E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe individual mandate used to be the new black – even within Republican circles.
In the early 1990s, the conservative Heritage Foundation floated health care requirements similar to those that require drivers to get liability insurance. Republican Sen. John Chafee of Rhode Island put forward a GOP plan that would require all U.S. residents to be covered under a health plan except those exempted for religious reasons.
And several big thinkers who would be interested in running for president two decades later also liked the sound of it.
Heritage and other conservative bigs later pronounced the individual mandate unlawful and ineffective, and judicial scholars are now in the throes of debate over whether the requirement is even Constitutional under the Commerce Clause. But past Republican approval of the individual mandate – often phrased as a matter of ‘personal responsibility’ – planted the seeds of what is now playing out as an internecine struggle among Republicans eying the Oval Office.
Last week, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney used a lengthy speech and a PowerPoint presentation to explain his embrace of an individual mandate in the health care plan he signed into law in 2006. (Romney believes that such a mandate at the state level was appropriate under the 10th amendment, although his proposal to repeal and replace the Obama-passed law now would not involve a similar requirement.)
The requirement may cause headaches for Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels as well, if he decides to launch a presidential bid. On Thursday, the Huffington Post unearthed a 2003 newspaper article in which Daniels said he favored a “universal health care system” that would “make it mandatory for all Americans to have health insurance.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has faced the most sustained criticism on this point since Sunday, when he stated on NBC’s Meet the Press that “all of us have a responsibility to help pay for health care.” Gingrich made the comment after host David Gregory showed a clip from 1993 in which Gingrich said he was for a plan “exactly like automobile insurance – individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance.”
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh challenged Gingrich on Thursday to explain those and subsequent comments that have been supportive of the requirement that almost all U.S. residents buy health insurance.
The former Speaker responded that the Republican party has gone through “a long evolution” on the subject since the early 1990s.
“In 1993, we were narrowly focused on trying to beat the Hillarycare project,” he said in reference to the Clinton-backed health care overhaul that ultimately disintegrated in Congress. “We weren’t thinking fundamentally about resetting the country.”
Gingrich says now that he opposes mandates at the state and the federal level.
“I do not believe any state should adopt a mandate,” he said. “I think there are ways to solve the problem without a mandate. But we’re trying to solve three things: Preserve American freedom, ensure that people can have health care, and have some sense of responsibility that if you do get health care, you ought to pay for it.”
Gingrich pushes back on Ryan reference
On Limbaugh’s radio program, Gingrich also pushed back at the notion that he linked Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan to “right-wing social engineering” – a phrase he uttered on Meet the Press that later prompted the former Speaker to call Ryan personally to apologize.
“It was not a reference to Paul Ryan,” Gingrich said. “There was no reference to Paul Ryan in that answer."
Here’s the transcript to the portion of the Meet the Press interview:
MR. GREGORY: What about entitlements? The Medicare trust fund, in stories that have come out over the weekend, is now going to be depleted by 2024, five years earlier than predicted. Do you think that Republicans ought to buck the public opposition and really move forward to completely change Medicare, turn it into a voucher program where you give seniors...
REP. GINGRICH: Right.
MR. GREGORY: ...some premium support and--so that they can go out and buy private insurance?
REP. GINGRICH: I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate. I think we need a national conversation to get to a better Medicare system with more choices for seniors. But there are specific things you can do. At the Center for Health Transformation, which I helped found, we published a book called "Stop Paying the Crooks." We thought that was a clear enough, simple enough idea, even for Washington. We--between Medicare and Medicaid, we pay between $70 billion and $120 billion a year to crooks. And IBM has agreed to help solve it, American Express has agreed to help solve it, Visa's agreed to help solve it. You can't get anybody in this town to look at it. That's, that's almost $1 trillion over a decade. So there are things you can do to improve Medicare.
MR. GREGORY: But not what Paul Ryan is suggesting, which is completely changing Medicare.
REP. GINGRICH: I, I think that, I think, I think that that is too big a jump. I think what you want to have is a system where people voluntarily migrate to better outcomes, better solutions, better options, not one where you suddenly impose upon the--I don't want to--I'm against Obamacare, which is imposing radical change, and I would be against a conservative imposing radical change.
Leave a Comment:
There's NO stuffing that genie back into the bottle! LMAO!
Quite the qaugmire they're in... NO?
Feisty, the Repubs don't like mandates......but, but....only if its right wing like Ryans Bill!
Some sad news.....Boss Hogg's (Barbour) house is under water from the Mississippi River flooding! I know he won't be looking for or asking for Federal help...ya' know, personal responsibility and all.
Prayers to ALL others in the path of the overflowing Mighty Mississippi!
Actually, since the Republican party has been hijacked by the vermin tea baggers, anything said in the 1990s by the Republicans is null and void, as evidenced by how quickly the teabag vermin thru Newtie under the bus.
