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Democrats see GOP hypocrisy in health care debate - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091225/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_deficit - broken link)
The hypocrisy I see from the Dems in this bill is that over half of the cost is to be paid for by annually taking about $50 billion from Medicare in money that hasn't been appropriated and using it to take care of new entitlements. I am one of those who will get to pay for more out of pocket because of this and there are a lot of us around. I bet most of us vote for anything but a Democrat for Congress in 2010.
It depends upon the reason fro opposing this bill. If it's excessive spending, then I agree. If it's over reaching government, then it's not hypocrisy.
It depends upon the reason fro opposing this bill. If it's excessive spending, then I agree. If it's over reaching government, then it's not hypocrisy.
Whether this is an overreaching government is a generally a question of personal philosophy along with your approach to interpreting the constitution. These days it seems like individual freedoms are under attack and both parties are responsible. Overspending continues to be a problem for both parties with no end in sight. Ron Paul predicted this great recession and we need to examine the powers of the Federal Reserve with greater scrutiny.
The human capacity for self-delusion never ceases to amaze me, so it shouldn't surprise me that so many Republicans seem to genuinely believe that they are the party of fiscal responsibility. Perhaps at one time they were, but those days are long gone.
This fact became blindingly obvious to me six years ago this month when a Republican president and a Republican Congress enacted the Medicare drug benefit, which former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker has called "the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s."
The author (Bruce Bartlett) recalls the political scene in 2003. The Bush Administration was projecting what was then the largest deficit in the country's history, the economy was not doing well, there was a big election coming up that the Republicans feared they would lose, and so "they decided to win it by buying the votes of America's seniors by giving them an expensive new program to pay for their prescription drugs."
Even though at that point it was well known that Medicare would be strained to the breaking point with projected baby boomer retirements on the horizon, and even though the Bush Administration knew that the advertised cost of Medicare Part D was significantly lower than the estimate given by Medicare's chief actuary (Richard Foster), the Bush Administration and Republican "leadership" in the House continued to push for the bill's passage.
... when the legislation came up for its final vote on Nov. 22, 2003, it was failing by 216 to 218 when the standard 15-minute time allowed for voting came to an end.
What followed was one of the most extraordinary events in congressional history. The vote was kept open for almost three hours while the House Republican leadership brought massive pressure to bear on the handful of principled Republicans who had the nerve to put country ahead of party. The leadership even froze the C-SPAN cameras so that no one outside the House chamber could see what was going on.
The Medicare Part D bill was a pure and simple give-away -- it "had no dedicated financing, no offsets and no revenue-raisers; 100% of the cost simply added to the federal budget deficit."
And now the Republicans are marching lockstep to the drum of "fiscal responsibility" in opposition to a bill that, even though it isn't nearly as good as it could be, is vastly superior to the unpaid-for Medicare prescription drug bill.
The Forbes article is an excellent read - a great reminder of very recent history, and a clear, unequivocal condemnation of Republican hypocrisy.
The Republicans arenot against this bill! Why would they be? It's a big plus for many Ins. Cos. The Republicans are against this bill being passed by Democrats. That's all it amounts to.
The Republicans arenot against this bill! Why would they be? It's a big plus for many Ins. Cos. The Republicans are against this bill being passed by Democrats. That's all it amounts to.
Exactly. Stock prices for health ins. companies increased this week as the bill passed the Senate.
So Dems proclaim there is a hypocracy in supporting something that
when they approved a major Medicare expansion that has added tens of billions of dollars to federal deficits.
While opposing a bill that adds TRILLIONS in federal spending and takes over a whole industry which involves not only a very large percent of the nations spending, but our control and choices over our own health?
Is this REALLY a fair comparison? Its like claiming that you dont want to eat, while the Dems give you dog food as their meal. The pathetic Democrats and their ridiculous comparisons... (Didnt Clinton herself proclaim people had to eat pet food sometime back due to GOP plans?)
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It's not just Democrats who see the hypocrisy
