out that on the issues with which the Republicans disagreed, they provided no viable alternatives to what he and the Democrats were proposing. And if Republicans were going to take the position that a problem identified as such by the Democrats was not in fact a problem -- like 30 million people being uninsured, or the tyranny of insurance companies in denying coverage, then Republicans were not even focused on the right problems much less being able to have a solutions.
For example, one Republican congressman stated:
" we've got plans to lower cost, to change purchasing models, address medical liability, insurance accountability, chronic and preexisting conditions, and access to affordable care for those with those conditions..."( Italics mine)
Notice nothing said about access to affordable healthcare for those who have no insurance, over 40 million people. And none of their ideas regarding pre-existing conditions made sense because all it would do would be to allow insurance companies to raise premiums on everyone else to help cover the costs.
Even so, the televised meeting with Republicans was something that was more informative and did more good than all the town hall meetings, all the speeches and all the press conferences Obama has held since he's been in office. Obama came out clearly on top, something that he hasn't been able to do in months. And it was an insight into Republican thinking which is based on ideology and not results.
This kind of debate is something Obama should consider doing on a regular basis. It made the case better than anything Obama has done before as to why certain Democratic proposals would work and Republican proposals wouldnt.. And there is nothing better than having the opposition make your case for you. And that's what the Republicans did.
Comments
Oh what delusion we have!!! Obama, in his failure to get anything at all accomplished last year, even with the huge majorities that he has, has to come crawling to the Republicans for help. He is so far left that the principles put forth by Republicans are completely lost on Obama, he does not comprehend them, nor are there any advisors do either. For instance, when Obama says "all econcomists agree" that is simply false. What is true is that all leftist ecomomists agree with stimulus spending, but not all economists. In truth, that is a minority position, but the only position held by this administration.
Very good article.
Is your head that far in the clouds Brian that you are so far out of touch with reality? You have got to wake up and smell the republican coffee is actually hurting you! Get your facts straight before you try to cram your untrue political crap on people that actually see the truth. I am not saying that being a republican or democrat is the right thing to do. The right thing is to get your facts and not make preposterous false statements like this. It is because of this our country is a laughing stock to other countries of the world.
The solution; the free market. Socialism does not work. Never did, never will.
If you don't open your mouth, no one can judge you.If you open it, anybody can read your brain and judge you.
Socialism can work. Examples: The public library and public college are socialist institutions. Economies can thrive and prosper with big government and some socialism. The US was greater when it had higher tax rates during and after WWII (70-91% top rate) until the 1970s Fed screwed up. The largest per-capita GDP US states are the big-government states. All 4 socialist/capitalist Scandinavian countries have larger per-capita nominal GDPs than even the US. State-owned banking provides government alternative sources of money and the economy alternative sources of credit. The Bank of North Dakota and almost all Chinese banks are state-owned, and generate very much extra income and wealth for their respective governments and economies. During the recent worldwide recession, ND is the only state in the US and China is the only country in the world whose governments and economies kept truly prospering and growing like mad. Read the "Web of Debt" book and blog and be educated.
I believe the bill had more than 150 Republican "mark-ups", suggestions that were used, some that watered the bill down, but after all these changes, with one exception in the House, all Republicans voted NO! And the original House Bill that had all the consumer protections, all the insurance reform, and the public option is now this pathetic Senate Bill - the result of Blue Dog Democrats and last Summer's ludicrous Town Halls!
Oh, c'mon, guys!
Obama against a roomful of Republicans??????
That's kids' play.
Put Obama in a a room full of progressive DEMOCRATS and watch the s*** hit the fan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not only on health care, but why he won't prosecute Bush, Cheney, et al., for war crimes.
Byran: Tax breaks ARE stimulus spending. It's just not a particularly effective form of stimulus spending
You can find full medical coverage at the lowest price from www.bit.ly/atGzeD
These 8 studies are a small sample of the epidemiological science implying that universal healthcare is a moral imperative: (1) Measuring The Health Of Nations: Updating An Earlier Analysis (up to 101,000 or more Americans die annually from lack of healthcare.) (2) Analysis of 23 million US hospitalizations: uninsured children have higher all-cause in-hospital mortality (60% higher) (3) Lack of insurance negatively affects trauma mortality in US children (200% higher for uninsured child trauma patients) (4) Downwardly Mobile: The Accidental Cost of Being Uninsured (80% higher mortality for uninsured adult trauma patients) (5) Association of Insurance with Cancer Care Utilization and Outcomes (60% higher cancer mortality for uninsured) (6) Health Insurance and Mortality in US Adults (40% higher for uninsured overall) (7) Health Insurance Coverage And Mortality Among The Near-Elderly (much higher mortality for uninsured) (8) Does Medicare Save Lives? (20% lower ER-admitted mortality)
Here are the 3 most important reasons why public financing of healthcare via a strong public option is a strong moral imperative for all of the not far from 100 million dumped by the private market to be left to rot to death with little or no healthcare via being underinsured or uninsured: (1) The abortion issue makes it politically impossible to provide public financing of healthcare via subsidies to shop for private insurance. (2) ERs and free clinics are no answer for those left to rot to death. ERs are legally required to treat only emergencies. But the vast majority of healthcare needed to prevent premature death is not an emergency at the time. The few free clinics provide very limited care for only the poorest. (In 41 states, disallowed on Medicaid include all non-disabled singles <65 and in poverty and so most homeless.) (3) The science I cited @ February 2, 2:50 PM shows that those left to rot to death die at much higher rates - up to 101,000 or more deaths annually.
Brian if witnessing exactly how lost the republicans are on national TV doesn't convince you. Then you are truly biased and not reasonable. If your claim about the economist only being "lefties" were true, then the House Republicans would have quickly refuted that point. Which they DID NOT.
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