Uh, just like stuff that Obama pledged in 2008 has been declared null and void, huh?.... you know, like ending all of the wars and all that.
Spider, stop deflecting and talk about the contents of the article. I am sure there are vines about Obama you can sound off in. Stay on topic please.
Japan can rebuild their country after the earthquake for 100 billion dollars. We set aside 104 billion just to implement the health care reform How can anybody defend that POS? The individual mandate could possibly be OK but the whole package that they passed is pure BS. It did nothing to reduce the cost of health care and that is what our President said he wanted to do. Another line of BS from him.
Go ahead and keep demonizing everyone that dislikes the reform but when and if it gets implemented watch out. There is a reason our President doesn't want it to be implemented until after he is out of office. It is a disaster.
The elected repukes are a bunch of hypocrites,they only care about the bottom line,and that's profit and protecting their cronies interests in the private heath care field and shady deals to go with that,health-care should be a right not a privilege!
Republicans always punish each other if one Republican catches the other telling the truth.
I don't even like Gingrich but I gotta say, boy oh boy they slapped the crap out of poopie pants Gingrich for that zinger.
Carrie Dann, congratulations! You win the prize for writing one of the most convoluted, partisan, ridiculous articles this year. For one thing what is the above story lead saying? This is a very racist remark and inappropriate.
Secondly, you seem to want to blame Obamacare and it's lack of popularity on republicans. This bill was entirely democratic....individual mandate and all.
Your comparison to the requirement to obtain liability insurance for drivers failed to mention that is a state mandate, not federal (much like what Romney said). There is little comparison between the two mandates. People can choose to drive. If they do, they do have a financial responsiblity to cover the losses they cause to a third party, which is the premise of auto liability coverage.
As far as a relation to the Commerce Clause and application to the constitutionality of Obamacare, if you do a little journalistic research you may find a relationship to the passage of the Social Security Act and how it got past the Supreme Court. Social Security was challanged constitutionally on it's mandatory participation. The final ruling found that because employment was optional, participation was as well. The last I checked the only option that someone subject to Obamacare's individual mandate is to be alive.
I do agree that everyone that wishes to have healthcare be required to have health insurance. If they do not, they do not get healthcare....or if they do go to the hospital without insurance, they are subject to legal fines and penalties as well as the cost of all care. That is how auto insurance works. It may sound brutal, but it is a matter of personal responsibility.
Instead of using your journalistic position to try and twist your politics and manipulate the reader, why not examine cause and effect. Such as "Why the Individual Mandate is not severable from HCR"
Carrie Dann please get some integrity.
TO: JH-479998 who wrote:
“Japan can rebuild their country after the earthquake for 100 billion dollars. We set aside 104 billion just to implement the health care reform. How can anybody defend that POS…”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You should read the article. It says HCR is the same health care that Republicans proposed back in 1994, which tells EVERYBODY that what’s coming from Republicans is a pack OS, and what we’re seeing is nothing but a bunch of false outrage coming from the same people who previously approved HCR in its current form.
It also tells a whole lot of us that we were right in the first place, that some wackos are forcing failure upon America for no other reason than because we have our 1st Black President, and Republicans would sacrifice their own lives to try to force failure on the American people so that they can put false blame on the POTUS.
Sick, sick, sick.
Joe, as to "the new black", that is a fashion statement, all women know this. As in every woman has to have that one black dress. To the healthcare issue, a single payer system is the only way to significantly cut costs. People of means could always buy cadillac plans to buy more coverage or better doctors, private rooms with personal nurses if they so choose. The insurance companies would love to sell those "high end" policies. Then we could get close to healthcare for all, which would be moral and right for all.
Who can ever forget Tracy Morgan on SNL & his 'Black is the new President
b!tch"? LMAO!
Grab some *popcorn* and laugh your a@@ off!
Only in your own mind Feisty Troglodyte, only in your own mind. Why not wait it out and see how this turns out with people who care? Unfortunately, that may not be you.
Ok I'll bite....let's see if you just are parroting liberal talking points or have a real idea here. Please tell us, how will a single payer system significantly cut costs?
OK Michelle, I am like Joe. I would also like to see how a single payer system will cut costs. The British and other European countries have a single pay system......is it working for them? Is the plan the Canadians have work or do some come here to pay out of pocket for services not available in Canada?
What would be the single payer cost, and what services are available?
spidey
I always like to give you more credit then I guess is due...
#1.3
you say Obama null and void "like end the wars and all"....
as smart as I know you are - you will provide a link won't you where in the 2008 campaign Obama said "he would end the war in AF"?
Gingerich probably will not get the nomination because of his foot-in-mouth disease. Back in the days of Hillary care proposal, the republicans said that the only way a system would work is if there was a "mandate". This does not mean they were actually fully for such a mandate. They were informed by several legal groups that anything called a mandate to purchase insurance would be "unconstitutional". Once this was agreed to be "unconstitutional" they dropped mandates and moved on.
