TRAVIS JOHNSON OP-ED : Last Stand for Health Care
By HHR | March 1st, 2010 | Category: Featured, General, HHR Contributors | 8 comments
By Travis Johnson
“ObamaCare” is coming. The House will get the votes and the Senate will use reconciliation. This is inevitable.
The problem is the Republican leadership’s actions have made them complicit in the Democrat’s action. The Democrats had no reason to negotiate with them, or bring them into the process (do we really think the Republicans would have given super-majorities in both Houses?) and the Republicans never gave them a reason to negotiate. The only thing we said was “we’ll filibuster!” Apparently no one told Mitch McConnell about the reconciliation rule that existed.
This is very obviously an election tactic by the Republican leadership to get their base fired up for the 2010 election. And it very well may work. Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts were all referenda on how the American Right feels about the massive reform legislation OPR (Obama-Pelosi-Reid) are forcing on us. The Right will come out in droves to vote in 2010 and we may take back the majority in one or both Houses.
The very real problem is that, in the meantime, OPR’s bill will have been turned into law. And, as long as Obama is in office, he will not sign legislation to overturn it. Which means that law will be in effect at least through 2012. Even if we manage to unseat Obama, getting rid of government programs is much harder than preventing them from starting. Are we prepared to dedicate another year or more of our energy to then overturn it? I expect not.
This is why obstruction as a governing tactic does not work. Not if you’re more serious about governing than you are about your team’s W’s and L’s.
Here’s a suggestion for our Republican Leadership, assuming they are seriously about really blocking this bill:
Offer 90 or 60 days to renegotiate this bill. That would mean two or three months to start over and try to come to a real bipartisan conclusion. If the Democrats will negotiate in good faith, at the end of those 90 days, we will take the filibuster off the table. Reconciliation won’t be necessary and the majority can continue with their bill as it exists.
If the Democrats don’t accept it, fine. We’ll have offered in good faith to negotiate. They’ll have demonstrated that they are the ones who’d rather dictate than legislate. We’ll have proven our willingness to do what is best for America. We can carry that forward into the election of 2010 and beyond.
The Battles of Thermopylae, Custer’s Last Stand and the Alamo, are legendary stories about people who were slaughtered in battles, whose defeats became rallying cries for their countrymen. John Boehner and Mitch McConell seem to be counting on this as we move into the 2010 election cycle and using the examples of Leonidas, Custer and Colonel Travis to lead the Republican minorities. The problem here is we are not war with an invading force. We are all Americans. Willingness to negotiating isn’t a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of statesmanship.
If we are serious about not just stopping this bill, but real reform which will both improve the lives of Americans and not bankrupt future generations, we must negotiate. We really have nothing to lose at this point and everything to gain.
Travis Johson is the Founder of Republicans United a group seeking to bring the “Big Tent” back to the Republican Party.
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what da fuck?u people are making me sick.So what u are saying is that poor people don’t deserve medical treatment??And what in da name of funk has rebuplican party to do with hip hop????this hole website is a huge scam and false rebuplican propaganda and nothing more.u all are just niggaz without attidude.U all are been payed to write this bullshit and i can bet my balls that most of the “writers” in this page cant even name elements of hip hop!!Yeah keep it 4 real and sell your soul 4 money.Fucking dumbass bitches!im gona go and throw up bigtime!
I’m going to try to hit your responses 1 by 1.
Not by any stretch have we said poor people shouldn’t get medical care . Actual poor people (those below the poverty line) already get medical in this country through Medicare and Medicaid. OPR’s plan would actually reduce the money going toward that. I’d really like you to point to anything in this article that implied I thought poor people shouldn’t get treatment.
As to being “niggaz without attitude,” well, I’ll leave that as it stands.
I wish I’d been “payed” or even paid to write these posts. But, no. Sometimes people write what they actually think.
Break dancing, DJing, graffiti, rapping and beat boxing.
Forcing yourself to throw up is a really dangerous thing to try. I’d advise maybe some Tums or Pepto instead.
Oh, and:
Breakdancing, Beat boxing, DJing, Rap and Graffiti
I really appreciate your op-ed and your mature perspective in all of this.
I don’t have no ideas on how health care reform could and should be enacted, but my sister has been a healthcare consultant for several years and she supports the health care reform and the public option (despite the fact that both of us tend to prefer smaller government over large). Based on the years that she’s been working in different hospitals trying to help them operate in a more economically feasible manner I trust her opinion and have decided to support health care reform as well (my family, after all, is uninsured and I only have insurance through my school).
