Did Repubs Even Listen?

We picked up one physical newspaper and I have since looked at a few virtual newspapers online and I'm left shaking my head and bewildered at many comments made by Republican representatives in the House and Senate concerning President Obama's health care plan speech made earlier this week.

It seems like they didn't listen at all, as the vast majority of the statements made by the Repubs are diametrically opposed to what Obama said. Here are some examples, from The Denver Post:

"... what the Democrats' plan proposes is a government takeover of the entire health care industry that will force Americans out of their current plans and will have a tremendous cost that can only result in higher taxes and a larger deficit." Rep. Doug Lamborn.

"I heard loud and clear from my constituents this August that the current Democrat proposals are unacceptable -- they won't help reduce costs and they'll kill millions of small-business jobs." Rep. Mike Coffman

In no way did Obama's plan hint at a government takeover of the industry. In fact, he went out of his way to say and ensure that it was the opposite-- he WANTS insurance companies to be around for more competition and he specifically said in no way will anyone with insurance be forced to change or switch that insurance. He also said (and I am dubious of this claim myself, but I'm just reminding you of what he said in his speech) that a bipartisan group of economists believes they can pay for this plan without raising taxes and without increasing the deficit.

As to the second... I find it incredible that Coffman reps for a group made up entirely of psychics and prognosticators! They found a plan that Obama had YET TO PROPOSE OR INTRODUCE so unacceptable. Also, apparently none of them, or the rep himself, understood anything about the tax credits and incentives that Obama believes will make the plans affordable to small-business owners.

While I'm not entirely sold on everything Obama said in his speech, I find it ironic that so many reps of either house, primarily Repubs, are saying and doing exactly what Obama said they would do (and actually took them to task and said they shouldn't continue saying).

Shortly after the speech, Rep. Charles Boustany actually said in an interview "Replacing your family's current health care with government-run health care is not the answer" and he's right-- which is why Obama specifically said that is NOT what his plan will do, should do, or wants to do. Weren't you listening? If you could not listen to this simple, fairly straightforward speech and understand that, then how can you listen to your thousands, perhaps millions of people who you represent in Louisiana?

I have my doubts about Obama's plan. I doubt it can be done without taxes or without increasing the deficit. While I applaud the comments about cutting waste from the Medicaid and Medicare programs to help the funding, I am dubious about whether that can happen, how quickly, and how much money will be saved.

When he spoke of cutting "other programs" and "government waste" I cringed; the representatives of the states with these unnamed programs will fight for them hard and long and might make it impossible to rid our bloated government of this waste... especially is it may affect the Rep's pocketbook directly.

Also, on a couple of these key points that the Repubs seem to be most anxious, Obama specifically said he was looking for THEM to give HIM ideas and plans to solve the issue/problem he brought up within the framework of his overall goals... so why aren't they proposing their own plans? Why are they instead only saying that his plan will not work without saying what they would do that would work? If you want a say, and you want to make sure that the plan covers areas in which you have concerns, then DO something, SAY something positive to get the results you want, don't just poo-poo what is out there now.

The good things I got from Obama's speech:

• Making it illegal to deny a person from having or getting insurance due to pre-existing conditions. As one who has a pre-existing condition and lived a long time with that fear driving me, I know first-hand that no one should have that fear or pay those exhorbitant costs when changing jobs or fired from a job.
• Making it illegal for a company to drop or change coverage when you get sick and have to use the insurance. The entire point of insurance is to have it when you need it; the company underwriting your policy shouldn't be able to yank that out from under you just when you need it most and after you've paid hundreds to thousands of dollars into it.

Obama's goals and the plans he proposed are legitimate first steps in the direction toward a universal system. I think there are a lot of good ideas in those plans and goals and I think America should look outside her boarders at the many similar systems that work in other countries. Namely, I think America should look at the French, Japanese, and German systems of universal health care, each of which has a piece of the solution and would make for a good model of what is right and how to work it. Whereas as many of my friends and acquaintances point to the Canadian system as a plan, it does not work well, has huge delays, and requires taxation that Americans would never find acceptible, so should not be considered (except maybe for drug costs).

The one thing that Repubs are absolutely right about and that they should keep an eye on as the Dems move forward with their plans to meet the goals the President proposed is that competition is absolutely essential to making this work. If at any time any of the plans do away with competition (and, FYI, the President's planned "gov't option" was specifically and repeatedly mentioned as only one option, not getting rid of or interfering with any existing insurance options), it should be decried and denounced.

Until then, I suggest the Repubs take up the Dems and President's challenge and actually start thinking about and proposing ideas that will meet Obama's goals but are in some way more palatable to their thinking. It is time to either shit or get of the toilet and DO SOMETHING instead of simply playing devil's advocate and otherwise not getting hands dirty.