Right now I'm seeing that the "dissention" or "disarray" being reported is them having a public dialogue - instead of making such decisions behind closed doors in smoke filled rooms without public input.
The problem is that without a mandate requiring insurance, the rest of Obamacare falls apart. Please read Judge Vinson's conclusion on this (it starts about page 60)
http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/JDAS-8DMNTD/$file/VinsonRuling1312011.pdf
HCR sets several standards. The first being that all health insurance be guaranteed to issue. In other words, a health insurer cannot deny an application due to any condition. The second standard is that the prexisiting condition clause be waived. Translated this means that an insurer cannot deny paying a claim for a condition that existed at the time of application for coverage.
Without a mandate that everyone have insurance, there is nothing to prevent someone from waiting until they have a condition to purchase insurance. Because of the waiver of prex and the guaranteed to issue standards, an insurer would have to accept the applicant and pay all medical bills.
This would allow for someone to buy insurance for only the time period they received treatment. This alone would collapse the system (regardless of single payer or private insurance).
Look at it financially. Let's say the premium was $300/month for John Doe. John decides not to spend the $300 and goes uninsured. John then notices a lump. John buys insurance and pays $300 and seeks treatment. Let's say the treatments last 6 months and cost $50,000. John is released from care and quits paying his premium. The insurance company took in $1,800 in premiums and paid out $50,000. Multiply this discrepency of premium paid versus claims paid by millions.
So while legislators realize (along with Judge Vinson) that healthcare is in need of reform, the mandate is unconstitutional in that congress does not have the authority to mandate everyone comply with the purchasing of coverage.
I'm not a Gingritch fan myself, but even Obama reversed himself on this:
From Judge Vinson's ruling:
I note that in 2008, then-Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include an individual mandate because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating that "if a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house.”
See Interview on CNN’s American Morning, Feb. 5, 2008, transcript available at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0802/05/ltm.02.html.
In fact, he pointed to the similar individual mandate in Massachusetts --- which was imposed under the state’s police power, a power the federal government does not have --- and opined that the mandate there left some residents “worse off” than they had been before. See Christopher Lee, Simple Question Defines Complex Health Debate, Washington Post, Feb. 24, 2008, at A10
(quoting Senator Obama as saying: "In some cases, there are people [in Massachusetts] who are paying fines and still can't afford [health insurance], so now they're worse off than they were . . . They don't have health insurance, and they're paying a fine . . .”).
"Actually, since the Republican party has been hijacked by the vermin tea baggers, anything said in the 1990s by the Republicans is null and void" - RedDev
The Republican party has been hijacked by NO-ONE. Paul Ryan and the others like him are merely stating the long-held Republican positions in a little more forceful manner. It is still mainstream republicanism whether you like it or not. Get used to it RedDev, or get out of our Party.
hey kent, i voted republican all the way back to reagan. I'M OUT, I'll vote straight dem 2012
Kent
"or get out of our Party"....
by the looks of things Kent.....you won't need to request people to leave the GOP....they'll do it on their own!
get used to it!
Joe, that is the whole thing that is wrong with your comparison of auto insurance. Right NOW, if they don't have health insurance, they use the ER as their family doctor. Hospitals pass it on to us with insurance. The Reps will NEVER do as you say and refuse service and have penalties, etc.
I really can't wait until the Reps start trying to dismantle HCR. THEY are going to be the ones telling the old folks they are losing their doughnut hole coverage. Then they will tell us that they are taking away SS with vouchers... Oh THAT is going to go over BIG.... There are many other parts of HCR that have taken affect and I pitty the fool who starts taking them away.... go Obama in '12. Getting easier every day.
According to the Tea Bag "Truth Fairy"????
Just make stuff up, talk out of both sides of our mouth, and generally make an arse of yourself? No valid source, just spouting off like a 2 year old throwing a tantrum?
Ha ha ha ha ha!!
And remember folks, "The right is: Always Wrong for all the Right reasons!
Except for the ones who really know what is up, who are going to profit from taxpaying honest Americans. It almost seems as though the average person who supports these crooks thinks this is some kind of "My dad can beat up your dad" "My favorite sports team can beat your favorite sports team" kind of foolish pissing contest. Like they have no concept of reality. Are they really that ignorant? If so, I truly do pity them all. This has nothing what so ever to do with who's better than who, and everything to do with the difference between who is decent and who is going to stick it to them. How do they not get it? Oh well; you can't force them to see it for what it really is.
Anyway, Ging"Grinch" is all a tizzy, and it's wonderful to see him squirming like a Nazi War Criminal (Is there any difference between the two?) (That was a rhetorical question). Mommy, "What does rhetorical mean?" "It means the evil democrats are going to get you!" Is this how their minds get poisoned? It's not a contest! It's not about who is smarter than a 5th grader! It's about decency, fairness, earning an honest living. It's about the best qualities of human kind.... I'm talking to a brick wall, aren't I?
I think I am going to go have a Tea Party!!!!
Ha ha the witch is dead!
Party on Newt!
As usual, partisan nonsense from msnbc and feisty.
I can't wait to hear how the left spins the 1,000+ waivers already given for Obamacare, with most of Obamacare not yet in play. And that nearly 20% of the waivers last month were given to folks in Nancy Pelosi's district.
What steaming pile of crap is Obamacare, when the former Speaker who foisted this on us all is running away from it in her own region?
What a bunch of two-faced lying, scum.
Fiesty, loved that clip! Boys, single payer would have the clout to beat up the drug companies, the hospitals, set standards for care and what they should cost. I have a dear friend from Canada, whose husband had two knee replacements last year, at a cost of $100. each. He had to wait 6 months to get it done, but he's out walking the dog everyday now, and he is smiling. The Rethugs paint a picture of other countries without knowing how those countries, with better care than we have, pity us for what we don't do for our citizens. They laugh at us and would never give up their good, affordable healthcare. And when my friend John needed bypass surgery, he was taken in immediately. They prioritize care, and it works. The bigger the "buyer", the more clout they have.
You keep on posting the buillsh!t and I'll keep on making a fool out of YOU! ;o)
There was considerable back and forth yesterday, along with the customary chest pounding demanding to know WHY MSNBC wasn’t covering the latest rumor about Nancy Pelosi’s district receiving HCR waivers.
It started with a ‘breaking story’ in the Daily Caller – LMAO – and was quickly snapped up by the crowd over at Fox & Noise…
Not one person who was contacted at the establishments listed confirmed the
allegations, then again, FACTS be damned….
But, by golly, the gullible guppies were swallowing this ‘whopper’ hook, line &
sinker!
Then I ran across this noteworthy article last night:
GAME OVER Teapublicans!!! LOL
Life is ALWAYS delightful in ConservatiVille, Land of the Gullible and Home of the Afraid!
Feisty -- Good job. I saw Paul F's post and started to fisk it. The Daily Caller is a neoconservative ideology website (along with NewsMax, WorldNetDaily, Free Republic, Drudge, etc.).
Paul F & Co., I never reference Huffington Post, Daily Beast, or other sources biased to the left, because such bias makes sources less credible. Why can't you right-wingers get information from reliable mainstream news agencies, you know with lawyers and journalistic standards, and reputation to protect, that will at least retract something reported in error.
Conservatives don't understand what a credible source is (hint, it isn't a Viral E-mail with unknown origination). And worse, because the misinformation (lie) is then repeated in the conservative Echo Chamber it is almost impossible to ever correct it. This is why many conservatives still believe Saddam attacked us on 9-11!
Further to this point, you may note that Sarah Palin was one of the perpetrators of this misinformation. Palin and Bachmann are notorious for this kind of chicken crap, and then wonder why sane people in this country don't take them seriously. They think they are qualified to be President, seriously?
So when does the author permanently ban the foul=mouthed bimbo from Illinois??
" On Thursday, the Huffington Post unearthed a 2003 newspaper article in which Daniels said he favored a “universal health care system” that would “make it mandatory for all Americans to have health insurance.”
(tee-hee, *snicker*)
And another one bites the dust.
It looks like this might be a fun presidential campaign after all, especially with all the Repukes prepared to attack Obamacare which turns out to be the old Republican health care plan. What a fantastic strategy Mr. President. He caught them cold and forced them to flip flop on their own HCR plan.
Genius Mr. President. Pure Genius.
American Girl - that's because President Obama is pure genius! At least compared to the Republicans!
Hilarious! Great post! Your are a true "American Girl"!
“In 1993, we were narrowly focused on trying to beat the Hillarycare project,” he said in reference to the Clinton-backed health care overhaul that ultimately disintegrated in Congress. “We weren’t thinking fundamentally about resetting the country.”
Translation: "we didn't give one single sh*t about our citizens, and what might benefit them most- we just wanted to play politics above all else!".
They never think about the country (especially in the last two years), it is only, EVER, about defeating the Democrats no matter what price the average American citizen has to pay.
Obama in 2012!
It doesn't seem as though Republican politicians consider the American People to be part of America. The only people Republicans will even address are the rich, which puzzles me as to why any average American would even think about voting Republican while the GOP works hard against us.
Curious.
I have to agree, especially when Republican politicians have admitted that their only reason for living is to ensure that Obama is a one-term president. We, the American people are collateral damage and "acceptable" loses.
MCCONNELL: The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president....... this is the only true statement from the republicans in the last decade,
No surprise here-----------As McConnell stated----------------REPUBLICANS #1 PRIORITY-------(#1 NOT #2 or #3)------------is to make President Obama a 1 term president!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ONE WOULD THINK THAT THE #1 PRIORITY FOR EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN WOULD BE TO GET THIS COUNTRY OUT OF THE MESS WE ARE IN!
I plan to continue to post the reminder of his statement thru the 2012 election as it is a clear example of what these disgusting people care about----it sure as hell is not this country!
what average republicans (not rich or wealthy) don't get is that politicans need us, the public, to get them in office. they'll use your hatred, your inability to get a job, a house, a car, they'll scare you about people of other color; but once in office, they work for corporations and screw the masses.
i'm sure the dem's are the same, look at feinstein, nelson, brown, kobuchar, etc., who have voted against the public - dig a bit and you'll see a corporation waiving money for their district, but, at least they are not in your face, let's make a law to shank the public.
there is a lesser of the two evils...unless you make $250k or more, there is no reason to vote republican
I think it is really odd myself, as I've seen a lot of college republicans and even many of my friends are republican. I always ask them "Why?" They have this strange belief that there is no more injustice in the world and everything is fair and balanced, so therefore by their logic a party against any change is only keeping things "right". Any change is seen as an imbalance due to that delusion, so that means any gains for anyone outside of the rich status quo (who are visibly receiving gains and have for years so it is already established) are seen as dangerous to them. They honestly think this party believes they are important, and will invest in their future.
They don't realize that the only kids that the people on top of the Republican party care about are the ones who's parents can afford to buy them a ticket to Yale. They don't care about the average person trying to make ends meet. They just cultivate that person's fears and insecurities and confuse them by saying they need to take personal responsibility by blaming someone else for their "failures". They've just had this Rand-Republican mantra thrown in their face for years and they actually think that is the way life works. They don't realize they're being used.
Let them continue to eat one another. Gingrich is sunk for telling the truth. That in teabagger land is a cardinal sin.
Actually, the sin is crossing Rush Limbaugh. Or are those two things the same? ;-)
as someone who knows the guys in incubus really well, i absolutely love your name.
Every opportunity they get, the Democrats need to hammer the Republicans over the head about their unprincipled flip-flop on the individual mandate. There had better be plenty of campaign ads about it, along with the ads about the Repubs' plan to kill Medicare. If the Repubs win the 2012 trifecta (the Senate, House and Presidency), I strongly suspect that they will not only kill Medicare for people under 55, but also slash benefits for seniors currently on the program. I may have heard it wrong, but Lawrence O'Donnell seemed to be saying last night that Tom Coburn walked out of the "Gang of Six" because the Democrats refused to take big cuts in such current benefits for seniors.
$130 million in cuts and much of it to current social security recipients. When will Coburn cut his wages, pension and benefits? If I have to take a cut in benefits, so does he.
You heard correctly Houston,
Lawrence O said that Coburn walked out when Shumer said NO to big cuts in MEDICARE for current beneficiaries.
It seems that Coburn needed an out, and took that extreme way to do it. Perhaps he has to prepare for a 'court appearance'! lol
chilled
I guess I just had trouble believing my own ears. I still have trouble comprehending how the Republicans have become so extreme and so suicidal that they would mess with the benefits of people already in the program. Their eagerness to put things back the way they were before Franklin Roosevelt took office is amazing.
TO: Houston! who wrote:
"I strongly suspect that they will not only kill Medicare for people under 55, but also slash benefits for seniors currently on the program."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You surely do have that perfectly correct!
The Republicans will set us up, just like they did with Iraq, and ask for a little authority and once they get a tiny bit of approval, will misuse it to take over Social Security and rob us all of our retirement money while they laugh in our faces reminding us that that is EXACTLY what they told us they were going to do, and we somehow approved it.
One thing I do love about Democrats, we catch on pretty darn well, and we learn pretty darn fast.
What the Republicans would really love to do, is turn the whole system over to private industry. Then a few years down the road make it a mandate that we all have to buy from the private industry that can set prices and services how they see fit.
Then you will see prices sky rocket!! They have to buy from us... hmmm... lets raise premiums 20% this year.
Psst! Don't tell the republicans this. Do you happen to know what segment of the population is growing the fastest?
Hey Tea Brains out there in whatever fantasy realm you dwell in!
Big news story! The American People, now knowing what you are, want as much to do with you as they would with the plague! Goodbye and good riddance to you all! Have a nice trip back to N. Korea!
Same thing they have been doing to the American people since Nixon deregulated (The only word they like) oil prices to increase exploration and increase competition (And so it began). Then along comes the second anti Christ: Reagan and his trickle up economics and more deregulation that only created more monopolies, (Reagan, Bush, and GW) contributed 10.4 Trillion dollars to the current National Debt; GW is responsible for 6.7 Trillion of it. Source: US Treasury.gov. (The right wingers think the US Treasury is a liberal bank because it liberally doles out trillions for them) Then came the third anti Christ: "Read my lips, no new taxes!", and more deregulation, trickle up economics. And finally cometh the fourth and mightiest anti Christ of them all, that's right, dipstick! G.W. Bush. The most crooked president in U.S. History! And that was no easy task! But he "Got'er Done!", having learned his craft in the school of Texas dirty politics, and his corrupt family backing him! And more trickle up economics, more deregulation (It's their favorite word!)(That and tax cuts for the Rich!), and the greatest economic catastrophe in world history! Of course "It's the Democrats fault!" Now they are trying to spin it back on the democrats. They are the worst thing that has ever happened to this country; Period! They have wreaked more destruction than all foreign and domestic enemies ever dreamed of! The scale of the damage is mind boggling.
So they dump this big pile of "Stuff" on Obama and expect him to help us climb out of it in a couple of days. Give me an freaking break. The last time they did this (1929 for all the G W's out there), it took until just prior to the outbreak of war with Japan (December 7th, 1941 for the G. W.s out there), in the spring of 1941 before the damage was finally overcome. Let's do the math, oh my that was 12 years. Little history: There have been 7 economic depressions in US history (8 if you count the current one), and take wild guess what party had been in power when each one occurred. Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! That's right, it was the republicrap party. Coincidence? I don't believe that for a New York second! Yup, we have to live with severe consequences and suffering when "we" the voter get it wrong.(By the way; let's all give a special thank you to those who voted the repulicrap party in, and brought on the suffering! (Can you idiots see me giving you the finger with both hands! You freaking morons!!!!) Choose wisely! Personally; I would vote Independent or Democrat every single time. I don't want to get screwed blind anymore.
Houston-----------------------tim pawlenty (or was it rick santorum? doesnt matter- ones the same as the other) has alresdy said that cuts to medicare and medicaid should include everyone including those over 55! so your statement is spot on abd the American people need to be reminded of this thru the election period!!!!!
I was for it before I was against it! Typical politician rhetoric. Give the man an empty pop can and let him kick it down the road.
The only reason republicans are against the individual mandate today is simply because it was part of President Obama's Health Care Reform and they just cannot stand to support anything he does. The GOP made sure their supporters hated and were afraid of it with death panels and government take-over lies. GOPTP legislators have excellent health care. The Affordable Health Care Act was modeled after both it and RomneyCare--yet they could not bring themselves to allow the American people the same thing they have. Selfish, petty, and they purposely lied to the people who pay their wages.
Jody, I think it also has a lot to do with the fact that Democrat President Bill Clinton was also a huge success and is still very much loved around the world.
The GOP was just sick with jealousy over Bill Clinton, now we have another successful Democratic President Obama, who they've also tried to hold back.
Have you noticed that the GOP could care LESS about jobs for the American People.
The GOP is just sick with jealousy, envy, and hatred towards their fellow Americans, especially since President Obama got Osama Bin Laden.
Actually President Obama is systematically parting out America until it is completely in pieces. By increasing the debt ceiling, borrowing more money, sinking America's dollar farther, Increasing spending while less tax dollars are coming in, ruining relationships with key allies, etc, etc, etc!!! It's his personal plan to ruin this country. It must be, because you say O is "successful", and by definition he must then, be doing something well. The only thing he's doing well is Ruining this country. And to be "PERFECTLY CLEAR" it's NOT because he's black. It's because he has a guilt/loss complex. Really he feels connected to Kenya and sees the poor and suffering that goes on there. He's satisfying a Deep rooted need for therapy by which bringing America down he's relieving the guilt of growing up in this great country but feeling undeserving. It's sad really but we Americans just have to live with it for another year and a half. If his daddy hadn't left him and got back to Kenya he wouldn't be like this. Think About it!!! ???
It's not Obama that held unemployment comp hostage to the Bush tax cuts. He may be as corporatist as any other right winger, but even he is not stupid enough to believe that cutting revenue will increase revenue.
Trickle down doesn't work, unless your goal is to send millions of people into poverty and destroy the infrastructure of the country through neglect. The idea that the wealthy invest that extra tax dollars into job creating business has been proved wrong by 30 years of continually lowering taxes.
When I was born, the marginal tax rate $400k (2.8 MILLION in 2010 $$) a year was NINETY ONE percent. The country enjoyed what may have been the longest stretch of prosperity in it's history, which was broken by OPEC in 1973. Lowering taxes for the wealthy has just locked up that money in an economy that is based on circulation. Trickle down is an abject failure.
Tax the rich, spend the money on jobs - roads, parks, trains - the commons, and we will eventually pull out of the depression. Give it to a few of your rich buddies and the banks will own all the homes.
