The Repubs wish to repeal healthcare reform but they say they want to make it better...

[kentuck]

So, why not let us have that debate? Lets open it up to the public and see which Party can come up with the best solutions to healthcare? If they say they have better solutions, then let's hear them. Maybe they do? Maybe they don't? Both sides deserve a fair hearing.

Let's see who can come up with the best solutions for the people? Instead of the insurance companies. Let the debate begin...

I'm putting my money on the Democrats...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. We already had that debate...

They refused to participate.

They truly are the Party of No.

NO ideas

NO goodness

NO humanity

and the list goes on...

:shrug:

[kentuck]

3. They say they want to repeal it.

Let us hear what they want to replace it with?

[54anickel]

2. As long as the debate comes before the repeal...

cuz you know damned well they are lying and the will do NOTHING once it's been repealed.

[kentuck]

4. The President will veto anything that attempts to sabotage his reform.

So nothing is going to happen for at least two years.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

5. Make it better? really? Give us universal healthcare.

[mtnsnake]

6. Republicans only know how to do one thing

....lie through their teeth.

[CBHagman]

7. The only talking points I generally hear from Republicans are...

1. Scrap the whole health care reform legislation and start over -- an approach, by the way, that came from focus groups.
2. Rely on the free market.
3. Allow people to buy insurance across state lines.
4. Pass tort reform.
5. Use health savings accounts/catastrophic care policies.

To give you an idea how some of the talking points run, read the transcript of the interview with Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) below. Notice that he generally repeats boilerplate and doesn't get into specifics.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/pence_03-25.html

Since the GOP was just tumbling all over itself to make themselves useful during the months of work that went into the health care debate, including the White House health care summit -- at which Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), himself a physician, declared that patients' first thought must be forc cost, instead of whether their insurance covers a particular procedure -- and then came away sneering about backroom deals.

I'm one of those DUers who believes in making alliances and collecting Republican support where possible, but the political landscape has changed and moreover the GOP has no motivation to make deals with Obama; they only have to hammer him, get the media (and the public) to repeat their talking points, and hope that things get worse so that a GOP Congress and president can be voted in in in 2012. This is the party that smeared Graeme Frost and his family during the SCHIP debate. This is the party that made a circus out of Terri Schiavo's last days. This is the party that put forth the myth of death panels.

What makes you think they're going to negotiate in good faith?

[applegrove]

8. We've done health care. It wasn't perfect but there is no way we should open it up to be gutted by

those crazy SOBs in the GOP. SOBs in the GOP, SOBs in the GOP, SOBs in the GOP!!

[kentuck]

9. Do you think it can be improved upon?

The Repubs will run the House. They can bring it up if they want. Why not challenge them to make it better? Otherwise it will be vetoed by the President.

[applegrove]

10. The way to improve it best would be to make it public and the gop

will never go for that. So forget it. Most Americans are worried about health care so the majority support HCR. They are just quiet about it. Perhaps under-confident in their ability to asses how good a plan it will be (and how inexpensive).

Opening it up to the GOP will just allow the GOP to demonize parts of it and confuse the general public. Which is what they are great at. I say fight the good fight to keep HCR as it is. And explain loudly why it will work. And keep selling it to the public as it is. And as different parts of it are implemented people will like it.

One thing we do not hear enough is how not only equitable health care reform is...but that it is more efficient than the old system. This should be taught to people all across the USA. That you really can save money and extend coverage. This should be a mantra of the Obama WH and the
dems in congress.