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The Spectacle Blog
CBS News reports on more Republican wobbliness on Obamacare repeal. The latest wobbler is Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware: “You’re not going to be able to repeal this legislation. Now maybe we could if there’s an election for a new president and you have a couple of elections for Congress. I’d be willing to consider it.” But if the case for repeal isn’t made now, the momentum will be lost by the time you have a new president and Congress. And if it doesn’t happen before the subsidies kick in, repeal will be much more difficult.
Castle, like fellow Republican wobbler Mark Kirk, is running for Senate. Their recruitment was considered a major coup by the national party and they are two of the GOP’s likeliest pickup opportunities this fall. If Kirk and Castle are the new Republican majority, the only conservatism we’ll see is one that conserves liberalism’s gains no matter what some in the leadership say.
One small quibble with the CBS story: While they accurately quote from my column last week, they imply that I have a problem with the “repeal and replace” slogan. I don’t. Neither Republicans nor conservatives should position themselves as uncritical defenders of the pre-Obamacare system, which is far from a free market in health care. The messaging of repeal and replace is fine, though the substance would depend on what the Republicans wanted to “replace” Obamacare with. If Kirk and Castle end up the point men, I imagine it won’t be anything good.
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More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/04/12/more-republicans-against-repea
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Roy| 4.12.10 @ 2:30PM
Fine - let's go on making the case, and never mind the RINOs pandering to the media by stating the blatantly obvious in such a way as to sound like it's something he knows and we don't.
If there's a bill on the floor with 217 votes to repeal Obamacare this dude ain't gonna be the 218th vote against it.
Wendy| 4.12.10 @ 2:34PM
Rep. Castle had better do more than consider it--he had better support it. Who does he think he is? He is a Republican Representative of the people, dang it. If he is unwilling to vote yes on a repeal bill whenever and wherever it is presented, then he needs to strip the (R) behind his name and run as a Democrat.
We are not stupid. We understand there are not enough Republicans yet for it to pass. But if Republicans show us some good faith anyway in the meantime, then they will be rewarded with a return to power. This is a team effort, and I expect teamwork from the GOP. This is no longer going to be a one-way relationship.
Bob Miller| 4.12.10 @ 3:06PM
If RINO's are opportunists and voters in their districts want repeal, the RINO's now running might be induced to say some things in favor of repeal. However, getting them to stay on that track after the election is a whole other thing.
Siegfried X| 4.12.10 @ 3:10PM
Kirk also voted for cap & trade. Then he threatened to pull out of the Senate race if there were a primary against him. He is an Obama Republican.
I don't know why Kirk thinks conservative Republicans like me will vote for him.
martin j smith| 4.12.10 @ 3:28PM
Over the long term there is a need to primary this type of candidate out. If Rubio can do it in FLA. then it can be done elsewhere.
JP | 4.12.10 @ 3:53PM
Many predicted that if Repeal was going to be shot down, it wouldn't occur because of the Dems, but occur within the Senate -by the GOP. All it will take is a half dozen to shoot it down.
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.12.10 @ 4:11PM
Hey!
DEFUND---DELAY---REPEAL---REPLACE!
American patriots will not settle for less.
While we are at it, let's PUT SS and medicare CONTRIBUTIONS in a LOCKBOX.
A TRANSPARENT LOCKBOX WITH QUARTERLY REPORTS!
NVA Patriot| 4.12.10 @ 5:09PM
Let's keep our eye on the ball - Job 1 wipe out progressive Dems. Job 2 take out progressive repubs in primaries.
Kirk & Castle are basically weak - they'll ride the strong horse. We have to make sure WE THE conservative/libertarians PEOPLE are the strong horse & to carry the analogy further - we'll kick hard against any rider who thinks we're not the horse to ride.
Just ask Dede how that seat's working out - message sent, we're still calibrating if it's understood by DC Repubs. McCain pretends to listen. Bob Bennet in Utah has gotten the word. Kay Baily was given marching orders. I suspect there will be more than a few folks around town who will be changing their tunes - power is seductive. These DC folks lust after it. We give it to them judiciously & when they abuse it - we deprive them of the object of their lust. Simple.
Oldefarte| 4.12.10 @ 5:50PM
Ginguich's expressed expertise that this welfarecare could simply be NOT FUNDED if taxpayer-voters do their job and elect conservative Republicans in November, sounds like a winner to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Margie| 4.12.10 @ 7:29PM
That's right. Elect conservative Republicans this November. THIS YEAR!! Don't stay at home! Don't vote Democrat and don't vote third party. We need to win. THEN this healthscare takeover cannot happen because there will not be the FUNDS!
Amen, Olde Farte!
Siegfried X| 4.12.10 @ 8:39PM
On the other hand, voting for Obama Republicans is dangerous. Just today it was reported that "Republican" Lindsey Graham is negotiating a bipartisan cap & trade bill which is soon to be released.
Graham also was said to be interested in a bipartisan amnesty bill.
All Obama needs is one RINO vote if all the Democrats stick together.
That's why I'll never vote for an Obama Republican.
Margie| 4.12.10 @ 9:45PM
Mr. X,
Is someone telling you to vote for an Obama Republican? That's a new one by the way, but a good one!
Would you vote for a conservative Republican though? I'm just wondering if you would, or is it just the "R" you have a problem with?
