The first half of the president's vaunted bipartisan health care summit is over and something unusual is happening. Obama is getting his ass handed to him. Many were worried that the summit would be a huge political boon for the president. Instead, Republicans are hammering Obama who seems flustered without his teleprompter.
Probably the best take down was done by Sen. Tom Coburn. Coburn explained that 15% of health care costs in America could be saved if the government prosecuted fraud in Medicare. He pointed out that one out of every three Medicare dollars doesn't go towards patient care but towards bureaucracy and corruption. He noted that only 1% of health care fraud is in the private sector. He asked the president why he was planning more government-run health care when the current government-run health care is so full of waste. Obama's response? He rushed to agree with Coburn even though his bill does nothing to address these problem. It isn't about actually cutting costs, after all. It's about a government takeover.
There was more. Rep. Paul Ryan nailed the president for creating more regulations when regulations hurt mostly small businesses. Sen. Jon Kyl hit Obama for lying about whether the health care bill would increase premiums. (It would, as the CBO pointed out.) Sen. John McCain took the president to task for the secret deals made in the health care bill.
Obama's response? He tried to interrupt Republicans constantly. He complained about the time limits, even though a Democratic senator pointed out that no one had been told there were time limits. He whined that Republicans should talk about things they agree about rather than attacking the bill.
We'll have the videos up as soon as possible. Obama only held this farce of a meeting to create the illusion of bipartisanship on health care. Instead the president is coming off as pompous while Republicans tear him to pieces.
No comments:
Post a Comment