Tom Carper Wants to Give In to the GOP on Health Care
Watch this video of Carper on CNN yesterday — captured by Jed over at dKos:
Oh yes, this will work. Cave in on the contentious 20% so the obstructionists can create another 20% to, you know, obstruct on. While I am really clear that Senator Carper is definitely sitting at the table for this health reform bill on behalf of his pharmaceutical and insurance funders — not on behalf of the people of Delaware — I am stunned that he can be so stupid as to still think that there is any bipartisanship to be had here. His so-called GOP friends are just looking to stop as much as they can — so how is it that Carper cannot see that he isn’t being played here? And played Big Time, too.
People elected Democrats to govern. Let’s get to governing.
I’m not a Carper apologist by any means. I have a track record to prove it.
But twisting a sound byte into something it misrepresents is not accurate either.
He simply states that passing 80% instead of nothing, is an improvement of the status quo, and … if that is how the votes stack up, we go forward.
I agree that 80% is better than 0%. I also understand that without the public option, long term change will not occur. But in the meantime, until we achieve that, no one can be dropped from the roles for getting too expensive. That is all he is saying.
Just for the record, in the past, he has said some form of public option has to be in the bill for it to make any difference.
Is 0% Health care reform better than 80%? Just askin’.
If we wanted 100%, we should have shot down Chambliss when we had the chance. We didn’t. We now have to deal with what we have.
The only way you can believe that the 80% will be settled is if you believe that Enzi, et al are negotiating in good faith. I have no doubt — after Grassley slow walked this thing all summer to abandon ship — that good faith is the last thing on a repubs mind here. Do you really think that if Senate Dems produced the “80% we agree with” bill on Monday that there will be a rush of Rs to, you know, agree with it? A rush of rs to vote for this and get it off of everyone’s plate?
My point here — is that Carper is signing up to kick the football again. With the repub Lucys holding the ball. It is disingenuous as hell and reveals that his relationships in the Senate are way more important that the needs of the people who voted for him.
kavips “He simply states that passing 80% instead of nothing, is an improvement of the status quo, and … if that is how the votes stack up, we go forward.”
you pass over the fact that Carper has one of those votes being stacked up. You pass over the fact that by Carper lining up with the other Senators who are bought by the drug/insurance industries, it is harder for those votes to stack up to support the public option which the majority of Americans support (as reported by the noted left-wing media puppet Wall Street Journal survey this month).
A mandate forcing the uninsured to purchase junk insurance from an unregulated health insurance industry is exactly what Carper wants and chances are that’s what we are going to get. It’s not reform. It’s a bailout for the health insurance industry.
The Republicans are irrelevant at this point.
Carper needs to be removed from office. That obviousness of that statement is right there with the Pope being Catholic and bears going in the woods. He needs to be primaried and we need to get EVERY elected Democrat in the state on the record opposing or supporting him. Every Democrat supporting him should also be targeted for removal from office. Daniello and company either get on board or get out of Dodge.
The public option is getting closer and closer to reality and not further. I agree – reform without the public option is a big taxpayer giveaway to insurance companies. Yes, we get a little in return – like the end of recission and pre-exisiting condition clauses. I guess I don’t think Carper will stand in the way of that. I do agree that Carper should be held accountable for his votes. I sure do hope there’s a primary opponent for Carper in 2012.
If we get the public option, we can thank the Republicans. By not getting onboard the Baucus plan, Republicans have forced a Democrat-only bill. That means it’s much more likely we’ll get a public option. In fact, Snowe actually added an amendment to add a triggered public option.
I still have faith the dems can mess this all up.
Silly me, clicking submit while in mid-edit.
To elaborate on the Republicans irrelevancy, while they are united against HCR, there aren’t enough of them to block meaningful reform by themselves. It takes the Carpers, the Nelsons, the Conrads and the Bauci stepping in to finish the job.
Truthfully, we’re better off having healthcare go down in flames than to pass anything resembling the Baucus bailout. You can’t, in good conscience, enforce a mandate, without a mechanism such as a robust public option (coops would not accomplish this)in place to ensure affordability.
The bottom line is people like Tom Carper do far more harm than good to the Democratic party and the values it’s rank and file hold dear. The man has been in public office for close to 30 years and hasn’t done a single thing to benefit working Delawareans.
Where’s the unions in this fight? They have rolled over as well.
They need to picket Carper’s office in DC and Wilmington as well as his home. Working people have to stand up to Carper bait & switch crap.
The Dems plans won’t work.
Carpers a fool and has been away from the real world far too long, as for Republicans I never believe the answer to a problem is doing nothing.
Dan Boyd wrote:
“The bottom line is people like Tom Carper do far more harm than good to the Democratic party and the values it’s rank and file hold dear. The man has been in public office for close to 30 years and hasn’t done a single thing to benefit working Delawareans.”
I’m gonna print that, cut it out and post it where I can see it every day. Never have two sentences so accurately summed up someone’s political career.
Carper isn’t even pretending to be a real Democrat anymore.
Where’s the unions in this fight? They have rolled over as well.
Bullcrap, as usual, Al.
The unions picked Tom Carper’s offices in DC and in Wilmington several times and I was there with them as was ACORN.
Where were you?