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1/21/2010
Ok GOP, scrap the Party of NO; time to lead
The nation is yearning for a few simple health care solutions (well, maybe not simple). And gosh darn it, a plethora of Republicans have them. So let’s hear about it!!
President Obama signaled on Wednesday that he might be willing to scale back his proposed health care overhaul to a version that could attract bipartisan support….
Ok, ok. So Obama’s not stupid – and he’s a very savvy politician. Does that mean Republicans must continue to play the obstructionist game? Geeez.
So Obama would settle for “cracking down on insurance industry practices that hurt consumers and reining in health costs.”
Ok. That’s a start. Anti-insurance industry, big bad executives, class envy and anything-else-you-want-to-call-it sniping woven in, but it’s a start.
Republican Congressional aides said a compromise bill could include new insurance industry regulations, including a ban on denying coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions, as well as aid for small businesses for health costs and possible steps to restrict malpractice lawsuits.
However….
Senior Republicans showed little new willingness to collaborate with the Democrats. Asked where he might be willing to work across the aisle, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, offered praise for Mr. Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan but not a single example on domestic policy.
Dang it, Mitch McConnell.
Representative Paul Ryan, it’s time to lead. Just consider…
Ryan is highly regarded as a skilled (some say brilliant) economist passionate about America’s future.
Mr. Ryan and some other stalwarts are proof that political leadership does exist in Washigton albeit not always at the highest ranks.
Ok GOP. It’s time to lead. Now. Today.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Paul Ryan is truly THE shining star in Wisconsin's congressional delegation. He has been touting his ideas for HCR since the obamanation began, and been totally ignored by all but the tax-paying, health care consuming, angered and getting angrier, tea party attending voters. It would be great if he could somehow be shoe-horned into a position that would afford the Republicans the luxury of leading on the issue of health care in this liberal-dominated congress. I don't think it will happen before January of 2011 when we seat a new majority in at least one house of Congress.
The liberals (who now prefer to be called 'progressives') currently running our government into the land of eternal redness, are of but one mind: Healthcare Insurance Takeover at All Costs. They really don't care to hear about good ideas from the teabagging likes of Scott Brown, Paul Ryan, or those unwashed wannabe capitalists who keep yelling slogans and waving signs around their bonfires. At least that's what I'm getting from the public pronoucements of Nancy Pelosi.
I would speculate that for the remainder of 2010 Paul Ryan and the taxpayers of America will be playing defense, courtesy of the MA voters. I'm sure others here will feel differently, but now more than ever before is the time to dig in our heels and move from the Party of No, to the Party of No Way! Doing otherwise just nullifies the rather spectacular election of Scott Brown.
Duke (Thu Jan 21 07:49:12 2010)
I prefer the party of KNOW!! and know this: Big Government does not work. It increases the cost, reduces the efficiency, and almost always ends in corruption of one sort or another.
KNOW that government interference adds 80% to the cost of medicine.
KNOW that the cost of government is over 60% and rising rapidly.
KNOW that unfunded liabilities will add about 37% to our current costs of goverNMEnt
KNOW that the assault on our liberties continues not only unabated by Democrats, but greatly increased.
KNOW that many Republican incumbents are part of the problem. (How did St. Paul vote on the bankster bailout?)
KNOW that our current official federal debt of some $12 Trill. amounts to $38,000 per man woman and child.
KNOW that our real debt if the undfunded liablitities are included amounts to approx. $100 Trill. and that comes to over $300,000 per man woman and child.
KNOW that if we do not confine our federal government to those powers given it in article 1 sect 8 of the US constitution, that our reign as a prosperous and free country will be over.
Ken Van Doren (Thu Jan 21 12:03:01 2010)
Yea!!! We need to go back to the 1800's when there was no government to stand in our way and we settled things with guns on the streets. You go, Ken!
Jack Lohman (Thu Jan 21 12:15:30 2010)
"KNOW that if we do not confine our federal government to those powers given it in article 1 sect 8 of the US constitution, that our reign as a prosperous and free country will be over.
Sorry Jack, I'm with Ken on this one.
You are partially right though when you say we should go back to the 1800's. That was when states were sovereign and the federal government was a client of the various states - not the other way around like it's shifted since the early 20th century.
Duke (Thu Jan 21 13:06:08 2010)
Duke, this is a right-wing blog and I would expect you to support Ken. But he and others prefer a total free-for-all in the market and we cannot survive that system.
Jack Lohman (Thu Jan 21 13:13:46 2010)
Jack, I can back up every one of the satatistics I used above. Tell me, how are we going to function when government consumes in excess of 100% of our economy? We are broke, nothing government runs operates well, we have enslaved our children and grandchildren in debt, and you think the answer is MORE government? How on earth can you believe that we can survive the world that you and those of like mind have created?
Ken Van Doren (Thu Jan 21 13:34:12 2010)
I don't propose more government, Ken, just a government that is not bought and paid for by the special interests. I happen to believe that if politicians were not on the take we'd have a smaller government and lower taxes. You support our current moneyed political system that is driving our economy into the ground. If politicians are to vote for their constituents their campaigns must be funded by the taxpayers. We disagree on the effects of money when given to politicians. I contend that it is given to politicians so they spend taxpayer money. You (apparently) believe it is seeking a simple thank you.
