New Wave Outpost Forum

“There has never been a more open process for any legislation,” Pelosi said at a press conference. This in reference to the healthcare bill that was written behind closed doors in Harry Reid's office along with the negotiations of payoffs to procure votes necessary for passage. I suppose she thinks if she keeps saying it, somehow it will become the truth.

[quote][i]Originally posted by enzfan[/i]<br>This in reference to the healthcare bill that was written behind closed doors in Harry Reid's office along with the negotiations of payoffs to procure votes necessary for passage. I suppose she thinks if she keeps saying it, somehow it will become the truth.[/quote] Ah, this old GOP talking point resurfaces. You may as well cite the link where you're reading this garbage. A few points:<ul><li>Let's get real here. You know, I know, [i]everybody[/i] knows that the Republicans are entirely, utterly against this bill. It's a joke to suggest otherwise. The bill earned [i]one[/i] Republican vote in the House, and [i]zero[/i] votes in the Senate. They don't care what is in this bill. AT. ALL. To the GOP, the only value of being at the table is to leverage it to obstruct, delay, water-down or kill the bill, to aid in fund-raising and to spread disinformation. It has very little to do with policy, and everything to do with politics (i.e., to restore the GOP to power, the Obama agenda must fail-- even if that means the nation fails). The GOP mid-term election cycle starts now, and a central theme of the platform will be [i]dismantling this very bill[/i]. Why [i]should[/i] they be invited to participate if they will not vote for it under any circumstance?</li><li>The Republican leadership was certainly included in the review, versioning and horse-trading of the bill. That's one of the reasons it sucks so much (and amazingly, it was watered-down in exchange for [i]virtually no votes[/i] from the GOP). You do realize that Democrats do [b]not[/b] have the required 60 seats in the Senate to pass the bill, right? The dems have 58 seats, and a good dozen or so of them are corporate democrats who would fit right in on a FOX News panel. And one of the 2 independent party senators (former dem Lieberman) basically vowed to support the GOP against the bill. That means that not just the dem congressional leadership, but without a doubt the white house had no choice but to negotiate various versions of the bill with Republican leadership. If Democrats are shutting out the Republicans now to avoid a last-minute sabotage, I don't blame them one bit-- [i]I mean, wtf took them so long to wise up[/i]?</li><li>The Senate Finance Committee, led by (D) Max Baucus worked together on the bill for three solid months this past summer, and 10 of the 23 at that committee table are GOP senators. Baucus frittered away 3 months trying to negotiate a version to pass that committee, and the GOP used that time to crank up a campaign of falsehoods and distortions, of death panels, socialist takeovers, stripping away gun-ownership rights, and other tea-party bullshit.</li><li>Do you have any idea how the GOP ran Congress when they were the majority just a short while ago? <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/7539869/four_amendments__a_funeral/print" target="_new">The Republicans would pass bills through the Senate and then largely rewrite it after the vote in conferences from which Democrats were excluded.</a> <a href="http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/oppressed-minority" target="_new2">They would then proceed to insert provisions that no one had ever voted on and that were the opposite of what people had voted on.</a> For example of GOP hard-ball, check out what happened to the Medicare-D prescription drug benefit, about which <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/19/republican-budget-hypocrisy-health-care-opinions-columnists-bruce-bartlett_print.html" target="_new3">Bruce Bartlett</a> (Reagan's senior economic policy advisor) wrote, "...the Medicare drug benefit was a pure giveaway with a gross cost greater than either the House or Senate health reform bills how being considered. Together the new bills would cost roughly $900 billion over the next 10 years, while Medicare Part D will cost $1 trillion... [the bill] had no dedicated financing, no offsets and no revenue-raisers; 100% of the cost simply added to the federal budget deficit..." The GOP practically used <a href="http://www.firedupmissouri.com/content/flashback-night-clocks-scoreboard-stood-still" target="_new4">extreme rendition to get that POS bill passed</a>.</li></ul>So: A) No, the GOP were not excluded from the legislative process-- that's a talking point that complains to independents that democrats aren't bipartisan while [i]also[/i] reassuring their base that they have no fingerprints on the bill or its passage, and B) Boo-f***ing-hoo-- cry me a river.

Hold on I'll have another you can ramble on about in a few minutes.

[quote][i]Originally posted by enzfan[/i]
<br>Hold on I'll have another you can ramble on about in a few minutes.
[/quote]

Here you go, Enzfan ... hope this helps:

http://commonsenselogic.blogspot.com/20 ... dolls.html

With those ears that's gotta hurt.