The Health-Care Reform Tug of War
Phil Klein boils down what each party must do in order to win the health-care reform debate:
Will Americans trust Obama that he can insure everybody, control costs, allow everybody to keep the insurance they have, improve the quality of health care, avert a government takeover of medicine, avoid rationing, and avoid raising taxes on 95 percent of the population? Or will Republicans be able to convince Americans that he’s misleading them, that insuring everybody will require higher taxes, that expanding health care will raise costs unless the government imposes rationing, and that Obama’s plans will inevitably lead to a government takeover?
I tend to think that major reform of some kind is inevitable at this point, and that given the unemployment numbers, longstanding frustrations with the health-care system, and the president’s wide popularity, Obama has the advantage. But, given new data suggesting the public is increasingly wary of Obama’s spending habits, the outcome will depend on how effectively Republicans make the debate about cost rather than about coverage.
Peter …….the Republicans still don’t have a counter-proposal.
So…fail.
The electorate wants coverage not criticism.
— matoko_chan · Jun 9, 04:58 PM · #
Chan — The Republicans do have a proposal, of sorts, but yes, I basically agree, and that’s what I said. I do think, however, that it’s possible, if unlikely, that the GOP could significantly affect the shape and scope of whatever proposal we end up with if they’re effective at making costs a proper issue.
— Peter Suderman · Jun 9, 05:17 PM · #
Do you understand how you addressed meh?
In my context, chan means young lady.
lol
Sure repubs made NIMBY an issue with Gitmo….but healthcare isn’t as amenable to conservative fearorizing.
We are mostly numb on spending after Bush. Except for the teabaggers of course….but that is partisan faux-outrage.
— matoko_chan · Jun 9, 06:02 PM · #
Peter:
I can’t be anything but depressed by the either/or scenario Phil Klein has proposed. Obama’s proposals are outrageous. They are mad. And what’s even more maddening is that you write about it as if it’s a choice between two merely opposing views. One proposes fixing health care with the biggest dumbest blunt instrument in the world, our federal government; the other is reduced to saying: “YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS”
And then there’s Sudoku chan, who says that we’re allowing Obama to quadruple our spending because we’re numb from Bush’s spending. So while we are numb and unaware, Obama is doing the right and brave and smart thing—spending trillions of dollars that we dont’ have—quickly before we wake up and realize what a smart and brave thing he’s doing.
We are so screwed.
— jd · Jun 9, 08:27 PM · #
haha yesssss u r jd.
B O H I C A
— matoko_chan · Jun 9, 10:15 PM · #
How could Republicans make questions of government cost containment toxic without destroying health care reform? Given the nature of methods affecting public opinion, they’re highly unlikely to be able to knock off a public plan and cost rationing but keep the public accepting of, say, taxing the health benefits provided by employers. Instead we’ll have support for expanding coverage without any support for paying for such a program. Either the Democrats expand coverage and don’t pay for it, or they pass a fig-leaf “health reform” bill which does nothing to actually reform healthcare, or no health care reform passes. Either way Republicans look good, and this could benefit the nation in the long run, but I don’t see how the Republicans can manage to make Obamacare impossible while still allowing for a (more-conservative, but still helpful) healthcare reform bill to pass.
Also: what the heck is B O H I C A?
— The Fool · Jun 9, 10:33 PM · #
Unfortunately, the Republicans don’t have anyone with a clear voice to bring the nation back from the edge of insanity. The goodies packed into healthcare reform are too tempting for most to resist. As bad as I hate to admit it, we might have to experience government collapse before sanity returns.
— mike farmer · Jun 9, 11:58 PM · #
Bend Over Here I Come Again
— matoko_chan · Jun 10, 01:54 PM · #
You are one ugly little human being, Sudoku.
— jd · Jun 11, 12:49 PM · #