The real enemy to health care reform is the GOP

[Nancy Waterman]

Let's not forget it and create a circular firing squad. Without them and their unprecedented use of the filibuster, we would have a much more comprehensive and progressive bill. There is nothing Obama could have done to change that, and it gave unprecedented power to the Blue Dogs and Lieberman, who are also at fault, imo.

[CTLawGuy]

1. I will K&R

because you are dead on, but the people who think Obama is a king won't listen unfortunately.

[Richardo]

2. Thank you for that much-needed PSA

:patriot: and rec.

[midnight]

3. If your explanation is correct, the power of the filibuster, the blue dogs,

and Lieberman are more of a support to the Gop, then why not show the American People what standing up for something means. Obama and Dems. should have taken this occasion and let the power of the filibuster be shown for what it is-A THREAT. And while those groups whittled the public option out, they had help from our President. He decided that to discriminate against an adult population with pre-existing conditions was acceptable for another four years. How can such a smart man accept such a carefully wrapped package of discrimination? It is my hope that some smart attorney will show this administration that this is unexceptable...

[tandot]

4. K & R

[kenfrequed]

5. Uhm

Yeah sure, we expect scorpians to be scorpians. So to blame the GOP for doing exactly what we know they will do is silly. What we expect better of are our fellow Democrats. But what do we get? Baucus and the blue Dogs.

[HughMoran]

7. There ya go again - blame the Dems because the Republicans are, oh, wait a minute

Lieberman is NOT a Democrat!

Opps, your line is not true.

[HughMoran]

6. Hear! Hear!

[tavalon]

8. There is a distinct possibility that there really was nothing Obama could have done,

but we'll never know because he didn't DO anything. He seemed entirely uninterested in putting his two cents worth in, though he did invite big pharma, insurance and hospital execs to a meeting early on. Not real helpful, you know?

Don't worry, most of us know there is plenty of blame to go around. We know that the Republicans are doing the lockstep obstructionist crap but unfortunately, now they will get to spin it to say they refused to vote for such an awful bill (and many people who aren't paying enough attention to the process will believe them). We handed them that on a silver platter. They are not smart but we just made them look smart.

[HughMoran]

9. He "seemed" entirely uninterested

Yes, he did "seem" that way. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. He wanted Congress to do this without him seemingly strong-arming them, though he did have 2 conspicuous meetings with Congress where he spoke to them.

[tavalon]

12. Oh, I get it!

He was playing chess. That's why so many of us are feeling check mated!

[HughMoran]

19. Hey, whatever snarks your boat

Can't agree - throw snark at me - what-ever.

[katandmoon]

11. Bingo.

[uponit7771]

16. He did NOTHING?!?? You forget the /sarcasm tag

[tavalon]

29. No, I didn't

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

21. Perhaps you'd have preferred how Clinton handled it.

Except that his method didn't get him even 1/10th as far as Obama.

[freddie mertz]

10. Obama has no power and can do nothing, which is why we should praise him...

... for accomplishing so much, except for what he couldn't accomplish, because he has no power....



:banghead: :dilemma: :puffpiece: :boring: :hurts: :nopity:

[uponit7771]

15. We should praise him for using his abilities to get what he said he'd get done not chide him for...

...things he has no control over.

[treestar]

27. He does not have direct power over congress

That is a good thing.

[JamesA1102]

13. Agreed. Excellent post. nt.

[uponit7771]

14. Yeap, so true

[johnaries]

17. THANK YOU! K&R

[JimWis]

18. K&R

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

20. K&R

Let's not forget that because not one last Republican crossed the aisle, THAT is what gave Lieberman and Nelson the power they enjoy.

[liberal N proud]

22. kick

[Stand and Fight]

23. Unrecommended. n/t

[Cha]

24. Thanks Nancy, I

really appreciate the reminder of the obstructionists here.

[stevenleser]

25. K&R - Absolutely correct

Nancy gets it.

[treestar]

26. K & R

DU has forgotten about the friggin republicans

[Number23]

28. Rec'd

[hulka38]

30. No, no and no. This dog don't hunt either. The Democrats went down with a phantom punch.

They are being called on it by people who are paying attention and now they're desperately trying to do damage control - blame the GOP. The problem with that is the GOP doesn't have the power to stop HCR. The Republicans in this position would have rammed a key policy through with reconciliation as they had done many times under Bush. Our political system is run by lobbyists. The fight was over before it began.

[Cha]

31. Don't be in denial..of course there were dinos who played the fool..

but the repukes were responsible just as the OP wrote.

[hulka38]

32. You were surprised that the Reblowchuncklicans would be 100% against a real reform bill?

[stevenleser]

33. It doesnt matter if any of us were surprised or not.

Once the 40 Senate Rethuglicans decided to put a united front agaisnt ANY HCR, the die was cast. Any of the other 60, and that includes two senators who are NOT Democrats, were in a position to monkey with the whole process.

You can decide to be angry at anyone you want to be angry with, but if you don't start with the 40 Republican senators, your anger is at least partially misplaced.

[hulka38]

34. The Reeattheirownpooplicans were going to vote against any HCR bill proposed.

I knew that in November as did Obama and all the other Democratic Senators. That's who they are and that's what they do. It's a given. Hell, the Dems stripped out the meaningful reform from the bill and they still won't vote for it. The most insulting part is the Dems now acting as though the GOP blindsided them when the reality is they saw it coming a mile away. The question was, how do you make a good HCR bill into law if you know well ahead of time that 39 or 40 Redorklicans are going to be against it? The easy answer is to do what the GOP did the whole time when GWB was in power when they had a much smaller majority and pass it piece meal by reconciliation. The Dems had plenty of time to strategize this. There weren't too many options. They're intelligent people. They wouldn't be breaking precedent. And the public was behind them. All that was lacking was the will to do it. They chose failure.

[stevenleser]

35. It's always so easy in hindsight to choose the exact correct option

You, of course, are not taking into account that Obama promised MANY times in the campaign to try to govern in a bipartisan manner, to invite Republicans to work with us on Health Care Reform and various other issues. For Obama to have recommended reconciliation up front would have been correctly identified as a campaign promise break.

[hulka38]

36. If it were the Republicans dealing with a key issue, they would have made it look easy

I never said Obama had to demand reconciliation up front. I don't know where you got that. It isn't what I would recommend. He and the senate Dems could have worked in futility for months on a bipartisan compromise with people who everyone knew weren't going to compromise. Then, make it clear that they would use reconciliation if needed. The Republicans know all about that. Why should the 40's line in the sand hold more weight than the 60's? Why does the 60 ultimately need to bend to the 40? We were bulldozed all the time when it was 53 to 47 going the other way.