Bill Clinton couldn’t do it. Richard Nixon couldn’t do it. Neither could Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman, nor Franklin or Teddy Roosevelt.
But sometime today or tomorrow, President Barack Obama will sign health care reform into law, delivering on one of his top campaign promises.
I’m just sayin’….
Like ALL legislation out of DC, from either party, it’s not perfect and folks on the left AND right are unhappy with it for various reason. Overall it’s a good step. There ARE things wrong with it and they can be changed. This isn’t magic. It’s just laws. It can be repealed or amended.
Remember that Medicare was socialist and going to destroy our country according to Ronald Reagan (before he became President of course) and he could have campaigned on repealing it and attempted it (of course he didn’t, it would be political suicide, the VAST majority of our citizens want this program).
So if the Republicans don’t like THIS bill…change it. They will be in power again, whether it’s 2012, 2014, 2016, etc. So get in office, repeal this. Tell the public you’re campaigning on a promise to let insurance companies drop you or deny you for pre-existing conditions. I’m not sure how that sounds, and if you can get elected promising THAT change, but feel FREE to go for it! More power to you girl!
Also shut down the IRS, get rid of the Dept of Education, cut the budget in half, outlaw abortion, etc…all those things they keep saying they want. Go for it. You know, you HAD Congress AND the Presidency from 2000-2006 and you’re have it again someday. It’s how government works.
To be fair to LBJ, Medicare was a bigger reform than this. But being second to LBJ in legislative accomplishment on anything is hardly a mark against Obama. And so far, Obama doesn’t have his version of Vietnam to stain that record.
Even if Obama does nothing else in his presidency, he’s still the best president since at least LBJ. Maybe that’s damning with faint praise, but it’s true.
So far Obama has kept our banking system from totally collapsing, and passed one of the biggest health care fixes since Medicare. So, not bad.
This is the WORST nightmare for Republicans. See if the Republicans had managed to STOP this bill, they could have claimed that SAVED YOUR GRANDMA from the death panels! And Sarah Palin would. But now that it’s passed, and people notice there ARE no death panels, it wasn’t true, the Republicans WILL LOOK LIKE THE LIARS THEY ARE! No death panels, never were, they were just making that up. But these are the crazies who think Obama is a secret Muslim Kenyan here to outlaw Christianity and steal our guns. When that DOESN’T happen, I wonder if the nutbags on the right will admit they’re wrong? Just like Reagan admitted he was wrong and Medicare didn’t destroy our way of life? Oh, that’s right, he didn’t, and Medicare is now used by 98% of ALL OLD RIGHT WING REPUBLICANS. ROTFLMAO. IRONY is FUN!
@3: Include the following Obama accomplishments, also:
Getting out of Iraq on a timetable without losing the country to terrorists.
Finishing the job in Afghanistan that Bush screwed up.
Leading the reform efforts for the banking industry,
Shutting down Gitmo
Stopping the Bush depression
Concentrating on jobs in the US
Health care coverage for children up to age 26
Tax credits for education
Tax the rich for universal health care coverage
Oh, and this bill will save money – despite the fact it is missing the public option that could have saved even more.
Compare this to the republican accomplishments … um, there are none!
My wingnut relatives are all in full froth. It is actually rather amusing. Hopefully Obama and the Democrats in Congress decide they like having the GOP sputtering incoherently and push through more of that Hope and Change we voted for 18 months ago.
Having Democrats known as the party that gets shit done will go over much better than the DLC Republican-lite crap the DLC and Blue Dogs have been pushing since 1988.
@4 There ARE Republican accomplishments!
* Spending a huge surplus and driving us into debt.
* Starting two war and putting them on credit because they were afraid to ask the public to pay for them (you know, fiscal responsibility)
* Making the government bigger. Not merging a SINGLE of our 23 intelligence agencies (NSA, CIA, DIA, etc) and just adding another (Homeland Security).
* Adding new welfare benefits (Medicare drug program), but again without any way to pay for it.
* Giving secret close deal non-bid contracts for BILLIONS to the company the Vice President worked for IMMEDIATELY before becoming Vice President. How THAT isn’t illegal I don’t know. Amazing. Also giving another hundreds of millions to another non-bid closed door contract (Blackwater), run by a evangelical huge Republican supporter/donor. And the Republicans are OUTRAGED about ‘dealings’ to pass this health care bill. ROTFLMAO. PRICELESS. It’s like they have NO sense of immediate history, no short term memory at ALL! It’s like all Republicans are that lead character from the movie Memento.
* Going from a President with 90% approval rating (highest) to 23% (lowest in history). That takes EFFORT! That IS an accomplishment.
* Torture. We started doing things that we prosecuted the Japanese for doing to US in World War 2…but it was the “ends justify the means” argument. That made us look like the “bad guys” to much of the world. You can’t torture. It’s immoral. We’re supposed to be the good guys, not just the most powerful guys, there IS A DIFFERENCE! Who would Jesus torture after all?
Curious…. what happened to all the teabagging glibertarian chicken little commenters?
Packing their bags for departure to Costa Rica with Rushbo? Crying in their
coffeeEnglish Breakfast Tea?Maybe they’ve finally sobered up and are willing to use…intelligence and reason, and they all joined the Coffee Party (http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/).
Wow. This sop of sorts to the insurance companies has totally silenced the KLOWN and the fiend.
Cheer up fools. Rich people will get richer because of this legislation.
Now we gotta make sure those idiot tax cuts expire so can pay for some of this stuff.
Conservative Blogger Threatened To Kill Obama
The Secret Service confirmed today it is investigating a conservative blogger who used his Twitter account to urge the assassination of President Obama, AOL News reports.
Threatening the president is a federal crime, even if the blogger didn’t intend to follow through on his statements, the article notes.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/st...../19408303/
Rep. Ryan Is A Hypocrite
Rep. Paul Ryan, the latest darling of the right, has acted as the point person for his party in criticizing the financial aspects of the health reform bill. He accused Democrats of manipulating the numbers, which he says is “the oldest trick in the book.”
But wait a minute …
“Well, not quite the oldest. The oldest might be not bothering to pay for a new benefit at all. That’s what the GOP did in 2003 with its new Medicare prescription drug program — and Ryan voted for it, twice.”
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2.....-november/
Politically…
The legislation passes and Obama looks great.
The Republicans lose and totally look like shit.
Win-Win as far as I’m concerned…
Practically…
The system will never be the same and signals the beginnin g of the end of the for-profit healthcare industry. Not perfect, but a good start.
Ryan, Kantor, skin-cancer man, the Kentucky ghoul in the Senate – bunch of shrill, irrelevant fools..
@7
Costa Rica has universal healthcare!