That said, I have a lot of respect for what you wrote because I can see that your beef is with HOW health care is being reformed and not the fact that it is a bunch of democrats who are writing the bill. Personally, that is all I’ve seen from republicans–they seem to have no interest in trying to reform healthcare and are instead just trying to “fire up the base” and throw tantrums about President Obama being in office. Grow up already! Obama is in office and Republicans are the minority in congress–just deal with it, move on, and have your voice/view heard. If Republicans don’t start acting like they are a part of congress, then they will be completely ignored and the democratic agenda will move forward, the way it is moving forward right now.
I hope Republicans start changing their tactics to something along the lines of what you have suggested, because I will not be voting for a single Republican in the coming election if they don’t. As in independent voter, I am very close to being convinced of the Republicans’ greater interest in the politics of Washington and winning elections than in the welfare of our country.
Tero – I doubt you even read the article.
It amazes me that after all this time, and talk, so many of us, the author included, do not yet know that this move by Obama and his gang of Chicago thugs and “progressives” has nothing to do with healthcare or healthcare reform. Wake up my brethern! Stalin, I believe it was, said that the surest way to communism is to take over the healthcare system! Check me on that. The problem here is that apparently you all don’t recognize a revolution when you see one. Or more properly, an “evolution” into socialism, Marxism, communism, or whatever term you may prefer! But, you had better wake up and smell the coffee! There is no free lunch! All those sweet smelling promises of “free-this” and “free-that” and “free healthcare for all” ain’t nothin but sucker bait! Have y’all not noticed that practically all black elected officials, the NAACP, the so-called “black caucus” are all “left wing” or “liberals” or “progressives”? What do you think this all means? Well, you better find out and you better hurry! Your liberty is at stake!
The Democrats needs this to pass as soon as possible in order to give them enough time to do damage control.
Another long “summer of love” would prove disastrous for the president worst than the “tea bag” movement that wasn’t real.
This monster wouldn’t start for 3 year anyway……. A Republican President along with a Super Majority in both houses could change anything….
How can anyone look at what’s happened with this bill and even suggest it has anything to do with the Republicans? The White House basically told the “OTHER SIDE” F*ck Y*u we don’t need you.
Do you really think they even contemplated the notion of a Republican in Kennedy’s seat? (REASON FOR PRESIDENT DRINKING 2much)
Please…… Democrats held it up! Republican only pointed out the Facts and let the People make up their minds.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
That is how Republicans are complicit. Standing around and shouting about the wrongness of something doesn’t work in a mature, adult society. If anything, it makes people walk away from you. Republicans (collectively) never offered a counter bill or said anything about being open to negotiate. We campaigned instead of legislated.
If, as I stated in a previous article, we can agree that (1) Health Care costs too much and (2) Too many people who want health care can’t afford it, then it shouldn’t be too far a walk to find some middle ground.
Great article. A few points though.
“Actual poor people (those below the poverty line) already get medical in this country through Medicare and Medicaid. OPR’s plan would actually reduce the money going toward that. I’d really like you to point to anything in this article that implied I thought poor people shouldn’t get treatment.”
This is true and false. How many poor people can access needed specialists through current state and federal plans. Not many. Many of the specialist have move away from accepting medicare and medicare. Allot of time poor people are left going to the ER when their condition become untreatable forcing the tax payer to pay much more than if they had insurance.The middle class is getting squeezed in the meantime In this healthcare debate there are a few things to consider.
1) The Republican Healh Care plans also calls for reducing the money going towards Medicare and Medicaid and pushing the savings towards new entitlements. Not one GOP will vote for this bill though. They want their country back.
2) The Republican Candidate (McCain) called for an individual mandate because serious people know that the “uninsured” tax the system and raise cost and force the government to pay for them anyway. Not one GOP will vote for this bill though. They want their country back.
3) There is little difference between “ObabmaCare” and the RomneyCare.” Without this reform small businesses, big bussiness will continue to fail to compete wiht other industrialized countries that cover this. Single Payer would be great and the public option would do fine to create and sustain jobs. The reason this bill is so big is because the DNC has been scared into not affecting the insurance companies and had to use a series of small steps to ensure they did not fail. Not one GOP will vote for this bill though. They want their country back.
4) The health care reform was held up in commitees to include Republican support. While the GOP was campaigning on death panels, rationing, and reparations. The GOP was never serious about fixing healthcare and they are being disengenious in asking the country to start over. Not one GOP will vote for this bill though. They want their country back.
5) Please disregard Kero post. Its big business to convince black people that speaking like that is the only way black people should behave. Many find it hard to shake themselves from the marketing of that “brand” of black culture.