This is very simple to explain. if it comes from president obama, republicans are going to oppose it. even if it means they flip from their previous thoughts. there are many things that this president has done, that republicans were championing a few years ago. example, they were all in favor of making permant the R & D tax credit. now the president said lets do it, republican call it govt spending.
however if obama say the sky is blue, republicans would say it is red. they are shameless in their effort to discredit this president. i guess we are going to continue to hear this for another term of his presidency.
It is going to turn out that all of the republicans were for it before the democrats put if forward as an idea and then they were against it. Bunch of hypocrites.
LoL See my post below. I believe Rachel reported on that the other night.
I personally LOVE the revelation that all of these idiots were for mandates before they were against them, and in order to keep their base from finding this out, they have to destroy one of their own icons. So sweet.
The fringe benefit of this it that I guess it pretty much vitiates any claim by the republicans that Gingrich was responsible in some way for prosperity during the Clinton administration.
They're talking on Hardball right now about how surprising it is that the savvy Newt has stumbled so badly here. But he was savvy before Rush Limbaugh emerged. Apparently he didn't account for that.
Which is another reason why Newt is not qualified to be president. Not to mention why Limbaugh is not qualified to be a human being.
^5 re: Limbaugh, Molly.
limpballs-------------can you say draft dodging, drug addict???????
They have all kinds of problems like this because its one thing to sell crazy ideas when campaigning, and another thing to deliver on crazy after you win.
And crazy is the one thing they do best. ;-)
I believe the Republican/Tea Party is very fond of what Forrest Gump said, "Stupid is as Stupid does."
Crazy is as crazy does.
E from minneapolis: I think you and Fiesty are reaching a bit. What some conservatives appeared to have thought about 18 years ago and what they think now, after Romney Care and Obama care are pretty far apart for valid reasons. I see no quagmire what-so-ever. Romney Care has almost bankrupted Mass. and Obama is passing out waivers like candy on Halloween.
It's more a matter of what they thought a week ago. And even if their last known comments in favor of the mandate were made long ago, a 180-degree change in position without any reasonable explanation is still an unprincipled flip-flop. Chuck Snake-in-the-Grassley did claim he turned against the mandate when he realized it was "unconstitutional" but he didn't explain why it was constitutional back in the '90s when he supported it but it isn't now. It seems the fact that we have a Democratic president has a lot to do with the mandate becoming unconstitutional.
Houston! Idiot. I just gave you 2 very good reasons. If the darn mandates are so great why is the Obama administration passing out all the waivers. Talk about a current flip-flop they just don't want to admit it.
Yeah, Jimbo, mankind has evolved past it's need for medical care in the last 18 years, so of course what the said then is obsolete now. What we need now is more Gamma-Rays to stay healthy!!! Sheesh, what a maroon!!! The waivers are temporary for those that can show they need more time for adjustment, kinda like what you need to let a little blood get to your brain occasionally, by adjusting the tourniquet that's around your neck! Oh, and another constitutional scholar now too, to boot!! You teabaggistanis really crack me up!!!
And a matter that universal coverage was proposed but the repubs demanded the individual mandate instead... now they are pissed it was included.
Jim-792457
Jimbo, Moron. You're reasons are bogus. First, Romneycare has NOT bankrupted Massachusetts, and second, none of the unprincipled flip-flopping Republicans have ever given that excuse or blathered like you do about Halloween candy. The reason they always cite is that the individual mandate is socialist tyranny. But it wasn't socialist tyranny when they proposed it back in the '90s or when Mitch Daniels favored it in 2003.
Some of the waivers are for unions, if those union employees are covered by an approved health and welfare or insurance plan.
The lying repugnicans have no shame and it is would be to the point of hilarity, if it was not so serious.
I agree with E, it does not matter what this man says they will vilify him. They know how successful FOX/PRAVDA is and so now they are lying their 'truth' on every air wave and cable channel there is on every subject there is. When the true election process gets underway, they will back that crap up with $2-$3 billion in citizens united money. Next the moronic sheeple will join the greedy corporate shills and the top 1%ers and take the house senate and white house.
human now we will have to switch plans blabber mouth.
The problem with being pathological liars, as the GOP is, is that it gets increasingly more difficult to keep track of your lies, and sooner or later you'll contradict yourself. It's not a problem, though, if your constituents can't remember past last week what you've said (or, frankly, they just don't care!).
What I don't hear any of the politicians address is the cost of Health Care. I hear lots of em come up with ideas about how to pay for it, such as individual mandates, or getting rid of of liability of Medicare and sticking on the states, but none of them say the prices the drug companies, the hospitals, the doctors charge is to much.
It is a persons health and when a person has a life threatening medical problem, they are gonna want the care needed to save their life, regardless of the cost or whether they can afford it. They expect the government [the american taxpayers] to pay for their medical care they can not afford, and they can't afford it because the hospitals, doctors, drug companies charge to much.
