We've got to hit the road for work and we want a little more time to digest the events of last night, so we're going to hold off a comprehensive post about HCR for the time being. But in the meantime, we thought you would enjoy a comment from Mr. Former Leader, Newt Gingrich that, quite frankly...even though it's Newt, we still can't believe he said.In a piece out yesterday by the Washington Independent's Mike Lillis, titled "Gingirch: Civil Rights Laws Weren't Worth the Political Price," Newt is quoted with:
Obama and the Democrats will regret their decision to push for comprehensive
reform. Calling the bill “the most radical social experiment . . . in modern
times,” Gingrich said: “They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon
Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” with the enactment of
civil rights legislation in the 1960s.
Uh...ok. There you have it folks. One of his party's go-to political minds believes the price to pay for tackling an issue everyone agrees was right (Civil Rights) was too much to pay, equating that to an issue everyone agrees needed to be dealt with (HCR) and thinking those who pushed to address it will "regret it."
This reminded me of a comment Sullivan had about last night's events, from Abraham Verghese:
I have been trying to explain to my youngest why this is such an exciting
moment: front line soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq take personal risks, put
their lives on the line. But so few politicians put their careers on the line,
even though they make decisions that have an impact on soldiers. President Obama
(and to some degree every Democrat who supports this bill) is putting his
political career on the line. The idea that you might do what you think is right
and pay a penalty has been so foreign to politics that it surprises us when we
see it. I think my son is surprised to hear all this. He assumes at 12 years of
age that people, especially people we elect, go to Washington to do the right
thing.
We will be happy if that's the future of the differences between the two parties. If Republicans want to push the line that you can't afford to take on these tough issues because they may come at a tough personal price, they will continue their trek to fringe minority status. People want governance. Not chickenshit self-preservation. Last night was the first time in our lifetime that we felt a large group of our elected officials were putting the good of the country above their own personal self-interests. We liked that feeling.
3 comments:
Clearly Newt's comments were taken out of context, as he later pointed out. Nobody can seriously make the case that Newt doesn't believe in civil rights. It's just plain nonsense.
And the argument that the Democrats are doing the right thing despite the repercussions doesn't hold water with me. They aren't doing this so people can get health care, they are doing it so that the government can have the ultimate control over it's people, among other things. If this was being done for honorable reasons it would have been handled much differently, i.e. without all the lying, villification, bribery, partisanship, quid pro quo, bullying, and procedural shenanigans. The Democrats in charge showed their true colors in this process, and that is what will hurt them.
They WILL suffer a political price, not because they are doing the right thing, but because they are doing the wrong thing. Every poll shows that the majority of Americans disapprove of the bill, and I believe a lot of that has to do with the arrogant and dishonest manner in which it was conducted. That's why all those seats will be lost come November.
I know that we see this issue in polar opposites. I won't change your mind and you won't change mine. I agree with your ideals, but I firmly believe that our nation's health care will ultimately suffer at the hands of government interference. Care will go down and costs will go up. It's the nature of the beast.
Maybe in ten years we can look back and one of us will say "Damn, that SOB was right!"
Here's betting it will be you saying it. :-)
Every poll shows the majority of American aren't educated about the bill. And why is that? B/c the GOP wanted to make the debate about process b/c they knew they couldn't argue policy. How do we know that, b/c this bill is basically the very same bill the '94 GOP proposed. When the average American has what is actually in the bill explained to them (instead of the BS fear stuff the GOP pushed), the support just about every individual item.
The problem is, the GOP then pull that: lets take it one step at a time approach, which to most people sounds reasonable. That's because most people don't understand that you can't achieve the goals of healthcare reform without doing it comprehensively. That's the way spreading the risk and negotiated pricing works.
But every time I think you've gone off the deep end, Danny, you slip up and let me know you're effing with me. Like here..."in ten years"...see, you think we'll still be here. If you believed Obama was Stalin, you'd figure we'd all be dead in 10 years.
If the majority of Americans aren't educated on the bill, isn't that the Dem's fault for not doing so? They told us that we weren't smart enough to understand it, so just trust them to know what's best. Reminds me of Bobby Knight's rape comment. Nancy Pelosi said they would pass the bill, and then we could know what's in it. Don't tell me that's right. Obama promised he would never sign a bill until it's been posted for 5 days online where everyone could read it. Of course he also said that executive orders were wrong and unconstitutional when George Bush did it. He said he taught constitutional law, so he knows. And then he duped Stupak and others with a bogus executive order. He lied, yet again. Color me surprised.
This isn't Armageddon. We will be here in 10 years. And I say that everyone will realize by then what a mistake this was. Obama today, in his gloating and typically arrogant fashion, said that in 6 months we will all see that everything will still be the same for most of us. Well, duh. In 6 months it will be the same. In 10 years, it will not. Eventually it will hit a tipping point. I recommend a reading of the Little Red Hen.
I guess I'm glad that I can't get refused treatment, because my liver is going to need some attention with all the drinking I'm going to have to do.
Post a Comment