Republicans Will Be Toast in 2010 If the Dems Pass Health Reform, and They Know It

[dreamdancer 0]

time for tea and toast...

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If President Barack Obama succeeds in signing a major health care reform bill into law -- one that provides a public plan for people currently priced out of the system -- he will achieve what at least three presidents before him had hoped for, and failed to do. And he will likely deprive the Republican minority in Congress from anything approaching a comeback in the 2010 midterm elections.

However, if health care reform does not pass early in Obama's term, the Democrats will likely face midterm elections amid rising unemployment figures with a record of having passed legislation characterized as "bailouts" for megabanks and large corporations -- bills whose benefits to the economy have little impact on the person who has already lost a job. So GOP leaders are focused like a laser beam on stopping health-care reform in its tracks.

As Congress cleared two major hurdles last week toward agreement on the provisions in such a bill, the Republican pique approached a new level of shrillness.

Just as two committees in the House of Representatives passed a jointly crafted bill for a future floor vote, and an important Senate committee passed a version that is reconcilable with the House bill, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., showed the GOP hand. On a conference call with a group of right-wing operatives, according to Politco's Ben Smith, DeMint said, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." (He was talking to members of Conservatives for Patients' Rights, some of the people sponsoring those right-wing tea-bag protests.)

Appearing on Meet the Press on Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., backpedaled a bit when confronted with DeMint's comments. "Look, my goal is not to stop the president," McConnell told host David Gregory. "My goal is to get the right kind of health care for America. And the direction in which the president and the majority in the House and Senate want to take this is the wrong direction. What we hope to do is to have enough time here for people to truly understand what's going on."

By "enough time," what McConnell really meant, say many observers, was "enough time" to kill the bill.

http://www.alternet.org/politics/141440/republicans_will_be_toast_in_2010_if_the_dems_pass_health_reform%2C_and_they_know_it/

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
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good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[mnealtx 0]

Didn't even read the post, but with THAT title, it's GOT to be from alternatereality.com ....

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[billvon 3,120]

>but with THAT title, it's GOT to be from alternatereality.com ....

Or newsmax.com. Apparently other republicans agree that it's all about their political survival. Jim DeMint: "If we're to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

At least they're not pretending it's about healthcare any more. Now it's about political survival for the republicans.

[mnealtx 0]

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Now it's about political survival for the republicans.

Funny, that's not what the comments from the gentlemen in the article say - putting words in THEIR mouths too, Bill?

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[billvon 3,120]

>that's not what the comments from the gentlemen in the article say . . .

Right, that's just what Jim DeMint says.

>putting words in THEIR mouths too, Bill?

Unless I have some mystical control over DeMint's mouth, nope.

[kelpdiver 2]

Funny - I suspect quite the opposite - that if the Democrats do pass a trillion dollar (+ any other real costs) health plan that includes new taxes and no improvement, or a loss in health care to the large majority that are currently covered.....this would bring the GOP back to life.

Right now the party is dead and fairly pathetic in leadership. The easiest way back to viability is a new universally disliked program, and health care reform is one of them. In the long term, it may work out well, but I don't think a short term that isn't ugly, and voters are historically very short minded.

[lawrocket 3]

I don't belief that Obama and Democratic Congress have learned lessons from history. They need look back only 15 years to the first two years of Clinton's presidency. If you recall, new President Clinton had youth, ambition, and a friendly Congress. He launched a series of new initiatives and tried to drive them through.

It resulted in disaster in the 1994 congressional elections.

I can say that I am alarmed by the nature and extent of the new initiatives and reforms going through this Congress. I am more concerned with the speed of these new laws going through Congress.

There is risk on both sides. Saying the GOP is "toast" is funny because they were turned officially crispy in November 08.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[mnealtx 0]

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>that's not what the comments from the gentlemen in the article say . . .

Right, that's just what Jim DeMint says.

>putting words in THEIR mouths too, Bill?

Unless I have some mystical control over DeMint's mouth, nope.

Well, let's re-visit the article, then:

Quote

Just as two committees in the House of Representatives passed a jointly crafted bill for a future floor vote, and an important Senate committee passed a version that is reconcilable with the House bill, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., showed the GOP hand. On a conference call with a group of right-wing operatives, according to Politco's Ben Smith, DeMint said, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

Must be the "Republican Mandatory Majority in 2010" bill, I suppose. Oddly enough, I can't seem to find that on thomas.loc.gov... can you give me a link?

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[billvon 3,120]

>Must be the "Republican Mandatory Majority in 2010" bill, I suppose. Oddly
>enough, I can't seem to find that on thomas.loc.gov... can you give me a link?

Sure! You can find that on www.mnealStrawMen.com. A popular site; I know you enjoy it.

[mnealtx 0]

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>Must be the "Republican Mandatory Majority in 2010" bill, I suppose. Oddly
>enough, I can't seem to find that on thomas.loc.gov... can you give me a link?

Sure! You can find that on www.mnealStrawMen.com. A popular site; I know you enjoy it.

It's ok, Bill - I know you get a bit testy when you get caught in a fib - do you need me to edit my other post?

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[billvon 3,120]

>It's ok, Bill - I know you get a bit testy when you get caught in a fib . . .

Sorry I'm not agreeing with your strawman! Apologize for me the next time you see him.

[mnealtx 0]

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>It's ok, Bill - I know you get a bit testy when you get caught in a fib . . .

Sorry I'm not agreeing with your strawman! Apologize for me the next time you see him.

NP, Bill - like I said, *I* don't have a problem with your lying, I just wanted to make sure that wasn't what you were getting testy about.

BTW - when you figure out just HOW I misrepresented your insistance that a comment about a spending bill in Congress is actually a comment about the 2010 elections (what you're basing your 'strawman' claim on), let me know - I want to send it in to "Amazing Stories".

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[brenthutch 444]

When a democratic presedent (Johnson) had a democratic congress they passed medicare and got creamed in the off year election.

[FallingOsh 0]

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Funny - I suspect quite the opposite - that if the Democrats do pass a trillion dollar (+ any other real costs) health plan that includes new taxes and no improvement, or a loss in health care to the large majority that are currently covered.....this would bring the GOP back to life.

Right now the party is dead and fairly pathetic in leadership. The easiest way back to viability is a new universally disliked program, and health care reform is one of them. In the long term, it may work out well, but I don't think a short term that isn't ugly, and voters are historically very short minded.

+1

Currently, a majority of Americans oppose Obama's healthcare reform (albeit a small margin). Simple passage of the bill wouldn't make anyone toast. Rushing another massive spending bill through congress just because "we won" and they can will be nothing but helpful for the right.

--------------------------------------------------
Stay positive and love your life.

[pirana 0]

Quote

Funny - I suspect quite the opposite - that if the Democrats do pass a trillion dollar (+ any other real costs) health plan that includes new taxes and no improvement, or a loss in health care to the large majority that are currently covered.....this would bring the GOP back to life.

Right now the party is dead and fairly pathetic in leadership. The easiest way back to viability is a new universally disliked program, and health care reform is one of them. In the long term, it may work out well, but I don't think a short term that isn't ugly, and voters are historically very short minded.

They are all a bunch of self-serving fucks. If they do not get serious about economic reform as a whole (maybe treating the cost of health care as a subset of that) we are all gonna be toast soon - like when our nation's debt surpasses it's assets; or gets close enough that we can be bought for pennies on the dollar by someone holding our notes.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley