Steele: Dems Right To Accuse GOP Of Delay
By Reid Wilson
RNC chair Michael Steele said in a memo released Thursday that GOPers should do everything they can to stop health care, arguing that position is in line with public opinion.
"I urge everyone to spend every bit of capital and energy you have to stop this health care reform. The Democrats have accused us of trying to delay, stall, slow down, and stop this bill. They are right. We do want to delay, stall, slow down, and ultimately stop them from experimenting on our nation's health care," Steele wrote in the memo. "And guess what, so do a majority of Americans."
Steele highlights polling results that show certain samples opposed to aspects of health care reform legislation, and other results that show Americans want Congress to focus on jobs and the economy before health care legislation.
"Looking at the mood of the American electorate, the strategy in the health care debate is clear: be with the people and listen to the people. We don't have to manufacture anything," Steele wrote. "All we need to do is add our voice and amplify the chorus of Americans urging President Obama and Congressional Democrats to slow down their health care experiment and focus on jobs and growing the economy."
Dems have labeled the GOP the "Party of No" for months for their opposition to the stimulus package, health care, cap and trade and other issues largely decided along party lines, and Steele seems to embrace that label. But, he insists in the memo, it is not for political reasons, even though some in the party think the health care package will be a political winner for the GOP.
"I have heard Republican political operatives say that it will be good for our Party next November if the Democrats pass this bill. They note that the bill is unpopular with Independents, suburban voters, and senior citizens. They say that the voters will run them out of office for it," he writes.
"That may be, but we cannot take that approach. Some things are more important than politics. This is one of those times. Please do everything you can to stop this bill ... before it is too late."
What has happened to the GOP we once knew? It is obvious right-wing conservatives have embarked on a mission to rid the party of pragmatic patriots, and replace them with a southern minority party of nuts.
Thing is, the GOP seems proud of their negativity and opposition to anything and everything that may benefit the American people. I think that a majority of us are beginning to recognize that.
This is just so crazy I just can't wrap my mind around this type of thinking, what is going on just saying no with no solutions is out of the question. Does the GOP think the people sent them to Washington to do nothing? ENOUGH!!!!
I just do not understand what has happened to the GOP. The minority party is usually the opposition party but this is just ridiculous. It would be nice if they could partner with the Democrats and achieve some legislation that would benefit the American people but of course our flawed health care system is the 'best in the world' in their eyes.
What's even more alarming is they still have overwhelming support from their constituents. I guess a little dose of Glenn Beck and Fox News does wonders when your elected representative is a political road block and has accomplished nothing in his tenure as a representative.
Steele
A recent poll asked Republican voters who they'll vote for in 2010. Republicans came in THIRD.
Democrats are the first choice, followed by Tea Party.
yeah your plan is working out SWELL.
I can't wait till the day when Michael Steele realizes that 99.9% of his party hates him for the color of his skin than the content of his character. Martin Luther King must be rolling in his grave.
I find it hard to believe that Democrats are so blind to believe that the policies they are persuing are for the benifit of our country. How in the world can you raise our deficit by another 1.8 trillion and then promote more spending. Also declaring that we have global warming so that they can push cap and trade thru to tax the living tar out of every thing and everyone. Do they seriously expect us to think that they are going to get any buisiness to want to remain in the states knowing that they are going to be taxed out of existance. They are also saying that we breathe too much so we have to cut down on the amount of kids we have. What happens if it still doesn't lower it enough, will they then decide to remove some of the population.
I think that this administration is trying to destroy every job in this country. Look at the facts. Tax time is coming!!!!! We owe china big time and the only way to pay em back is to rape the American people. If they don't stop their spending China will own us and their isn't a blooming thing we will be able to do about it cause our leaders love us and they and they would never sell us down the river, right. I say remember the American Indian!!! Our ever loving truthful gov''t took good care of them right!! They broke treaty after treaty and gave em small pox blankets to boot!! Govt out of control is what we are witnessing right now, they stopped listening to the American people although they claim they are listening. Oboma in case anyone would like to know lost the popular vote. That means the majority of people in this nation do not agree with his policies and it is not a clear mandate. All I'm saying is read between the lines, the stuff they are doing is downright scary. Your warning lights should be going off if not put your party junk aside and look a little closer at what is being done. Ask yourself why is their such a rush on everything? Our country was just fine til they jacked the price of gas to over $4.00 a gal. Think about it.Gas hasn't gone back up there since! Infomercials galore on buying real estate then when the market hit critical mass they jack up the gas prices to create a crisis.Hmmmmmm
I have nothing to say other than I agree with the strategy and pray it works. All of these people who want the govt. to give them healthcare (the only 20% that the repubs and dems are different) may think their government is benevolent now, but what if one of those 'old mean republicans' came into power with messiah like star power of Obummmer? Then they would scale back the benefits and there is no structure in place for you to make up the difference. Think about it you lemmings.....
Why is there such a rush? No one has seen the bill on Dec. 10th but they want a vote by Christmas. A bill that could either be a savior or a disaster. I want to know which. Not a stall just want to know the impact it will have on all of us for the rest of our lives. I am not an impulse buyer because of finances and I hope my Senators are the same. Maybe that is wishful thinking.
The polls are showing more and more that Americans are AGAINST this attempt by Reid to usurp our choices with regard to our health. This country is about liberty!! The government has no right to interfere with us this way; it's not supported by the Constitution in any way, shape, or form.
Hard working Americans reap the benefits of their labor. There is NO excuse for failing in this country. People get free education from k-12, then they can apply for grants and loans to get through college. All it takes is integrity and hard work, and anyone can succeed here.
People that are too lazy to work their way up to the American dream don't deserve to be supported by those of us who have worked so hard for what we have.
Shame on Obama and the Congress for trying to break our backs!!
It's funny and a little sad reading these post. The divide between dems and republicans is growing. Half the post are about the fall of the republican party,(major cable news spin) and the other half are conspiracy theories that sound as if Glen Beck wrote them,(Fox News, talk radio spin) So where is the truth? Is this what we have come down to, a people divided by which cable news shows we watch?
Let's lose the spin and realize that most Americans are good hard working people. We have problems and we need to deal with them. Health care is a major problem in this country. My niece owes 25,000 dollars because she just spent three days in the hospital with no health insurance. Clearly, medical cost are getting out of hand; we need to have an intelligent discussion about this. Lets turn off the cable news show rhetoric and use our own voices to discuss this pressing issue.
It is so sad to see all of this commentary on many issues most of us do not totally understand. The other thing that bothers me is that people like fox news, and limbaugh, hannity, beck, and palin continues to try and divide this country. We are all in this together so we might as well respect each other and each others view point, and make it work as best we can. What saddens me even more, is the fact that there are still so many hateful people in this world. If you are going make ignorant comments about the president at least, you could have enough respect to spell his name correctly! It really shows your disrespect for the highest office in the land. I am so disappointed, and embarrassed to be a citizen living in the richest country in the world, and people do not want to share, are not giving, except their bias opinions.
And for Jim, I think you have lost your mind!
I wish that President Obama was given half the chance every other American president has had, he certainly can be no worse than what we have experienced from the other forty something presidents preceding him! At least he cares about all people, not just some! I believe he can be successful if we stay together and support him, like we did when he was running and elected him overwhelmingly to be the leader of the free world! The other point is, we are so quickly to forget that Bush and his cronies are the ones who put this country at such great risk. How easily we forgive and forget, unless of course your name happens to be Obama! As far as Michael Steele is concerned, he is a joke, and don't even know he is being put out front of the republican party, the party of no, as a fool!
Finally, I say if all of these people who are offering up opinions about having a perfect world, have all of this expertise on how the country should be ran, more than the people we elected to represent us, then these people should be the people who are running this country. Why is that not happening if you know so much? I just want to know!
hey jacko i think the joke is on you RNC & CHEENEY / BUSH ..ETC obama is just cleaning up the big mess your former president made it was ok when the bush administration messed things up but now that his errors affected your world people want to use the obama's as their scapegoat obama can't do anymore damage to the us than the bush's have so deal with it you can either ride it out or not, BARK AWAY !!
Llyod, you are ignorant and don't have a clue as to how government works.
Wow. Jim sure enjoys the Beck! Everything he said in his rant is straight outta Beck/Limbaugh crazy town.
(hey Jim, next time you may want to use even more scare "!"s to prove your point, lol)
The good news is that there are plenty of Americans who choose to turn that tv knob to "off" and see how the Republicans do not stand for the middle or lower class and that having NO ideas is the worst strategy for a party divided between Libertarians and the Religious Right.
- from a former Republican straight ticket voter.
I love how conservatives always scream "OMG! Obama is adding trillions to the deficit" As if George Bush & his 2 senseless wars were free. How many TRILLIONS of dollars were spent in Iraq and Afghanistan by our last president? But now that Obama is spending money AT HOME it's the end of the world. It's HYSTERICAL.
Jim - I particularly enjoyed reading your paranoid rant. It was exactly the laugh I needed, today. I'm sure you're already in a bunker somewhere hoarding water & canned goods, so you won't see this. However I would like to state for the record the the country I see is improving. We're finally correcting the mess made by the last administration. Sure there I things I wish our President would do differently, but overall I'm happy with the direction. So please go hide somewhere & wait for the end of times. The rest of us will continue trying to make this country better. That includes providing healthcare to ALL of our citizens.
They are traitors to the sytem they state they uphold and accuse everyone else of being unpatritoic and against the values of America. They suck...Steele is a prevaricating ass who hasnt deleivered on his hip- hop promise to get more minorities....all asses.
Wake up, people! This healthcare bill has NOTHING to do with healthcare and everything to do with government control and power over Americans. To do nothing, would be an improvement compared to what this monstrosity of a bill will do to our country.
This bill requires everyone to purchase insurance and fines you, if you don't.
Please become informed on what this bill actually contains and how it will adversely and negatively impact everyone before giving your support for it. This bill will LIMIT choices, INCREASE taxes, RATION like you've never seen before. Don't be fooled by the lies. If you give the government the power to do things FOR you they will have the power to do things TO you.
- AmericanFreedomLover
"WAKE UP!" "ASK QUESTIONS!" etc, etc.
Starting or ending an argument like hardly lends any aura of seriousness. (you just sound like all the other raving loons shouting "socialism!" when they don't even know what it means)
I would ask you: please don't be fooled by the lies you are hearing. As a freedom loving American who loves the constitution, I am sick of hearing people spread these lies (or is it misinformation?) in the name of loving freedom and the constitution.
Health care reform as it stands now is constitutional (if requiring everyone to have a drivers license is, so would insurance mandates). Also, the bills being considered will
- help some people get health care who desperately need it (yay compassionate conservatism ;)
- impact almost everyone very little
- screw over a few people financially with penalties (also called "incentives")/taxes.
I highly doubt you are in that last group. If you are, you can afford it. Most likely your life will NOT be affected by any of the legislation (and it might actually be helped if you are laid off and get to actually keep your insurance!), so please calm down.
Steele hasn't admitted to anything not already known.What he fails to realize is that his party is splitting and decreasing in numbers the umbrella is getting very small and un electable.That will be something to watch how they devour one another and make it easier for Dems to win elections.Keep up the good work and continue to let Limbaugh and Palin lead your march to the rivers edge.Country 1st is a motto the Republicans should never use again.Present Republicans know how to make sausage and will get all the pork they can and call themselves conservatives when bill is passed.Hopefully the pork will be removed because Republicans will still not vote for bill.
