Republicans Don’t Want Health Reform
OK, what are we waiting for?
If it wasn’t clear before yesterday, it sure is clear now: Republicans don’t want health care reform and they’re never going to agree to any legislation.
That was evident from the very beginning of yesterday’s health care summit, when the designated Republican speaker, Lamar Alexander, took the floor.
He attacked the House bill, the Senate bill, and President Obama’s proposals, without mentioning one thing in either proposal he agreed with. He demanded that Obama drop all three proposals and start from scratch. And he insisted that, even before the debate begin, Obama promise that Democrats would never use reconciliation to pass a health care bill.
In other words, Alexander said, we didn’t come to play. We came to kill. And that’s pretty much all we heard from Republicans all day long.
Republican after Republican talked about starting all over again. About only taking baby steps. About not being too hard on insurance companies. About letting the private market system work. And all that garbage.
Well, now we know where Republicans stand. And now we know where we go from here.
Forget bipartisanship. Forget the filibuster. Follow the rules of the Senate. Pass health care legislation with 51 Democratic votes. And get the job done.
That’s my parting shot for today.
This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 9:38 am and is filed under BILL BLOG. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Hi Bill,
I enjoy your show via xm radio in the morning on 167 – this time I have to disagree with you – after listening to our President (then candidate) Obama describe open televised health care negotiations I thought we would be getting a real change – instead we got closed door meetings and special deals for some citizens – that is simply crazy – I cannot see how we can look ourselves in the mirror and support this corrupt process – we voted for change and must hold the administration accountable – please rethink this before more damage is done.
Thanks
Ned
Forget the filibuster?? I did a google search and discovered that on 5/13/2005 Mr. Press wrote an article published in Word Net Daily, in responce the Republican threat to not allow the fillibuster in the confirmation of judicial nominies. He stated that this would be”not playing by the rules”, that it would be “unamerican” to not allow the filibuster. Clearly a case of a double standard. Where are your principles Mr. Press?
You have to love the US Congress. They’re gonna increase taxes and kill our monthly pay. What do you think employers are going to do when employee expenditures increase?