(Jeff Danziger’s website)
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They say there’s a helium shortage, possibly because the Repubs were bloviating against “Obamacare” all weekend. Per Greg Sargent, at his Washington Post blog:
…Pressed by Chris Wallace to say what he would do to insure the 30 million people who will get insurance under Obamacare, McConnell at first dodged the question, instead launching into a litany of complaints about the law. He repeated the debunked claim that it would cut $500 billion from Medicare. Asked the question again by Wallace, McConnell actually laughed, and said he’d “get to it in a minute,” before claiming the best thing we can do for the health system overall is to get rid of the law and all of its “cuts” to health providers. He labeled Obamacare a “monstrosity” and vowed that there would not be a “2,700 page” Republican reform bill.
Asked a third time how Republicans would insure those 30 million people, McConnell said: “That is not the issue. The question is how you can go step by step to improve the American health care system.”…
WALLACE: You don’t think the 30 million people who are uninsured is an issue?
MCCONNELL: Let me tell you what we’re not going to do. We’re not going to turn the American health care system into a western European system.
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It’s worth pointing out that this is basically Mitt Romney’s position, too. The Romney campaign has acknowledged that he would not replace Obamacare with across-the-board protections for people with preexisting conditions. And the New York Times recently took a look at the alternatives Romney has proposed, and concluded that they would deemphasize the goal of “reducing the ranks of the uninsured.”
So, “I got mine, forget you” is now the official Republican policy on health care. Pro tip to the Angry Turtle: When even Fox News (as represented by Mike Wallace’s Idiot Spawn) looks askance, you may want to reconsider your cover story.
Or maybe McConnell’s just decided that courting The Crazification Factor is his best bet. “Today’s Opinion Poll” at the WaPo:
Do you agree with Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the President’s health care law?
Yes – 73%
No – 27%
Total Votes: 24,348
Valdivia
that number is truly uncanny.
MeDrewNotYou
@Valdivia: Rogers and Tyrone were indeed eerily accurate.
My favorite line from The Post:
The Obama t-shirts (back in 2005, no less!) were great too.
magurakurin
no way. The WaPo is fucking with us. Those numbers are totally fake. They have to be. Right? I mean, right?
And Mitch is an asshole. Going on about how the GOP won’t let American turn to government health care like Europe when he himself is covered by….the Government. Dick.
fuck him. They lost. It’s over. Romney is going to get pounded in November and after the whole law comes on line in 2014 it will become very popular. More than likely the 2016 race will feature the GOP candidate taking credit for its passage and going on about he(cause you know it will be a white dude) will improve it more than Democratic canditate Gillibrand.
Eat it GOP, and tell us how that shit sandwich tastes.
Valdivia
@MeDrewNotYou:
I love how it can be used in every single situation in our politics. Prescient and useful! :)
c u n d gulag
I don’t think any single one of the R politician ever thought that with “The Four Fascists,” and their usual pal, Kennedy, that they had a chance in hell of losing this decision – despite all of the legal scholars saying that the mandate IS constitutional!
After all, this SC was a corporatist’s dream, and had repeatedly proven that it was.
Now, they’re stuck.
They not only don’t have answers to what they’ll do after they repeal it, they don’t even have any decent talking points!
All they’ve got, is to scream, “TAX! TAX! TAX!”
Frank Luntz was probably very, very busy this weekend, trying to think of something for these thoughtless feckin’ idjits to say, so they don’t keep looking like the thoughtless feckin’ idjits that they are.
And what a bunch of WATB’s these Conservatives are!
In comparison, we on the left stayed relatively calm as the Rehnquist Court gave A FECKIN’ PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TO W, and Robert’s SC undermined representative democracy with the “Citizens” decision.
And you evil assholes are having epic hissy-fits about some half-assed national health care program?
Health care?
Really?
Christ, with all those Conservative tit’s in an uproar, and knickers in knots, it’s amazing the rest of us aren’t drowning in milk to the sounds of your castrati choir!
And some on the right are calling Roberts worse than “Benedict Arnold.”
And others are blaming this decision on his (alleged?) epilepsy and the medication he takes for it.
Stay classy, Conservatives!
Todd
Speaking of toxic gasbags, why is it that “our librul media” continue to foist the family of Governor Half Term onto the viewing public? Sarah Palin’s Alaskan Met Trailer flopped, Bristol Palin’s Red Solo Cup Hootenanny flopped, and now we get to see “never served a day” Todd Palin do military tasks? What kind of deciding decider job creator is continuing to try and sell these people?
Kirbster
McConnell does what every Republican does in a interview. The rule is to stick to the Luntz-tested talking points. If challenged, ignore the challenge and repeat the talking points. After the second challenge, the interviewer starts to look dickish and whiny to the short-attention span audience if he or she persists in demanding a substantive explanation. No “journalist”, not even Chris Wallace, wants to look bad, so the Goopers are able to get away with this all the time. It’s only when they stray from the script (like admitting that GOP doesn’t give a rat’s ass about 30 million uninsured) that they get in trouble.
Baud
Chris Wallace strikes me as someone who wants to be a conservative journalist, as opposed to a conservative hack who wants to pretend to be a serious journalist. Whether he can pull that off given that reality has a liberal bias, is another question.
runt
Republicans have found the perfect way to happiness. If they win, they get what they want. If they lose, they get good government. So they can’t lose, really.
It’s kinda brilliant, when you think about it.
PeterJ
While I would really like to have 73% agree with the Supreme Court’s decision, it’s an online poll, so it’s worthless.
Good thing that it wasn’t printed on paper… ;)
gene108
The problem most Americans have is they fail to realize we are the richest country in the world.
If we don’t have the money to do ‘x’, no other country on the planet should have the money.
The only reason we are “broke” is because we do a piss poor job of allocating the massive amount of wealth, that is within our borders, to things that would make folks realize we are not “broke”.
Todd
@Valdivia:
I guess the early days of SEO weren’t quite as focused as they are now. Half the comments were spam.
bob h
A look at the Sunday shows impressed me with how mad these Motherfuckers are at the decision. George Will could barely contain his rage, and promised revenge in the form of overturned Voters’ Rights, Affirmative Action, etc.
amk
@magurakurin:
/fixt
Southern Beale
It is absolutely hilarious to read the Republicans on my Sunday thread try to justify this complete 180 on their healthcare plan. It just can’t be done. First it’s that Democrats aren’t being sufficiently compromising and bipartisan and when I point out you can’t get more bipartisan than adopting their entire healthcare plan, he’s like, “well … but they didn’t have that plan from the beginning they only did it after single payer wouldn’t fly so it doesn’t count.” (huh?) And then he says he gives Republicans a pass for their complete hypocrisy because back in the 90s Congressional Democrats went back on their promise to Bush Sr. to cut spending if he increased taxes. I don’t even know if that’s true but WTF does that have to do with anything?
Basically they are knotting themselves into a pretzel pretending that their idea which they loved as recently as 2006 is now the end of America s we know it — no exaggeration!
IowaOldLady
I have a a small business owner friend who thinks of herself as an Independent but usually votes Republican. She watched those shows and said, “The Republicans blew this. They were so sure they were going to win that they did nothing themselves. The Democrats plan is very, very flawed but at least they did something.”
I’m hoping that’s the conclusion that most of the country comes to. Surely the idea of starting over has no appeal, while fixing what’s there is a concrete, hope-producing option.
EconWatcher
I’m starting to become a believer that the Court ruling may dramatically change public approval of ACA.
Of course, the Court wasn’t ruling on whether it was good policy. But for once, the superficial level of public thinking cuts our way: The way the story comes out, even that very conservative guy Roberts said the law is good, so maybe we should take another look.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I can’t believe Chris Wallace actually challenged McConnell.
Southern Beale
By the way, don’t tell Limbaugh that they have universal healthcare in Costa Rica, thanks to both a government-sponsored public health insurance system and a highly regulated private one.
Woopsies.
Scratch
It would be great if every day at least one member of the news media asks Mitch McConnell what the Republican plan is to get healthcare to 30 million fellow Americans. Every day. Ask him over and over if he continues to not answer the question.
Jay in Oregon
@Scratch:
And then collect all of the evasions and non-answers into a nice, 5-minute campaign ad.
Fixed that for you, McConnell.
Down and Out of Sài Gòn
If the interviewer isn’t answering the journalist’s questions, it isn’t being dickish and whiny to repeat the same question over and over again. Take someone like Jeremy Paxman from the UK. (The good stuff starts at 6:20.)
mzrad
@Valdivia: Twenty seven percent is almost like all the clocks in the SkyMall set to 4:20.
Ben Cisco
@Todd:
Sounds like a great name for a jug band.
gelfling545
@c u n d gulag: Actually I have occasionally puzzled over the calm with which the left accepted the Bush/Gore verdict. I think it;s that we weren’t at all surprised. The Republicans were, however, predicting the demolition of ACA for weeks so really high blood pressure ensued.
DBaker
Justice Kennedy actually verbalizes the GOP position in his
opinion, err dissent, thanks Judge Ginsberg. (h/t Brad deLong for the reference):In other words, you poor people are mooching of the system and you will get what you deserve and what you can afford. If the job creators want to give you health care then they can choose to do so if they feel like it.
c u n d gulag
@gelfling545:
Once the Rehnquist Court took that case, I was almost 100% sure that Gore would lose.
I just didn’t know how.
Ya gotta admit – they were pretty creative on that one!
Kirbster
@Down and Out of Sài Gòn:
I wish that American news correspondents would be that dogged, but most are abject cowards, afraid of losing theirs cushy network jobs and/or their social status in Washington if they give the power players too much of a hard time.
That’s why I think the upcoming political “debates” (I use the term loosely) should be moderated by big city prosecutors and hardened homicide detectives (or, hey, Jeremy Paxman), who won’t put up with bullshit non-answers to pointed questions. Otherwise, those events become just another venue for canned stump speeches and tired talking points.
gbear
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Chris Wallace is usually more willing to challenge a political guest than George Stephanopoulos. Wallace at least usually has a clue as to what’s really going on (despite working for FOX), but Stephanopoulos is a moron who doesn’t even know when he’s being snowed. He just lets his guests tell whatever lies they want and then moves on to the next topic.
Patricia Kayden
What would make anyone believe that the Repubs have any plan to insure the 30 million uninsured since during the time period (2000-2006) that the Repubs had the White House, Senate and House, they did absolutely nothing to address that problem?
Does everyone have amnesia?
feebog
Every time the Romneybot 2.0 repeats his pledge to repeal The AHCA he should be reminded that it is his plan. Obama took his plan and made it nationwide. No amount of denial is going to change that fact.
artem1s
@magurakurin:
Kasich did exactly this with Clinton’s balanced budget when he ran for Governor. The entertaining part of the GOP try to reframe Obamacare is going to be watching them turn themselves inside out trying to NOT call attention to (L)-RMoney. Once he gets bounced in November (hopefully for the last time) they will all be scrambling to blame it on his Robot ways and not being a true believer. It’s going to be hilarious when they try to evoke Romneycare without evoking the loser.
I’m sure whatever solution Rove comes up with it will involve Zombie Reagan.
Cermet
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: And not once, or even twice but three times! When did a non-fox reporter EVER do that much less a fake news reporter?! Amazing.
rikyrah
the 27% number is now approaching creepiness.
Triassic Sands
McConnell is certainly interested in how to — step-by-step — improve the American health care system for HIMSELF.
He has no interest, ZERO, in providing health care for those who can’t afford it. That is the classic Republican position.
To Republicans, health care is a zero-sum game. If someone who currently has no insurance, gets coverage, McConnell, et al., are certain it will have to come out of their coverage. An American Republican does not do well with the idea of sharing; the idea of giving something up, even if that is just paranoid fantasy, is totally unacceptable. Hence, Obamacare must go.