The most infuriating thing about our mainstream media is the utter ignorance of their so-called “journalists.” When little miss anchorwoman, Katie Couric, interviewed the president last Sunday on his sudden, desperate invitation to Republicans for ideas on healthcare reform, he told her this:
I want to look at the Republican ideas that are out there. And I want to be very specific. ‘How do you guys want to lower costs? How do you guys intend to reform the insurance markets so people with preexisting conditions, for example, can get health care?’
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Ms. Couric was so ignorant of the past year-long healthcare debacle that she offered no challenge whatsoever to this latest whopper by President Obama. If she had known the issues — which is the job for which she is supposedly paid $14 million a year, or $300,000 per week — then she would have immediately challenged the president with the fact that very specific ideas from Republicans have been on the table – in writing – since early last summer.
Over and over again, the president and his “people” go unchallenged on every whopper they tell. Either our MSM is a bunch of ignorant boobs, or they are, once again, indulging their penchant for left-wing ideology. Whatever the case, their coverage of the president on his healthcare-reform shenanigans has been nothing short of disgraceful.
Doing the job, our MSM refuses to do – for whatever reason — here is the other half of the story on healthcare reform efforts:
Now that President Obama’s political capital has been squandered in months-long hubris sessions, his approval rating has dropped to 44% in record time and the entire country is more polarized than ever, the president has decided to consult with the Republicans on healthcare reform.
In the wake of Scott Brown’s election in Massachusetts, the president seems willing, at least temporarily, to keep his petulant “I won” mantra in silent mode. Waiting for the voters to put a man and his party between a rock and hard place, before he’s willing to listen to any idea that doesn’t bear the union label, is evidently Barack Obama’s unique definition of “transparent bipartisanship.” Obama’s stated willingness to bring in the TV cameras, after months of obfuscation and back-tracking on that promise, is at best sketchy. But we’ll see.
As to the Republican ideas on healthcare reform, they’ve been there all along. Right up there in the same capitol building, where the Democrats were holding their closed-door, shutout meetings, doing their wheeling and corrupt dealmaking, the Republicans put together three much more succinct, much more promising, much more cost-cutting and much less power-grabbing, genuine healthcare reform bills.
When Obama and his minions in the MSM drone on about Republican obstruction, without ever even acknowledging that Republicans were entirely, arrogantly, from day-one, shut out of the entire legislative process, it’s enough to make a knowledgeable person reach for the Pepto Bismol.
For the record, the Republicans in congress have introduced three separate bills for healthcare reform.
- In May, Republicans in the House and the Senate formed a bicameral coalition to produce the130-page “Patients Choice Act of 2009.”
- In June, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) introduced the “Health Care Freedom Plan,” a 41-page proposal.
- And in July, the Republican Study Committee, under the leadership of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), unveiled the “Empowering Patients First Act,” a 130-page plan.
Please note that all three of these bills, each aimed at reducing healthcare expenditures for middle-class Americans and expanding coverage to a large swath of the uninsured, have been on the table since last summer. Last summer, when arrogant Democrats were met with angry crowds at their local townhalls, these Republican proposals were all on the table already.
What were the major differences between the Republican proposals and the one Democrats were doing all they could to ram through without a shred of bipartisan support?
The differences were in the price-tag and who would have the power over an individual’s healthcare decisions.
- Democrat proposals: humongous price-tag with federal government controlling everything for everyone.
- Republican proposals: either budget-neutral or low-cost with individual patients retaining control over their own healthcare decisions.
The people made their voices heard in massive protests across the country all summer and into the fall. Still, Democrats ignored them and pressed on.
The president did one choreographed “townhall” after another, rolling up his sleeves and shooting the breeze on healthcare reform with carefully planted questioners And the president gave the same recycled speech on the evils and greed of the insurance companies, the in-it-for-profit-only doctors, extolling along the way, the lovely benefits of the red pain pill over the expensive new pharma life-saver, and on and on, piling more lying hubris on top of the last. He did a super Sunday of five separate TV interviews, hawking the glories of his brilliant-beyond-brilliant healthcare coup. America had never seen such presidential showmanship, turned to petulance, turned now to a suspicious, “I’m listening…”
So, with more problems that a single man working in his own office 24/7 could possibly solve — two wars, hundreds of thousands of brave young Americans in harms way, an economy still on the brink, unemployment numbers horribly dismal and China breathing down our necks with creditors’ angst, not to mention the Iranians, the Gitmo fiasco, the terror trials at home – with all that and more – this president decides to push on with his own pet domestic project, all the while still making the TV rounds and giving the speeches and throwing the White House soirees and keeping track of basketball.
And he’s now willing to meet with Republicans to hear their ideas after they’ve been sitting in congress with everything on paper for more than seven whole months.
My advice to Republicans: Just say, “No.”
Anyone who has watched this boiled-egg ideologue in action as a president for a year ought to know before a single word gets said that there is nothing whatsoever to be gained from trusting a man who has proven himself untrustworthy. They also ought to know that “compromise” is a word for which this president has a whole alternate-universe definition. They also ought to be well aware, from watching Tea Parties all year, that the electorate is angry and simply will not tolerate another federal power grab with a huge price tag, no matter what concessions are made to get a show of bipartisan support.
There are two absolutely necessary ingredients to any healthcare reform, if any of the costs are to be brought down to an acceptable level:
- Tort reform. Get the trial lawyers out of our operating rooms.
- A federal reform act that allows insurance to be purchased across state lines and allows individuals to join private co-ops for insurance purchase.
If the Democrats agreed to those reforms, they wouldn’t be Democrats. They’re in hock to the trial lawyers; heck, a lot of them are trial lawyers. And the whole object of healthcare reform, in Democrats’ eyes, was not to bring down cost but to centralize control in the hands of the federal government.
If Republicans want to agree to a sit-down with the president, fine and dandy. I just hope they mind their p’s and q’s and take every word this president says with a shaker full of salt. Otherwise, their own names will be on the incumbent out-of-work list before this year ends.
The American public has made its opinion clear. They’ve spoken it loudly in protest after protest all across this country. Just changing a few dotted i’s or crossed t’s is not going to square well with an electorate suddenly wide awake. I’m fairly certain every incumbent can take that bit of advice to the bank.
The American electorate is a very tolerant bunch, but this year, they’ve had enough. And wise men and women will take heed of their message.
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