Jack Lohman (Thu Jan 21 15:25:24 2010)
FYI, Jack, I do not support candidates for sale as you seem to suggest. As you surely know, I am not willing to give up rights like free speech for simplistic "solutions" that are doomed to fail. And there are ALWAYS ways around the rules, which likely will make the system worse, not better. If the power remains, incumbents will continue to buy votes with TAXPAYER dollars as they do now. Currently served special interests will tend to be frozen in their influence, and there will be little to no improvement in government spending and corruption.
There is no easy answer, there is NO alternative to us, the voters becoming better educated, and better at seeing the long term interests of everyone, vs. the short term impact of policies on their particular special interest.
UNTIL we are willing to limit government power, the corruption will remain regardless of the rules.
Ken Van Doren (Thu Jan 21 17:28:48 2010)
Well, Ken, you must be tickled pink about today's Supreme Court decision. I'm not. I have never equated cash with speech but I recognize that some in our society like the fact that when they have more money than the other guy they can better buy their politician. But it is absolutely because of that corruption that your taxes are so high. So quit your complaining, you are getting exactly what you are paying for.
Public funding is in no way doomed, except in the speculative mind. The only way "around the system" requires jail time. The system works virtually flawlessly in AZ, ME and CT, and has even attracted the L's. Go figure.
>> "If the power remains, incumbents will continue to buy votes with TAXPAYER dollars"
Wrong, and your talking points makes no sense at all. Buying a corporation's vote (when they can't vote) with taxpayer dollars paid by those who can vote simply doesn't equate.
There is an easy answer, and that's to let the conflicted politicians opt for private rather than public dollars.
But I do agree that we need to eliminate the power, and if you can do it while leaving the bribes in the system you have at it.
Jack Lohman (Thu Jan 21 18:06:17 2010)
Jack, you could not be more wrong. The system works in AZ???
One of the MOST corrupt of states? I lived there 8 yrs, and if anything, it has gotten worse since I left. Friends of mine wrote about getting thank yous from then gov Napolitano for $5 donations they never made, which helped her qualify for state campaign financing. This "Fine" woman used her power as head of DHS to put AZ state Treasurer on the no fly list. That is your idea of a cure????
And as incumbents have a built in advantage of name recognition, left over signs, and a full time opportunity to promote themselves, vs. most oponents take time from their ability to earn, any public funding should give more to challengers to be fair. But what incumbents would vote for such a bill?
Ken Van Doren (Thu Jan 21 23:54:06 2010)
Sure the GOP should do more than just say "no", but Paul Ryan's proposals are not the answer.
For example, Ryan's notion of providing "insurance" for pre-existing conditions makes a mockery of the idea of insurance.
True insurance covers true risk, that is, those unknown factors that remain after all the "knowns" have been accounted for. If insurance companies can't discriminate or pool participants based on risk, you no longer have insurance: you have an intentional wealth transfer, i.e. socialism.
Ryan's "Patient's Protection Act" also called for both a biometric identifier for all Medicare recipients and a nationwide database for your medical informaton!! As Twila Brase of teh Citizens' Council on Health Care says, "He who has the dollars AND THE DATA makes the rules".
Once the fedgov mandates the digitization and standardization of medical information (as opposed to private industry arriving at such a standard on their own), our personal data will surely and swiftly be collected by Washington DC -- no matter the paper promises. Armed with this information, fedgov will inevitably begin to make life and death decisions on our behalf.
However, deny the budding communists the dollars and the data, phase out government involvement in healthcare, and simply allow the free market to work, and we will have the best medical system possible.
David S (Fri Jan 22 00:04:21 2010)
>>> "Ryan's "Patient's Protection Act" also called for both a biometric identifier for all Medicare recipients and a nationwide database for your medical informaton!! "
David, that's the only thing that Ryan proposes that makes sense. We absolutely need a national patient database (sans personal ID) so doctors can compare effectiveness of diseases and medications and we can develop quality transparency for public scrutiny. There is absolutely no way that can be turned over to the hundreds of IT companies in private industry.
As well, hospitals are jealous of and absolutely guard their patient data from competitive hospitals, even when sharing would drastically reduce costs. Private is counter-productive.
Why we keep screwing around and avoiding the most sensible solution (Medicare-for-all) is beyond me. It is the best system yet, as it contracts to the private health care network. We've had our fill with "privatized" insurance companies and it doesn't work.
Jack Lohman (Fri Jan 22 08:46:43 2010)
Why do I keep hearing corporations, corporations, corporations? Corporations seem to be the fount of all things bad. Why don't we hear unions, unions, unions? Or trial lawyers, trial lawyers, trial lawyers? These groups have enormous power and put more money into Democrat campaign coffers than corporations put money into Republican campaign funds.
Most of the corporations now are putting as much or more money into Democrat campaigns.
Has it been forgotten that Big Corporation was at one time small corporation. They had a product that the public wanted to buy and they grew. I hear an echo of a government takeover once a company reaches a certain size. Learn to spell Socialism instead of Constitutional Republic because that's what this "us" against "them" and "rich" against "poor" is all about.
C. R. Stevenson (Fri Jan 22 10:24:00 2010)
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