Why Is Barack Obama Writing GOP Talking Points?

[Better Believe It]

Why Is Barack Obama Writing GOP Talking Points?
by John Nichols
March 5, 2010

If you want to know where conservatives in Congress get all their ridiculous talking points about how dysfunctional the federal government is, how incapable the public sector is when it comes to doing anything right and, above all, how worthless federal employees are, we've tracked down the source.

It's Barack Obama.

.... after excluding single-payer advocates from his health care summit, the president explicitly rejected the option when he delivered a March 3 speech pressing for final action to enact some sort of health care reform.

But the president is even more wrong to dismiss a single-payer response as unworkable because of some supposed flaw in the DNA of the public employees who would implement real reform.

"I don't believe we should give government bureaucrats or insurance company bureaucrats more control over health care in America," declared Obama.

So the president is equating career civil servants – like the folks who organize the military's health care, services for veterans, the existing Medicare and Medicaid programs, the Indian Health Services and the care provided for the president and his family – with insurance company profiteers who refuse coverage to people with preexisting conditions, discriminate against women and the elderly in establishing pricing structures and connive to deny care to Americans when they need it most.

By suggesting that "government bureaucrats" are no better than "insurance company bureaucrats," the president reinforces everything his Republican critics are saying. Republicans in the House and Senate argue that a "government takeover of health care" would not do a thing to expand quality of care or to reduce costs.

With his inept comparison, Obama says pretty much the same thing.

In effect, he is writing the GOP's talking points.

The U.S. needs a new health care system, to be sure.

But, even more urgently, Obama needs a new speechwriter.

Read the full article at:

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/537639/why_is_barack_obama_writing_gop_talking_points

[leftstreet]

1. Excellent

Read that this morning

K&R

[Wilms]

2. Cut the guy some slack. It's what all DLCers essentially do. n/t

[Individualist]

3. Barack Obama: "I am a New Democrat."

[Mithreal]

14. Rebranding worthy of a marketing genius.

[opihimoimoi]

4. I suspect he doing the Castling Maneuver...attack and defend simultaneously

[Mithreal]

13. The metaphor that wouldn't die.

[opihimoimoi]

17. 'Mate...... :o)

[upi402]

5. This bit was frustrating to read:

"I don't believe we should give government bureaucrats or insurance company bureaucrats more control over health care in America," declared Obama

And so it goes.

[berni_mccoy]

6. Didn't this flame-bait get locked the first time you tried posting it?

Again, as I shot this b.s. down before, let's take the President's words in their entire context, shall we?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-health-care-reform

On one end of the spectrum, there are some who've suggested scrapping our system of private insurance and replacing it with a government-run health care system. And though many other countries have such a system, in America it would be neither practical nor realistic.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are those, and this includes most Republicans in Congress, who believe the answer is to loosen regulations on the insurance industry -- whether it's state consumer protections or minimum standards for the kind of insurance they can sell. The argument is, is that that will somehow lower costs. I disagree with that approach. I'm concerned that this would only give the insurance industry even freer rein to raise premiums and deny care.

So I don't believe we should give government bureaucrats or insurance company bureaucrats more control over health care in America. I believe it's time to give the American people more control over their health care and their health insurance. I don't believe we can afford to leave life-and-death decisions about health care to the discretion of insurance company executives alone. I believe that doctors and nurses and physician assistants like the ones in this room should be free to decide what's best for their patients.

[slipslidingaway]

8. My post from last night was not locked ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7860808&mesg_id=7860808

[Better Believe It]

10. Sorry. If I had seen your post I wouldn't have posted this article again.

[slipslidingaway]

11. No problem! Many articles get posted more than once ...

so where is that flame-bait thread of yours or was that comment just a distraction.

:shrug:

:hi:

[Better Believe It]

12. I have no idea what "berni_mccoy " is writing about. Nor does "berni_mccoy".

I don't have any locked.

[Donnachaidh]

15. it rarely does

just pushes the hyped up meme of the day/hour/instant.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[slipslidingaway]

16. Thought maybe I missed the thread ...

seems like it was just BS, thanks.

[laughingliberal]

22. Kind of the same tactic a lot of pols in DC use. Once an accusation is made it throws suspicion on

the accused who now has a cloud over him regardless if the accusation turns out to be false. Remember how frustrating it's been for the news outlets to work in this way: broadcast a baseless report of some sort of wrong doing on a person's part and know that many will see it and miss the tiny correction to the report later. Generally it's been a RW tactic but seems as our party has moved right we are seeing some of it from Democrats now.

[laughingliberal]

23. Appears to be a hit and run smear

Not surprising at all

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[inna]

28. This is not a flame bait. Stop your BS.

[scentopine]

7. Obama is head over heels for republicans, he is courting and romancing

but he'll be left at the altar as soon as a charismatic republican comes along. And democrats will be fucked twice - once for not getting even the tiniest concession to help middle class and below, and once more because republicans will gain even more power.

As a liberal I'm pissed as hell at the right wing talking points from Obama. But I predict eventually the moderate centrists (aka right winger neo-con neo-dems) will soon realize that being out of work and watching their personal economy collapse will override their on going support of nefarious "free market" socialism which rewards the rich at the expense of all others and at the expense of the entire planet.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. An excellent perspective

The communications out of this administration have sucked. The form and the content both. The whole equation of profit hungry pirates to career civil servants was revolting.

[depakid]

19. It's never productive to adopt your opposition's framing... and reinforce their attitudes and values

unless of course, you agree with the opposition and want them to gain more power...

Economist Simon Johnson asked the other day- and wasn't being totally facetious, IMO- whether the administration really wants to win in 2010.

[laughingliberal]

25. "unless of course you agree with the opposition and want them to gain more power..."

I think this is a concern. I did call the White House a few times to tell them the bashing of the left coming out of there was beginning to look like a concerted vote suppression effort and was wondering if they felt smaller Democratic majorities would have been more convenient.

[Historic NY]

18. Why not? Did you expect them to?.........

:sarcasm:

[rudy23]

21. His whole M.O. is to attack liberalism from within the Democratic Party. That's the DLC's reason

for being. They're trying to make the most basic progressive stances extinct, turn us into Republicans, and turn Republicans into Fascists.

[laughingliberal]

26. +1000 nt

[inna]

27. Looks like it.

[bluethruandthru]

29. He's perpetuating Reagan's "government is bad" meme.

That hatred, fear, distrust of the government is the basis of the GOP's power over the uninformed. They learned it at Reagan's knee..and our president is continuing to perpetuate this crap.

[indepat]

30. As an observer of the political scene in DC since the early days of WWII, I had every hope BHO

would put the country on a new course of hope, justice, and fiscal sanity rather than ratify most of junior's destructive policies and actions and fail to pursue prosecution of the most egregious lawbreakers. Failure to seize the opportunity the right the floundering ship of state constitutes by far my greatest disappointment in an elected official. :D