Making every american buy insurance isn't going to bring down costs or make medical care affordable. Insurance is you are betting your going to get sick, the insurance company is betting your not. If there are enough people don't get sick, all that money simply is profit. But if to many get sick, then the insurance company has to increase their rates, or if the medical procedures increase in costs, the insurance company has to increase rates.
There is no regulation on costs for medical procedures or drugs and therefore the medical providers can charge whatever they want and the people will pay whatever it costs, because it's basically getting sick and maybe dying vs getting medical care and staying alive. It's a sure bet people will pay anything for medical care and the hospitals, doctors, drug companies know it.
Where's the reasonable costs for medical care? Where's the regulations on the costs of medical care. That's what's making our government, both federal and states go broke. The costs of medical care, not medical care itself.
There were quite a few proposals during the health care debate that might have helped control costs, from the public option to the end-of-life counseling. But all were vigorously opposed by the insurance industry, and therefore by their Republican allies.
See collective bargaining (which is under attack by the GOP).
With a sufficiently large number of subscribers to a federal health plan, the larger the bargaining power to negotiate lower prices with the medical institutions/agencies. The bigger the collective debt owed, the bigger the bargaining leverage the federal government will hold.
When it comes to healthcare, there are soooo many gop, birthers, & tea party members who would be more honest in saying that i voted for it before i voted against it.
Instead of an "Individual Mandate" we need a "Single Payer" !!! It is the only way to CONTROL COSTS !!!
But of course, the Repukes will go off, LYING IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION, to portect their CORPORATE OVERLORDS IN MEDICINE, INC !!!
I propose "Medicare For Everyone". Up to age 18, health care at no cost. 18-70 monthly payments should be based on health and age and the amount paid should decrease as you age until you become 70 (yes the age should raise now that people live longer). At 70, healthcare becomes free again. Even if they just covered basic healthcare needs and required supplemental insurance to help cover catastrophic illnesses, I would buy in.
Oh - and this should be an option, not a requirement. People would be free to opt out and join the private insurance market. This would also help unemployment because I would recommend that we move away from Employer paid health insurance.
If anyone goes back and looks, I said over and over ad nauseum that I read the proposal for what the Repubs now derisively call "Obamacare" years ago and it was a Republican initiative. NO ONE BELIEVED ME!!!!!!! In fact, I have been called a liar, I have been called a moron, and I have been called worse, but not once has anyone ever conceded that I just might have actually read thousands of pages of proposed legislation back when it was a "new and wonderful" idea.
There's nothing quite like vindication, is there?
RetiredRN,
You are so right -- the health care overhaul was a Republican/Democratic idea. The Republicans were very strongly tied to demanding the "individual mandate" so that everyone would have to be covered instead of having people not paying for the coverage and then going to ER's when they had illnesses or emergencies, which would blow up the system. Anyway, it is weird isn't it??
You are right, I heard retired Senator Dave Durenberger (R MN) say the same thing last winter in a speech he gave. The Heath Care Reform law is not a radical departure from what Republicans were talking about years ago. But in today's extreme political climate it is labeled socialism!!
Not only is it not a radical departure, but it is an almost carbon copy LOL. I haven't been able to get a copy of the "new" legislation in its entirety to compare, but it's awfully familiar.
I know I shouldn't be gloating a bit over this, but as I said, I have been called a LOT of nasty names, and am probably being called a few of them now by the people who were my biggest critics, because I have said this all along. They weren't happy with me when they were screaming that I was lying, and they are, I am sure, far less happy with me now.
I can live with that.
It is rather amusing that these people don't seem to realize that their actual beliefs and policies were captured in print or video for all posterity. I do love the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert approach of playing soundbites of pols saying they are fervently for or against something and then split screening what they said only a few years ago (which is always, always the exact opposite).
All I know is that I need to know where to send my medical bills. The speed and frequency of the "flipflop whiplash" I'm getting from watching Republican pols is really starting to affect me physically............
I love that Gingrich said that you couldn't use that sound bite against him in advertising. If Jon Stewart wasn't on tv showing this idiots for what they are then no one would have the truth.
I don't think the USA want's the right wing "social engineering " they have in mind !
It's very simple: Many Republicans are intelligent and know that mandates are necessary for a health care system that actually works, but they have hitched their electoral success to a bunch of knee-jerk, anti-everything voters who don't understand how anything works. So integrity goes out the window.
Politics, healthcare and hypocrites. Sounds like a Republican Party gathering.
You people really need to stop before Boner starts crying
Quick, Eric...we need a new idea!! Go visit the boys at the Heritage Foundation.
But...but...but John, can't you see how much trouble they have already caused for Paul Ryan? By the way, have you ordered that bus yet?