Bipartisan Meeting on HealthCare - Live

by SixofNine 51 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  BurnTheShips

  Time will tell. And I think McCain's points were entirely legitimate. I think this was a fail for the Dems. I think the Dems are going to have to give it up and use a parliamentary trick to get anything signed into law.

  CNN Analyst "Republicans had their best day in years":

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y70VVj6tuU

  He was a testy clock-Nazi, the GOP was surprisingly well-briefed—and the outcome was never in doubt. Why don’t the Dems just ram health care through and spare us the spectacle?

  Six and a half hours, two meals, a tub of ice cream, a gallon of coffee and 20 sheets of scribbled notes after the televised “bipartisan health-care summit” began, I still ask myself the question that popped into my head within minutes of the summit’s start: What on earth was President Obama thinking when he decided to convene this weird little powwow?

  Was he trying to make the Republicans look bad—retrograde ogres who would leave uninsured babies to die in their cribs? If so, he didn’t succeed at all. On the contrary, they came out of it looking rather alert and grownup.

  What was so striking about the summit was the preparedness of the Republicans. All of them had done their homework: Lamar Alexander, Tom Coburn, Jon Kyl, John McCain, Dave Camp, John Barrasso, and Paul Ryan.

  http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-02-25/what-was-obama-thinking/
• 

  BizzyBee

  BlueSapphire's got it

  The fact they showed up empty handed was their own fault.

  Deer caught in the headlights. The silent Boehner lugging reams of paper around. "Let's start over!"

  Childish.
• 

  JWoods

  Congressman Paul Ryan on Obamacare during the summit - pointing out obvious issues about cost:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V_kSMKKZFw&feature=player_embedded#

  There was a specific reason that the size and cost of this 2800 page monstrosity were highlighted - the people want it dropped and started over by 65%.

  But, the meeting just left things the way they were and probably will have little effect.
• 

  purplesofa

  I WOULD DISQUALIFY YOU FOR SUCKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  hehe, I love Jon Stewart!!!!
• 

  BurnTheShips

  That Paul Ryan clip is very good.

  Obama engaged in two basic tactics: deny that Republican claims were factual, or treat them as political and dismiss them based on that (like he did with McCain).

  Let's not forget Lamar Alexander's exchange, Obama lies here (factual):

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ad-fqqjFhI

  BTS
• 

  SixofNine

  Except that Paul Ryan was lying. And he was called on it.
• 

  SixofNine

  And Lamar Alexander was obfuscating:

  Earlier this morning, Republicans -- including Sens. Lamar Alexander andJon Kyl -- said that health-care premiums would go up under the Democratic plans.

  President Obama responded, "It's not factually accurate. Here's what the Congressional Budget Office says: The costs for families for the same type Of coverage as they're currently receiving would go down 14% To 20%."

  According to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Politifact, the CBO said that -- for the most part -- premiums would go down or stay the same.

  "The CBO reported that, for most people, premiums would stay about the same, or slightly decrease. This was especially true for people who get their insurance through work. (Health policy wonks call these the large group and small group markets.) People who have to go out and buy insurance on their own (the individual market) would see rates increase by 10 to 13 percent. But more than half of those people -- 57 percent, in fact -- would be eligible for subsidies to help them pay for the insurance. People who get subsidies would see their premiums drop by more than half, according to the CBO. So most people would see their premiums stay the same or potentially drop."

  Here's the Washington Post's Ezra Klein: "Yes, the CBO found health-care reform would reduce premiums. The issue gets confused because it also found that access to subsidies would encourage people to buy more comprehensive insurance, which would mean that the value of their insurance would be higher after reform than before it. But that's not the same as insurance becoming more expensive: The fact that I could buy a nicer car after getting a better job suggests that cars are becoming pricier. The bottom line is that if you're comparing two plans that are exactly the same, costs go down after reform."
• 

  SixofNine

  OK - one simple question:

  Does ANYBODY really think this 6-hour PR stunt actually accomplished ANYTHING?

  I'll let the Rude Pundit explain what the whole thing was about, Jwoods. Keep your ciggys handy.

  http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

  2/26/2010

  A Final Word on the Health Care Summit: President Obama Calmly Fucks the Republicans:
• 

  bluesapphire

  I didn't see any Republicans who seemed satisfied with it.

  HA! HA .... HA .... HA!

  Are you for real JWoods? Did you expect them to be satisfied with anything? They had the chance to provide their own ideas and they FAILED! F.A.I.L.E.D.!!!

  So if they were not satisfied, why didn't they come with something besides, "Let's start over!" Why didn't they bring their own plan? That's because they have NO plan! They WANT no plan. And they are trying to dupe the American people to believe they do.
• 

  SixofNine

  One thing that was made clear is that there are many, many points of agreement. So the Republicans are shown to be sort of like the governing body on blood - "yeah, the various components are all good, but don't pass the entire bill!"