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Are the Republicans finally surrendering on health care reform?
Josh just posted this at the Mothership. The republicans will support health care reform if all the proposed reforms are optional?
Hmmmmmm...
They want the Public Option to be optional? Fine not a problem at all, I can live with that "compromise". People should be able to keep their current health care if they want to. Let's get the thing passed...
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Yeah if people still want to pay $1,000+ per month for insurance which you'll be denied coverage for if you ever become sick and have the premiums go up 25%+ every year they should have the right to have that. Who am I to say.
I am glad reasonable minds are prevailing...get the pen ready Mr. President.
August 28, 2009 1:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
LET US PRAY.
August 28, 2009 4:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
AMEN
:)
August 28, 2009 9:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Keeping your current healthcare is a misleading statement Obama has been making. Would people want to keep their current insurance if they were told it's going to get worse because of the public option? I don't think so.
The public option is not going to operate in a vacuum. It is going to have an impact on people's private plans that they have today. But of course Obama isn't being honest about that. He just says - if you like your plan you can keep it. That's only half the story.
PS - I didn't see anything in Josh's post or Armey's quote that showed signs of surrender. But it made a good headline for you.
August 28, 2009 8:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well Bill if their contention is that if the public option is only an option they will support it I don't see where there can be any more obstacles. In fact people keeping their private insurance if there is a public option is the perfect scenario. They will keep the system viable as the public option drives down premiums,
Let's do this...I am all for choice too.
August 28, 2009 9:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Did you actually listen to the interview? Armey never said that he supported the "public option".
He is very much against what the President and leaders in Congress have been proposing.
August 28, 2009 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why? He isn't for choice in the marketplace? All I know he said if the public option was truly optional, which it would be, he would be ok with it.
Just shows me how intellectually defeated the RW is...their logic and arguments are contradictory. They don't know what they want or what they support. If this represents where they are they might as well surrender or they will be routed.
August 28, 2009 10:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Did you listen to the interview? When did he speak about the "public option"?
August 28, 2009 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Libertine - sorry if I missed your answer. But I was wondering if a) you listened to the Armey interview? and b) when in that interview did he talk about the "public option"??
August 28, 2009 11:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bill just settle down. I know Armey isn't in favor of any kind of policy which he would view as socialism. I was just having some fun doing what I have watched conservatives do by spinning and misrepresenting what a political opponent said.
Kinda like the right when they misrepresent Obama's health care proposals and say it would lead to death panels, health care for illegal immigrants, lead to socialism destroying our great country and western civilization as we know it.
How'd you like a taste of the right's own medicine?
August 29, 2009 1:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks - I just wondered if you had bothered to listen to the actual interview or just read the "Media Matters" site.
I guess I should have known when I saw the words "Media Matters" not to take it seriously.
August 29, 2009 1:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well a point I will stick by is conservatives like Armey are getting so dizzy from their spin they don't even know when they have spun themselves completely upside down and are actually bolstering arguments for the liberal side. That was the main thrust of this post...not that Armey is actually in favor of the public option. And I think that is what Media Matters was pointing out too.
August 29, 2009 1:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
You are trying to equate being in favor of options with being in favor of the "Public Option". That's a huge stretch to make that comparison.
Armey has been very consistent with his message from the very beginning (I am not saying I agree or disagree with his position)
August 29, 2009 7:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
I lostened to the Armey interview - and immediately fired off an e-mail to NPR.
Armey very deftly made the point that somehow "industry is backing Obama's effort" whereas Freedom Works was presented as a legitimate grassroots campaign.
It would have been highly appropriate to ask Armey at this juncture in the interview where the majority of funding comes from to support Freedom Works, but NPR chose instead to let slip by one of the most egregious liars and corporate hacks to ever to have served in the halls of Congress.
Bad enough to offer airtime to patently dishonest players such as Armey, but inexcusable to allow him to spout his talking points unchallenged.
August 29, 2009 1:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well I didn't even bother listening to the interview SJ. I knew what he'd be pitching. He is a shill and a well paid one. King of the astroturfers, tea baggers and corporate mercenaries. I agree why NPR put him on, especially unchallenged, is beyond me.
August 29, 2009 1:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm glad you finally admit that you didn't even bother to listen to the interview which you chose to blog about.
August 29, 2009 7:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think he was just trying to compare the relative magnitude's of the PhRMA spending to FreedomWorks.
It would have been OK to ask him this question but that doesn't change his point that Big Pharma is spending a lot more than FreedomWorks.
August 29, 2009 7:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bill, you continually stretch so incredibly far in an attempt grasp some shred of defense for the indefensible, be it Armey and Freedom Works, Cheney and his criminal enterprise, or whatever. Surely you know how such contortions undermine your credibility, no?
And btw... I do not recall hearing anything that touched upon Freedom Works' spending. Did you actually listen to the interview?
August 29, 2009 11:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not trying to defend Armey - just responding to your point. The original post here up top is really the one who's twisting and stretching somebody's words.
Yep, I listened to the whole thing twice. I'll go back and try to put a transcript together for you. But he made the point that FW's spending is much less than industry such as PhRMA. It was around the middle of the interview.
August 29, 2009 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink