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A Good Thing
October 25, 2010 | 6 comments
The Spectacle Blog
This afternoon, on my radio show, I had a modest proposal for my Republican friends on Capitol Hill, which I've fleshed out a little more here:
The President is reaching out to Republicans; he says he wants to hear their best ideas on health care, and he wants them to help him get his health care agenda back on track. But boy, the American people sure aren't clamoring for that. I've got a message for them. Mr. President, the latest poll numbers show that 47 percent of the people say start over on health care. Another 23 percent say do nothing. In other words, a full 70 percent of Americans say do nothing or start over. So with that in mind, "do nothing or start over" is the beginning of your negotiating situation, not your position. Mr. President, it's over. And the Republicans better realize that, too. If they go into a high profile, televised meeting in one of the President's houses, Blair House, in this case, to talk about how they are going to work to achieve the details of his agenda, they are crazy.
Republicans, just take a deep breath, here. Consider this: basically, what President Obama is asking you, is this: "Save me. Come up with a plan. Come up with a plan to reach my goals."
Republicans should be saying: "Mr. President, how are you going to come up with a plan to fulfill your promise of no individual mandates? How are you going to fulfill your promise to have enough doctors to attend to people when you are sticking it to them left and right and they are getting out of the profession because of the rates you are forcing them to take?"
Also, let's be realistic. If the President and Republicans are really going to talk about the details of health care, as though two parties are negotiating, coming to the middle, a half-day wouldn't be enough time to determine the size of the conference table and who's going to sit around and what the procedures are going to be. This proposal is nothing more than a press conference. The president liked the press he got from the last time he surrounded himself with Republicans, calling them liars and accusing them of being disingenuous, though some of the Republicans weren't smart enough to know what he was saying to them. It worked out great for Obama, not so great for Republicans.
So if I were a Republican in Congress, I'd counter with this: Okay Mr. President, if we are going to do this at all, we have a proposal for you. We are a co-equal branch of government. Congress is in the first article of the Constitution. The Executive branch doesn't make it until the second. So our suggestion is that you come over and visit us. We'll decide who stands at the podium, and when and how you share the time. We'll decide the agenda and who the cameras are on, and how we divide the time, and so on. We'll do one under your set of suggestions and then we'll do one under ours.
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More Blog Posts by Fred Thompson
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/02/09/fred-thompsons-summit-advice
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Warrior| 2.9.10 @ 5:14PM
They should stay away completely. Republicans keep showing up for a gun battle with paint pellets. You can't beat him at his game, on his home turf, playing by his rules and the white house providing the referees.
zombyboy| 2.9.10 @ 6:03PM
I'm still sad we didn't end up with a President Thompson.
GrannyNanny| 2.9.10 @ 6:49PM
Amen Brother - Everyone thought I was nuts for supporting him but look at what we ended up with.
zombyboy| 2.10.10 @ 12:41AM
Yep. I did my duty and voted against "Hope and Change", but Thompson was the only one that I could bring myself to send money to and the only one I wholeheartedly supported.
He's a good man and I'm glad he's still in the game.
American Girl| 2.9.10 @ 6:10PM
EXACTLY. Get this advice to every Republican pol because it's perfect.
Pingback| 2.9.10 @ 7:08PM
Hot Air » Blog Archive » Is the GOP planning to attend Obama’s health care “summit” o links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
John - TMF| 2.9.10 @ 7:16PM
Dear GOP Leadership:
Remember when the um...smart[you know] kid in school or the club house was in trouble with the authorities, he always seemed to figure out how to con some sucker into showing up with him at the hearing for "moral support" and then walks out with a commendation, and the sucker with the probation.
The GOP needs to stay away from this trap with a long pole. The statement issued should be blunt, to the point, and delivered by someone with some reasonable "authority":
"The Chief Executive has invited Republicans to a dog and pony show designed to allow him to shift the blame, yet again, in the direction of the GOP.
Mr. Obama is seeking scapegoats for the failure of his government takeover of the entire health care industry. If we show up at this meeting, there will be nothing solved, and only finger pointing will result.
The GOP will rise to the challenge. We have substantive and useful recommendations for fixing what is not working with American health insurance. We have proposed these measures many times in the past, and they have been repeatedly ignored by the Democrats.
Their goal is obviously not to fix the small problems with our health care payment system. They want to have the government run it like the government runs Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. It does not matter what label they paste on the cover it is still an attempt control the lives of the American people. It will not provide quality health care.
It is time to call a halt to this rapid socialist usurpation. We must renew the spirit of liberty, entrepreneurship, and self-control in our lives.
Therefore, we will, on [some short suspense time in the near future] re-present our recomendatation in full. However, we will not do so at a photo-op with a man who is seeking to find someone else to blame for his own failings.
We look forward to the opportunity for the American people to hear from us directly.
Good day, and God Bless America."
humm... that would be nice...
r/The Mighty Fahvaag
Richard Baker| 2.9.10 @ 7:29PM
Fred Thompson validates what so many of us are thinking. Sorry that he didn't eventually run. I bought a Thompson 2008 hat from his website a week before he decamped. Maybe next time.
PCC| 2.9.10 @ 7:52PM
Good political advice from Mr. Thompson. However, as an option, "do nothing" comes a poor second to "start over".
There are real problems in the US healthcare system, e.g., high and rising healthcare costs, high and rising cost of medical insurance, lack of portability of insurance coverage, excessive mandates, and poor or no access to care for large numbers of Americans.
If Republicans have constructive solutions to these problems, then they should do a much better job of articulating and promoting them to the American public.
Like it or not, the "Party of No" label has some resonance and it will not be a winning slogan in 2012.
darcy| 2.9.10 @ 8:02PM
darcy's advice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded
Jim Hlavac| 2.9.10 @ 11:36PM
Thompson is more than right -- no, say no. Do not negotiate with that man. DO NOT go in and save his butt. He is a socialist, he is not negotiating, he is finagling. The Republicans should tell him to go sit in a corner and shush, wait to the end of his term, and go home to wherever it is he thinks he lives.
No.
If the Republicans work with him then the Tea Party will rise up and throw them out of office too. There is nothing to discuss.
Obama and his crew want to take over healthcare, and they will use any cover and mechanism, skulduggery and lies to achieve it.
Let him stew in his own juices. Now is the time to push the socialists to exclaiming what they want, and let them suffer. No.
darcy| 2.10.10 @ 4:38AM
You better d*** believe it, Jim Hlavac -- we will toss the whole sorry lot of them out on their keisters if they miss this opportunity to block once and for all this abysmally evil government health care grab.
And I am sick to death of hearing about health care; it's like the vampire you just spent 20 minutes driving a stake into, and you thought for sure he was dead, but then he comes back to life.
We don't want serfdom, we don't want socialism, lite -- dark, or medium -- we want FREE MARKETS and freedom. And if you rep pols don't pull out all the stops to get it, then we will term limit you. end of conversation.
darcy| 2.10.10 @ 4:44AM
And the next thing I want you guys (no PC here) to go after is Medicare, everybody's sacred cow, so entrenched now that everyone actually believes they have a right to it -- when the truth is that it's rife with fraud and abuse, and the multiple trillions of dollars of unfunded liability it represents is a very real threat to the well-being of MY GRANDCHILDREN!
Pingback| 2.10.10 @ 7:38AM
Health Care BS - FRED THOMPSON”S ADVICE TP GOP ON OBAMA’S “REFORM” SUMMIT links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
martin j smith| 2.10.10 @ 8:13AM
As someone said yesterday, If Republicans cave to Obama or are perceived to cave----third party time !!!!!!!!!!!!. Republicans would be seen as useless.
Tim| 2.10.10 @ 9:32AM
I have been dreading that some cabal of septuagenarian senators lead by John McCrazy to emerge and vote for Obamacare for the sake of massaging their own egos.
If Obama offers them the right combination of worthless features add ons it could still happen.
psutopgun| 2.10.10 @ 12:45PM
Thompson his the nail right on the head. Obama will never give on his toxic waste health care bill or any of his other social justice agenda. The best thing Republicans can do is tell him clean sheet or nothing. I don't trust the Republicans either.
Kyle Smith| 2.10.10 @ 2:34PM
If the GOP caves and supports another Democrat pie in the sky solution to their invented problems (i.e. Bush's judicial nominations, John Bolton's nomination, etc.) It's time to take down the GOP ship with a 3rd party. It will be a painful but necessary wipeout, to cleanse us of these spinelesss enablers of the unchecked advancement of socialism. If we are the boiling frog; the Democrats are the flame, but the GOP is the water. Time to jump out of the damn water already. GOP, THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE.
Xenos| 2.10.10 @ 3:49PM
Why would anyone attempt to negotiate with an individual whose attitude is 'my way or the highway'? Obama believes that he is on the side of the angels; that he is the prophet of the New Utopia. To Obama, Republicans are political troglodytes, misbegotten relics of the racist, misogynist past whose silly ideas can be casually dismissed. To Obama, compromise is the same as admitting that his opponents have a political and intellectual standing equal to his; it is the same as admitting that he is wrong. He will NEVER negotiate in good faith!
sre| 2.10.10 @ 7:30PM
If Reps don't show or don't negotiate in good faith, it gives the Dems cover for reconciliation with a dollop of blame for the Reps as the cherry on top.
The Reps have to show up and offer a plan. "Do nothing" isn't an option.
And I say this as a red Rep.
mike mccoy| 2.10.10 @ 10:38PM
The Republicans should simply say, "We'd like to wait until we have 60 Senators and a majority in the House, then we'll tackle the HealthCare problem."