Healthcare Summit Live Special - Page 2
12:30 p.m.
I completely agree with Sen. McCain when he discusses why the process behind the creation of the healthcare bill is the main reason why people don't have any faith in it. He is also right to talk about how the president broke promises of change, and I love how he kept the president from interrupting him. Unfortunately, I fail to see how this is going to help at all. The Democrats will not budge on this, and they've made that abundantly clear; they will not start over, regardless of how much they absolutely should.
12:32 p.m.
Is the president going to accuse every single Republican of making talking points? Sigh.
12:36 p.m.
Hooray, Ms. Sibelius. Talking about consumer protection is absolutely the right way to talk about insurance reform. People should choose insurance companies, and insurance companies shouldn't be choosing people. I'm a believer there, but you shouldn't have spent five minutes gushing over President Obama.
12:45 p.m.
Rep. Cantor is showing his fangs, but he's addressing very real concerns over keeping current coverage, taxes, and how the bill is supposed to bring costs down. And again, the president is accusing him of making talking points. We're fast approaching gridlock here, and President Obama knows it. You can see him getting mad, and you can see the Republicans giving up. If we want to move forward, we absolutely have to start over, but the Democrats' refusal to even consider the possibility of maybe thinking about it is one of the causes of this gridlock.
12:50 p.m.
I'm glad Rep. Cantor has brought up the mandatory insurance requirement, but he needs to shut up. He's not a good speaker for the conservative side, and he's just causing the Democrats to raise their backs in defense. Seriously, shut up and let somebody much calmer speak.
12:58 p.m.
Rep. Slaughter appears to be right that everybody agrees that denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions has to stop. Why can't we just pass a law that does that, and then move on to the next issue? This is the Republican side of the argument: find common ground on each individual piece, pass each piece in short, simple bills, and then move on. We don't need a big huge bill nobody can read in order to cover everything all at once. (And, sigh, here we go: Rep. Slaughter has yet another sob story.)
1:00 p.m.
Thank God. A break. See you in 45 minutes.
1:58 p.m.
While I wait for them to start back up again, here is my impression: the Democrats want us to believe that they don't disagree much with the Republicans and that something has to be done right this second or people are going to be dying in the streets. How this can be anything but a precursor to reconciliation is beyond me. The Republicans have come here with a very specific message too: we have to start over and do this incrementally. Neither side is going to convince the other, methinks, and this whole summit will end in failure. But I'm not giving up. Here we go for the second half.
2:09 p.m.
Yep. Senator Tom Harkin is following the Democrat outline verbatim. 1) State that Republicans and Democrats have more common ground than don't. 2) Read a sad story about people who are being hurt by the current system. 3) Imply that something has to be done right now, but don't offer many specifics. 4) Don't have the president accuse you of making talking points.
2:15 p.m.
Senator Harkin is absolutely wrong. This can be done incrementally. It's not that hard, and the whole package doesn't depend on its individual parts. Absolutely wrong. Now what the hell is he doing talking about segregation?! Is he really pulling the race card?! Do Republicans disagree that we should remove pre-existing conditions from insurance? I really hope Senator Harkin shuts up soon. What a douche.
2:18 p.m.
Thank you, Rep. Camp, for putting the individual mandate front and center. Now watch as the Democrats completely sidestep that issue.
2:19 p.m.
President Obama: "I want to go back to what Senator Harkin was talking about." Yep, told you so.
2:23 p.m.
Yeah, Mr. Camp, stick to your guns! Too bad they're still ignoring the issue of the individual mandate. It's so transparent how much they're avoiding it!
2:25 p.m.
Fox News and CNN have both stopped showing the summit, and my Internet connection is too slow for a streaming video. I'm not sure if I can make it to the end under these conditions...
2:29 p.m.
Wow. Sen. Rockefeller is actually making the point that people can't be trusted to make their own decision about owning health insurance. That's how he justifies the individual mandate. Scary. I've rarely heard a Democrat be so frighteningly honest. You cannot be trusted to do something, so the government must mandate it, and "it's good public policy." Jesus.
2:35 p.m.
Rep. Blackburn is doing exactly what she should. Here's what's wrong, here's how the Republicans would solve it, and here's a bipartisan solution that might work. I totally agree that we have to allow people to buy insurance across state lines.
2:38 p.m.
I'm sorry, Mr. President, but I firmly believe that people should be allowed to choose whether or not to have their own healthcare. Forcing people to not have that choice is cutting into their liberty. I don't care how nice the water is in your friggin pool; people should still have the choice to stay out of it.
2:43 p.m.
Yeah, Joe, Social Security was mandated. Look how well that turned out. Good analogy.
2:46 p.m.
I'm really sick of the Democrats saying, "Well, that was a Republican idea." This is supposed to be a bipartisan summit, and we can't act bipartisan if we have to point out where each idea came from as if that matters. What should matter is whether or not it's a good idea, not where the idea came from.
2:48 p.m.
Arguing that they're not trying to cut Medicare but cut out all the waste and fraud is a tough sell. The government has never--NEVER--proven it can eliminate waste and fraud.
2:52 p.m.
Rep. Ryan: "This bill does not cut costs. This bill does not cut the deficit." *clap, clap, clap* He did that well. He agreed that healthcare reform is the best way to tackle budget reform, and then he offered that one-two punch, before calling the bill another entitlement on top of entitlements that are about to crash down on us. Right on, man!
2:55 p.m.
Dude. Paul Ryan for president!
-e. magill 2/25/2010
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