Comments on: If Republicans Won’t Play Along on Health Care, Who Cares? http://demockracy.com/if-republicans-wont-play-along-on-health-care-who-cares/ Wed, 02 May 2012 03:56:19 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: James Mutti, Contributing Editor http://demockracy.com/if-republicans-wont-play-along-on-health-care-who-cares/comment-page-1/#comment-857 James Mutti, Contributing Editor Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:33:58 +0000 http://demockracy.com/?p=4855#comment-857 While I don't know much about Arlen Specter's recent defection to the Democratic Party, it points to the problems facing the Republican Party. The GOP has gotten so conservative that a Reagan Republican like Specter feels compelled to turn Democratic (so it's not just the GOP that has moved to the right). I think you are exactly right that they are doing nothing but stalling until 2010 and hoping that things don't get better. They are also putting all their eggs in the "government spending is bad" basket - an argument that may have worked in the past, but is not very compelling in the midst of an economic crisis. While I don’t know much about Arlen Specter’s recent defection to the Democratic Party, it points to the problems facing the Republican Party. The GOP has gotten so conservative that a Reagan Republican like Specter feels compelled to turn Democratic (so it’s not just the GOP that has moved to the right). I think you are exactly right that they are doing nothing but stalling until 2010 and hoping that things don’t get better. They are also putting all their eggs in the “government spending is bad” basket – an argument that may have worked in the past, but is not very compelling in the midst of an economic crisis.

]]> By: Kevin Van Dyke, Editor http://demockracy.com/if-republicans-wont-play-along-on-health-care-who-cares/comment-page-1/#comment-854 Kevin Van Dyke, Editor Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:13:16 +0000 http://demockracy.com/?p=4855#comment-854 Exactly. It's ironic that the GOP had no problem ramming tax cuts through reconciliation with much smaller majorities. Bipartisanship only works when the other side is willing to meet you somewhere in the middle. Of course, the current GOP leadership wants nothing to do with this. Thankfully, Obama and the Senate dems will now set a deadline where reconciliation will kick in for the budget framework where they'll only need 51 votes. Health care is too important to leave open for triangulation. Of course the current complaints are over a public plan. The argument goes that the public plan will be much more efficient and thus crowd out private insurance which has much higher administrative costs (i.e., waste). This argument is very stale in my opinion. The GOP has used the same argument against SCHIP and most mixed planned solutions in the past. It's tiresome. Yes, some people will run to the public plan, but a mandate would probably increase private plan rates overall. And besides, shouldn't we be for efficiency! Anyway, I'm going to try to get more into this in the next few weeks. Thanks for discussing this important issue. Exactly. It’s ironic that the GOP had no problem ramming tax cuts through reconciliation with much smaller majorities. Bipartisanship only works when the other side is willing to meet you somewhere in the middle. Of course, the current GOP leadership wants nothing to do with this.

Thankfully, Obama and the Senate dems will now set a deadline where reconciliation will kick in for the budget framework where they’ll only need 51 votes. Health care is too important to leave open for triangulation.

Of course the current complaints are over a public plan. The argument goes that the public plan will be much more efficient and thus crowd out private insurance which has much higher administrative costs (i.e., waste). This argument is very stale in my opinion. The GOP has used the same argument against SCHIP and most mixed planned solutions in the past. It’s tiresome. Yes, some people will run to the public plan, but a mandate would probably increase private plan rates overall. And besides, shouldn’t we be for efficiency! Anyway, I’m going to try to get more into this in the next few weeks. Thanks for discussing this important issue.

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