Republicans For Health Care Reform
The DNC has a new ad out, featuring Republicans who have spoken out in favor of the Democratic health care reform plan. They include former Senate majority leader Bill Frist, former Senate majority leader Bob Dole, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson and now former Senator Chuck Hagel.
Notice how all these Republicans are former officeholders. Perhaps they are trying to bring Republicans back from being the party of no, but I really doubt they’ll listen.
Tags: Health Care Reform
The President gave a shout out to the Republicans who support reform in his weekly address. This also should remind the people who want bipartisanship that the repubs are not working in good faith here. Which really is perplexing. Something looking like reform is definitely going to pass. You’d think that they;d get this clue and try to do something to influence what does pass. Not the crazy posturing and stupidity meant to gut or destroy the bill, but real substantive proposals. So far, Olympia Snowe is the only one who has been taking the process seriously. The other thing that is perplexing is that you’d think that people who continually claim (but never deliver) on fiscal responsibility might be at the table working at cost control and how to pay for this thing. So that they could at least go home and have at least one fiscally responsible thing they could claim.
The DNC pulled the ad. Dole made the request to the WH. Luckily it lives on in www land.
We have the best health care system in the world. Breastfeeding infant denied health insurance.
Yeah — we need to be more like the UK, where they don’t set out to kill old people.
And i used a legitimate news source, not Daily Kos.
Health is our number one priority in this world.. We should have a regular monthly check-up so that we know what is our health problem and then we can immediately cure if we have health problem..
There is a pattern. All of them support reform but not Obama’s plan and none of them have a vote anymore.
In other words, it doesn’t matter.
Mike Protack
Delaware Republican–you note ‘none of them have a vote anymore.
In other words, it doesn’t matter.’
What does that say about your opinions (and postings)?
The DNC ad is misleading. None of them support the bill as written. They support some of the concepts and hope a bill can be achieved.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/08/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5371071.shtml
A closer look at the comments from these Republican outsiders shows their opinions may not differ greatly from those of Republicans in Congress. Frist, for instance, told Time magazine he is in favor of stricter regulations on insurance companies to protect consumers as well as a mandate for all Americans to acquire health care. He said, however, that the legislation currently under consideration does not do enough to control costs. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have agreed there should be more consumer protections in the health insurance industry, while the individual mandate has not come down as a partisan issue, with support and opposition from both sides.
Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), pointed out to the Hotsheet that McConnell has given 42 speeches in support of health care reform on the Senate floor since June — but that doesn’t mean he is supporting the Democratic bills.
“There is strong bipartisan support for addressing health care,” Stewart said. “Similarly, there is strong bipartisan opposition to what some Democrats have proposed.”
Indeed, both some Democratic and Republican governors, for instance, are concerned about the additional Medicaid burden the Senate Finance Committee’s bill could place on state governments.
“I can’t think of a worse time for this bill to be coming,” said Tennessee’s Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen reportedly said.
It doesn’t matter what the Republican Party thinks anymore. Seriously.
If the GOP is so in favor of reform, where are all the promises of “Yes” votes on anything? On what points are they willing to compromise? The Baucus plan satisfied two of the biggest Republican criteria, reducing the defecit and no public option, yet not one Republican said they would support it.
The fact is that the GOP is the minority party, so they’re negotiating from a weaker position. Usually in that case, one would pick a few key things they want to get and try to get the best deal they can, knowing they’re not going to get everything they want. That’s not what’s happening. The GOP is still acting as if it can dictate terms. They can’t. If they wanted to negotiate for real, they could easily get a more conservative bill than what will pass otherwise. Instead, they’ve decided to just try and block everything. Sad.
For what it’s worth, I do believe there is a good number of GOP Senators and Congressmen who really do want to pass a reform bill. Unfortunately, none of them are strong enough to stand up to the Republican groupthink position of, “Just say No.” It’s all short-term political gain versus long-term help for the country.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, wants to include a version of a government option called a co-op owned by insured members. What a wonderful idea says Mike Oliphant whom manages Utah health insurance plans for http://www.benefitsmanager.net/utah-group-health-insurance.htm . This may encourage competition from private health insurance carriers. But I fear it will fail ultimately if there is no TORT reform because the same liability costs that plague medical professionals and health insurance carriers will be like a fast cancer growth within the co-op plan. A government option wouldn’t allow legal suite against the plan but will with medical providers. Doesn’t anyone see that we need TORT reform to protect the cost outcome? See what Utah has done with health care reform http://www.ahealthinsurancequote.com/reform.html.