Siegfried X| 4.12.10 @ 10:01PM
If the conservative is very, very solid and not a neo-con, I likely would vote for them. In fact I'll likely vote for the Republican running for governor in my state.
However, RINOs and neo-cons have ruined the national and my state Republican party so badly that I rarely have an opportunity to vote for a conservative. (Like a Republican governor pardoning everyone on death row, while on his way to jail for his own crimes.)
I do have a lot of concerns voting about voting Republican on a national level because so many neo-cons have infested the party, wanting to take the war far beyond Al Qaeda to a jihad against all Muslims. (There are neo-cons in the Democratic Party too, like Lieberman.)
All in all I feel that the Republican Party has become a Democrat-Lite party, so voting Republican is nearly as dangerous as voting Democratic would be. Amnesty is bad whether it comes from Bush, McCain, or Obama. Cap & trade is bad whether it comes from McCain, Lindsey Graham, or Obama. It is safer to vote third party conservative.
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Hour of the Time » News 12Apr10-PM links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 4.13.10 @ 12:50AM
Off with their heads in November.
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Christopher Holland| 4.13.10 @ 2:58AM
Anybody who thinks the healthcare mess can't be repealed is also in favour of European level taxes and debts. If you want these entitlement programs then you are also going to get the taxes and debts that go with them. The choice is simple. Either repeal the entitlements or tell the voters you are going to screw them until their teeth rattle.
Mick Lee| 4.13.10 @ 7:40AM
The minute some dude in the Democrat party or the media says (without evidence) "X" will be a loser in November. There are Republicans who will take that as gospel and tell other Republicans to cool it.
Every time the Republican Party fudges on what it has to offer American, it loses. If the party were to list five or six "promises" that distinguish Republicans from Democrats, the American people would go for it.
My humble suggestions in no particular order:
1.) Protect national sovereignty from all attempts to soften it with international treaties, courts or mandates from the United Nations and other international agencies.
2.) Secure the border. No excuses.
3.) Protect the unborn
4.) Strong defense.
5.) Restrict the courts to the "rule of law” rather than engineering domestic and foreign policy.
6.) Protection of personal liberty.
Your list probably it different than mine. Fair enough. The point is offering the public what we're all about instead of some bloodless name brand.
Oh! And stop being the tax collectors for liberal programs. Even if we were so unwise to insist on raising taxes to pay for all these leftwing programs (revolting idea in the first place), we know the last thing Democrats will do will be applying this extra money to pay for these programs and/or pay down the national debt. If the Democrats want these programs (Obamacare) so badly, let THEM tell the public they will raise their taxes to "pay for it".
'Nuff said.
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Spending Time Angling Is The Best Way To Pick Up Some Useful Bass … | Fishing Leisure links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Stephen Zierak| 4.13.10 @ 10:08AM
If the stupid party takes back the Senate with such as Castle and Kirk, what will have been accomplished other than guaranteeing further damage to the Republican brand? I have been an active Republican since I was 12 years old, some 50 years ago. I ran the Goldwater campaign as a senior in high school because no one else in my Massachusetts town wanted to do so. I campaigned for Reagan in '68, '76, '80 and '84. I say this with sadness, but it is time for the Republicans to go the way of the Whigs, and for a new limited government party to emerge. The Tea Partiers not only show the popularity of limited government among the people (take that Snowe, Collins, Graham, McJerk, and your ilk!), but provide a possible road for a new party. We should support the Republican candidates this year, but as they disappoint in the next Congress, we should begin the transition to something new and better. I'm sick of trying to reform the unreformable.
Jim Hlavac | 4.13.10 @ 11:12AM
Since ObamaCare will hasten the day of national bankruptcy I'm pretty sure it will be repealed by facts on the ground -- if not the law first. There will come the day of reckoning because there will simply be no more real money behind it -- and inflating the currency will not be pretty. Like a drunken college kid on Bourbon Street who borrows another $500 from Dad -- another another, and again, eventually Dad will have no more money to hand out. For instance, if China goes bust (not unlikely given their bubbling economy) then whom is going to buy the T-bills to support the morass? The sum total of years of wacky policies divorced from real math must eventually come to fruition, even if a decade or two more. I'd bet that in about 1785 no one thought or would say that Louis XVI would be, um, repealed, and yet, there he went. Then Napoleon would not be repealed, then the Reich, then the Soviet Union -- on an on come the examples of repeal through reality. Or do I liken it to the criminal in the car chase who thinks he can outrun the cops -- without realizing that eventually even a full tank of gas turns to fumes?
Cris Worth| 4.13.10 @ 11:20AM
Nothing new here...Republicans have history of embracing Democratic Party initiatives going back to Wilson/Harding. The New Deal stayed in tact under IKE, Nixon/Ford fully funded the Great Society and in fact made additions. W. made expensive additions to Medicare. Repeal? Ha! You can bet a "President" Romney will grow ObamaCare to astronomical proportions. Just look how RomneyCare has grown to astronomical proportions in the Bay State. Republicans are so amusing.
Thomas| 4.13.10 @ 11:42AM
So, is anybody really surprised that the Republicans don't want to repeal the healthcare legislation? I have been saying for a long time that there would be no repeal if it passed. The Republicans want expansion of government every bit as much as the Dems.