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In a letter delivered to the White House moments ago, the two leaders of the bloc of House progressives bluntly told President Obama that they will not support any health care plan without a public option in it -- and demanded a meeting to inform him face to face. . . .This goes to something I've been saying all along. The correct GOP position on this bill can be summed up in one word, "No." If certain Republican members of Congress would stop talking about what changes are needed to the bill to get their support, the Democrats will self-destruct over this thing.
"Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, a public option built on the Medicare provider system and with reimbursement based on Mediare rates -- not negotiated rates -- is unacceptable," reads the letter . . . signed by Reps. Lynn Woolsey and Raul Grijalva, the two leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
"A health reform bill without a robust public option will not achieve the health reform this country so desperately needs," the letter continues. "We cannot vote for anything less."
The gap between the Blue Dogs and the Progressive Caucus on this bill is so wide as to be irreconcilable. The only reason Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid haven't already been forced to admit defeat already is that there are too many Republicans making noises as if -- with a policy tweak or two -- the bill might be made acceptable to them.
Polls clearly show a solid political basis for Republican opposition to ObamaCare. Defeating this bill would be a clear win for the GOP, but there are some Republicans in Congress who don't want to be seen as being against "reform." It's an image thing.
Yeah, well, screw your "reform" image. KILL THE BILL!
Stop calling the House plan reform. It is robbery, with the Progressives holding the gun and big business driving the getaway car.
ReplyDeleteReform would look like complete elimination of employer- backed health care, with the savings returned to the worker as a straight pay increase. Buy or don't buy as you choose.
Reform would also look like border control, change in status of anchor baby citizenship, and change in malpractice law.
This is good news indeed! The defeat of Obama care is not optional as the tide of resistance against liberal thug democrats needs a solid win.
ReplyDeleteThe problem for conservatives is that we have little leadership that represents us. DeMint is about it. The rest of them are more concerned with bipartisanship and compromise than with being conservative. And this in the face of overwhelming evidence that the party, and much of the nation, do not agree with them.
ReplyDeleteOh, well.
Scott
Moderates will kill us all.
ReplyDeleteYes! "No" is indeed the only GOP position that makes any sense. When I hear Republican lawmakers blathering on about how we can all work together to get meaningful reform and so on, I feel as though my head is going to explode.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Kill the Bill.
ReplyDeleteThe problem, Stacy, is that Bambi is going to try the Triangulation thing and throw a couple of his own people under the bus to hoodwink the rest of the country. If Nancy and Rahm have to go, so be it.
Let him make his move. He's going to try and stake out a self-declared "centrist" position against straw men. This is his MO. It's what he does. He can't help himself.
It will be incumbent on Republicans, especially Palin of all people, to come back with a serious critique/smackdown and serious free market alternatives. Why? To prevent and ward off squishies like Snowe from doing the Quisling thing.
Sarah Palin's potential role as Leader of the Opposition can not be underestimated here.
@section9,
ReplyDeleteBut we haven't even played Alinsky Card #4, "Make the enema live up to its own book of rules."
Those rules are still the Constitution, right?
Oh, that would require a conscious GOP, too.
Maybe I'm too optimistic.
The moderate Republicans are doing us one service: they're dangling the carrot in front of the donkey.
ReplyDeleteIf they were just to kill this thing, the Demos would move on to some other abomination, like the "card check" elimination of secret ballots for unionisation.
The moderates are also ginning up a furor on the left and the right bases. This is good for Republicans, at least the conservative caucus; and destructive to the Democrats who require at least the illusion of being fit to rule.
It's almost certainly too much to hope that the Republican moderates are deliberately teasing the Democratic progressives; but if I were a Republican in a left-leaning district, this is precisely the sort of faux-RINOism I would play around with. "Operation Chaos", one might say.