October 9, 2009--Party of "No"
During the summer Republicans railed against the Democrats' emerging health care reform legislation by calling it a step toward not only the socialization of medical care but also part of the Obama secret agenda to turn American Capitalism into full bore Socialism.
When it was pointed out to some of their most fervent followers--senior citizens on federally-run Medicare who were the preponderant participants at so-called town meetings--that they were being manipulated into opposing something they were already enjoying the talking points changed.
After that line of attack failed to work, Republicans raged that it was going to be a trillion-dollar tax increase that would add at least that much to the deficit. They, of course, failed to mention that more than three-quarters of the current federal budget deficit was run up when Republicans were in charge of Congress and the White House--from the Reagan years through the second Bush administration.
Wait, they gleefully said, until the politically independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) gets its hands on the current Baucus version of health care reform, the one apparently most favored by Barack Obama. The CBO would expose it for what it is--a budget-buster that will be paid for by tax increases with at least a trillion dollars added to our already swollen national deficit.
Well, last night the CBO released its anaylsis of the Baucus plan--it would "cost" $829 billion over ten years but all of it would be paid for. Not only wouldn't it add one dime to the deficit, the CBO went on to say, but over that same ten year period it would cut the deficit by $81 billion.
So what will Republicans say about that? They looked forward to the CBO asserting that Obama's health care plan would contribute to bankrupting us, but here there is this plan that will cover 94 percent of Americans (not enough from my perspective) and not only not cost anything but actually save a lot of money.
Senate Minority Leader, the dyspeptic Mitch McConnell gave us a preview of coming attractions--according to the linked report in the New York Times, he is saying that the Baucus bill is not the real Democratic bill. That one is being worked on in secret, it will be 1,000 pages long, and when it is revealed it will be shown to cost a full trillion and will all be paid for by new taxes. I am not making this up.
He, of course, is implying that he and his fellow Republicans have a actual reform package that the Democrats are refusing to consider. That it will not raise any taxes at all and will cover all Americans.
Maybe the Democrats in Congress are not interested in considering it, but I would sure like to see it since it sounds so good.
It may be no surprise, though, that no such Republican plan exists. I have been searching for it but can't find it. And thus I can only conclude that Mitch and his colleagues are in fact not serious about proposing an alternative and that they are interested in only two things--saying "no" to any reform plan (including their own) and doing whatever they can to bring down Obama by blindly opposing literally everything he wants to accomplish--from health care reform to securing the Olympic games for the United States.
If McConnell were serious this time--saying that the Baucus bill is a stalking horse and that the real one is being hidden from view, he is I think implying that the Baucus bill is a pretty good one. I come to this conclusion since he is not longer trashing it but turning Republican fire on the one allegedly being concocted in private.
I have a solution for the good senator from Kentucky--come out in favor of the Baucus bill, get his 39 other Republican senators to support it and then get at least 20 Democratic senators to go along with this bipartisan approach. That should be easy to do. Then with those 60 GOP and Democratic votes pass it. That would doom the socialistic bill supposedly being concocted in secret and we would have a pretty good health care reform bill.
But I suggest not holding your breath. Because the only thing most Republicans want to do in addition to "breaking" Obama is nothing.
When it was pointed out to some of their most fervent followers--senior citizens on federally-run Medicare who were the preponderant participants at so-called town meetings--that they were being manipulated into opposing something they were already enjoying the talking points changed.
After that line of attack failed to work, Republicans raged that it was going to be a trillion-dollar tax increase that would add at least that much to the deficit. They, of course, failed to mention that more than three-quarters of the current federal budget deficit was run up when Republicans were in charge of Congress and the White House--from the Reagan years through the second Bush administration.
Wait, they gleefully said, until the politically independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) gets its hands on the current Baucus version of health care reform, the one apparently most favored by Barack Obama. The CBO would expose it for what it is--a budget-buster that will be paid for by tax increases with at least a trillion dollars added to our already swollen national deficit.
Well, last night the CBO released its anaylsis of the Baucus plan--it would "cost" $829 billion over ten years but all of it would be paid for. Not only wouldn't it add one dime to the deficit, the CBO went on to say, but over that same ten year period it would cut the deficit by $81 billion.
So what will Republicans say about that? They looked forward to the CBO asserting that Obama's health care plan would contribute to bankrupting us, but here there is this plan that will cover 94 percent of Americans (not enough from my perspective) and not only not cost anything but actually save a lot of money.
Senate Minority Leader, the dyspeptic Mitch McConnell gave us a preview of coming attractions--according to the linked report in the New York Times, he is saying that the Baucus bill is not the real Democratic bill. That one is being worked on in secret, it will be 1,000 pages long, and when it is revealed it will be shown to cost a full trillion and will all be paid for by new taxes. I am not making this up.
He, of course, is implying that he and his fellow Republicans have a actual reform package that the Democrats are refusing to consider. That it will not raise any taxes at all and will cover all Americans.
Maybe the Democrats in Congress are not interested in considering it, but I would sure like to see it since it sounds so good.
It may be no surprise, though, that no such Republican plan exists. I have been searching for it but can't find it. And thus I can only conclude that Mitch and his colleagues are in fact not serious about proposing an alternative and that they are interested in only two things--saying "no" to any reform plan (including their own) and doing whatever they can to bring down Obama by blindly opposing literally everything he wants to accomplish--from health care reform to securing the Olympic games for the United States.
If McConnell were serious this time--saying that the Baucus bill is a stalking horse and that the real one is being hidden from view, he is I think implying that the Baucus bill is a pretty good one. I come to this conclusion since he is not longer trashing it but turning Republican fire on the one allegedly being concocted in private.
I have a solution for the good senator from Kentucky--come out in favor of the Baucus bill, get his 39 other Republican senators to support it and then get at least 20 Democratic senators to go along with this bipartisan approach. That should be easy to do. Then with those 60 GOP and Democratic votes pass it. That would doom the socialistic bill supposedly being concocted in secret and we would have a pretty good health care reform bill.
But I suggest not holding your breath. Because the only thing most Republicans want to do in addition to "breaking" Obama is nothing.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
2:30 AM
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