Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Obama: Bipartisanship and Health Care Reform

One of the lies I expect to hear from Obama in his address this evening is that Republicans aren't interested in reform.

Of course, that's a flat-out lie. Republicans want to work for real reform of our current system, not the destruction of our system.

(How many times will Obama say, "status quo"?)

It's true that Republicans aren't onboard with Obama's ultimate goal of a single-payer plan. It's not true that they are against fixing what's broken.

During the campaign and since he took office, Obama has given plenty of lip service to bipartisanship, but that's all he gives.

"I'm happy to get good ideas from across the political spectrum, from Democrats and Republicans."

BS.

"With the magnitude of the challenges we face right now, what we need in Washington are not more political tactics -- we need more good ideas. We don't need more point-scoring -- we need more problem-solving."

BS.

If Obama is serious about working with Republicans, why has he shut them out of the process on crafting a health care bill?

Video, Breitbart.



"You know, the Republicans sent the President a letter at the very beginning of this saying we wanted to work with him. He sent a letter that said, 'Thanks but no thanks.' ... In essence it said, 'Thanks for being concerned, but no thanks,'" Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Wednesday.

What was that about being happy to get ideas from across the political spectrum?

Apparently Obama wasn't talking about health care.

I expect Obama to tap his typical rhetoric that he reverts to whenever he wants some legislation -- fearmongering. We're facing an emergency in health care. There's no time to waste.

Obama will say the time for debate is over.

He'll say time has run out to work on a bill. We need to take immediate action. He'll accuse Republicans of playing politics. He'll say something to the effect that he welcomes the input of Republicans but they aren't interested in change.

Translation: If Republicans don't agree with government-run health care, a single-payer plane, then they have nothing to offer. Shut up and get out of the way.

Obama said, "There are no red states; there are no blue states; there is only the United States of America."

What a crock!

Let's not forget what Obama said during a meeting with Republican and Democrat leaders on January 23, 2009, about 72 hours after the inauguration of this post-partisan president.

Among some of the things Republicans requested: tax deductions for some small businesses, making unemployment benefits tax free and a provision that would let businesses losing money carry the losses over to pay fewer taxes in a different fiscal year.

Mr. Obama did voice opinion on some differences on the issue of whether the lowest individual tax rates should be cut from 15 percent to 10 percent and from 10 percent to 5 percent.

As the president, he had told [Senate Minority Whip Jon] Kyl after the Arizonan raised objections to the notion of a tax credit for people who don't pay income taxes, Obama told [House Minority Whip Eric] Cantor this morning that "on some of these issues we're just going to have ideological differences."

The president added, "I won. So I think on that one, I trump you."

Obama and bipartisanship are like oil and water.

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