separate_wayz wrote:
If this is even credible, the GOP was right to walk away from it. Obama can't even deliver his own party on major issues -- how could he possibly ensure that ANY deal he makes with Republicans will find its way into a final bill that passes?? And who's to say that Obama's word is worth anything any way? As Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) said: "He's beginning to not be believable to me." There should be no need to require GOP congressmen regardless -- the Democrats run the show, by big majorities. If they can't wrangle enough votes to pass this thing, that's more of a commentary on their own misguided, overreaching monstrosity than it is on alleged GOP "obstructionism".
Even if a meager tort reform proposal could find its way into a supplemental bill, this is all about the White House trying to blur the lines between the two parties so the Democrats don't take all the heat for this godawful bill in the midterm elections. The bottom line is: the polls show that this health care debacle is a turd. Putting a little bonnet on it doesn't make it any less of a turd.
What Obama and the Democrats forget is that voters have stated that they're turned off as much by the PROCESS of this bill coming together as they are the PRODUCT itself. Ramrodding this piece of garbage through Congress isn't going to win over any independents whatsover, and that's where the Democrats are getting killed. I predict the bill will ultimately fail, and that Obama was lose even more credibility and favorability than he has already. If it does pass along the lines of 51-49 in the Senate, and 217-216 in the House (with at least two vacancies), Democrats will suffer even more egregiously at the polls this autumn.
Republicans have managed to "make book" with this health care bill -- heads they win, tails the Democrats lose. If the bill is defeated, the GOP can claim that they sided with the American people and stopped a very unpopular piece of legislation. If the bill passes, the GOP can run against it this autumn and will make huge inroads in the House and Senate by defeating Democrat incumbents.
As Charlie Cook pointed out recently, it's getting very, very difficult to see how the Democrats don't lose control of the House -- largely thanks to this health care legislative disaster of their own making.
That's sort of a zero-sum nihilist approach, SW.
If neither party is willing to find common cause on anything, even when the terms are mutually agreeable, what’s the point?
You might as well dissolve Congress as a legislative body.
At every turn, Obama has sought Republican input (within reason, of course) – healthcare is no different.
You can attribute ulterior motives to this; I think it’s what he truly, and foolishly, believes.
Let’s not forget, he first ascended to political stardom giving a flowery speech in 2004 about “not red states or blue states, but the United States.”
Unfortunately, in today’s modern political landscape, one party views ANY government activity, no matter how benign, as a hostile encroachment on liberty and the slippery slope toward communism.
Good luck negotiating with THAT.
For the record, the CBO, the official scorekeeper of this clusterfuck, says the Obama reform bill will SAVE money. Not the OMB, but the CBO.