Since the Republicans have conceded that they are just there to obstruct the normal running of Government, perhaps they will donate the $174k a year Senate Salaries and the $193.4k Minority Leader Salaries back to the budget coffers since they are not earning them.
2 x $193,400 = $ 386,800
216 x $174,000 = $37,584,000
That is a little under $38 Million a Year that we are paying a bunch of self-confessed obstructionists.
"An Open Letter to the Republican Leadership" http://thatgirlsmind.wordpress.com
Hey, do you think the dems trying to change our theme song?
Land of the free home of the enslaved to the health care industry?
The irony of this fight is that GOP could have set themselves up for an election year fight by proposing a better solution for our health care crisis.
The GOP really would have had nothing to lose.
Let's say they proposed doing away with the way billing is done. Instead of simply re-imbursing for every test done, thus creating an incentive to recommend test after test, the GOP could have promoted a more holistic approach that involved payment for results. They could have said, we don't need a public option because we have a better way of lowering costs. We are going to offer a bill that will reward doctors and hospitals that have the healthiest outcomes for their patients.
If they had, and it was rejected, they would have had something to run on. If they had and it was accepted, they could have touted that the successful bill was a Republican idea. Thus, they could have argued, for more such wonderful ideas, elect us.
Instead, if the Dems do pass health care and it works to improve care or actually provide care for the many working and non-working Americans who can't afford to it now, the GOP will be left out of that success. Of course, if the Dems pass a shadow bill, that is gutted of any real progress, it will work to the party's disadvantage.
On the other had, if no bill passes, the Dems can claim that their bill would have helped the millions of Americans in need but for the admitted obstuctionism of a mindless, GOP willing to harm everyday Americans because it seemed the best - most cynical - way to reclaim power.
Given the likelihood of the Dems bill not doing what's needed to help people quickly enough to convince people of its value, I am inclined to hope the GOP succeeds. The worst thing would be for the Dems to have a hollow victory that can be used against them after striving to truly help people.
With that in mind, before Dems vote for any final plan, they better think twice about what it will include and what immediate results it will produce. If they have any survival instinct, the Demo leadership better be ready to sell, sell, sell, the minute a bill passes.
Moreover, if I were the Demo leadership, at a minimum, I would include money to give to the non-profit org that has been doing supersized health clinics in a number of cities in recent months. I would allocate enough money for the top twenty-five most populous cities in America to have one of these events every four months from now until the full new plan kicks into place and more if the organization can do them.
These events are surpisingly inexpensive and extremely valuable.
I would also create a commission to explore the end of fee for service with an eye towards further legislation.
This amazes me that the GOP Chairman agrees their position is to stall and delay, as if it's a part of their scorched earth self destruction policy on the road to a U.S. that is pax-Republican. It is laughable.
History shows that the ruling party usually does not do well in the subsequent elections. Well, Mr. Michael Steele is helping to turn that trend around. We will soon see the Republican Party fall into irrelevance.
It's very clear they somehow someway transpose all the ills of President Bush/Vice President Cheney's doings onto the new administration of President Obama.
To put it more clearly: A guy buys a house. As he is walking up the steps into it, a guy flies out of the house, jumps in his car, screeches away, waving his hand and then yells, "Hope you enjoy the new home!" But the new owner walks in and notices faulty electrical wiring, leaking plumbing, paint peeling, structural defects and sitting in the living room is the previous owner's five red headed bastard step children abandoned by him.
All of this is so transparent too. This is what President Obama inherited and is trying to straighten out. And Michael Steele pursues this strategy with his party?!?!?
Good Morning!!! hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com is one of the most outstanding informational websites of its kind. I take advantage of reading it every day. hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com rocks!
This web site is actually quite good, but for some reason it does not display properly when trying to view on my Nintendo Wii. If it helps, the console uses the Opera browser and am forced to using the console for accessing the Internet whilst my PC is away being repaired.