The Dime Standard [David Brooks column says Obama healthcare speech opens doors to compromise]

New York Times ^ | 9/10/09 | David Brooks

[frposty]

Obama threw out enough rhetorical chum to keep the liberals happy, yet he subtly staked out ground in the center on nearly every substantive issue in order to win over the moderates needed to get anything passed.

[frposty]

Brooks says Obama has set in motion the following: (a) kills the House version of the health care bill because it cannot possibly meet his insistance that it not add to our deficit, (b) Obama will be more receptive to ideas that can reduce costs, (c) Democrats will have to scale back coverage and subsidy levels, (d) accepted the idea of capping tax exemptility of employer-provided benefits, (e) accepted the idea of tort reform, (f) subtly said there will be no public option, (g) said there will be no soak-the-rich approach and that health care reform will be paid for by changes within the health care system.

So if I'm to belive Brooks then Obama has set the stage for compromise and a smart bill. I'm a conservative but did the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity have blind me to what was in the speech?

[sand lake bar]

Brooks is either a fellow traveler or else just living in total denial of reality.

[charmedone]

Especially the part where he told the -Rs to get F’ed!!

[LibLieSlayer]

Brooks lies!

LLS

[Aria]

Sigh....what Obama says is simply to manipulate us to get what he really wants. All he wanted to do is tell enough lies to make sure enough rats vote this in.....the man does not care if we like it or not.

[darkwing104]

Brooks is a token tool for the slimes. Which is damn near usless as a conservative.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Maybe there is no compromise possible!

[hinckley buzzard]

If you are to believe Brooks on Obama you will need a lobotomy first. This schmuck is an embarrassment.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Or desirable.

[pissant]

Brooks gets a thrill in his groin every time Obama speaks.

[pallis]

0bama lies, and Brooks believes him. That’s the problem with slightly center of left airheads.

[jveritas]

Socialist Obama was very clear in his propaganda speech to Congress that he still wants the socialized medicine aka so called PUBLIC OPTION. If not you would have seen his fellow socialists and communists screaming their head off.

[montag813]

Who is more of a useless idiot...David Brooks or David Frum?

[Tzimisce]

So we’ll only have half the screws put to us?

[Tzimisce]

So we’ll only have half the screws put to us?

[stop_fascism]

Brooks wins by a nose (which he keeps buried in Obama’s butt). Any meaningful immigration reform must include a ban on Canadians named David.

[MNJohnnie]

Brooks is an ignorant clown who fails to realize that Obama simply LIED in virtually every sentence of his speech. The 0 said nothing at all new in the speech. He simply repeated the same tired lies he has been saying since July. Contrary to Brooks blind adoration of all things 0, there was NOTHING at all new in that speech.

Brooks is a long time Obama worshiper who has sacrificed all intellectual credibility on the alter of his slavish adoration of the 0. There is no such compromise bill out there and the 0 has no interest in compromise.

[DrC]

“kills the House version of the health care bill because it cannot possibly meet his insistance that it not add to our deficit,”

Actually, TAKEN SERIOUSLY, it kills every version of health reform passed through 4 committees in Congress (5 by early next week). Because a) there’s no way he can get all the funding needed unless he breaks his pledge not to raise taxes “one dime” on 95% of Americans; and b) there aren’t enough savings to bankroll even a $900 billion plan.

“Health reform will be paid for by changes within the health care system. The president underlined his resolve to cut $500 billion from Medicare and Medicaid.”
Not even close: First, he’s giving back nearly half of these alleged savings by increasing payments to doctors so they’ll support his plan. But he’s simultaneously not willing to count this $240 billion giveaway as part of the cost of health reform, since he’d already planned to do this anyway under the budget he submitted last February. It will be comical to see him try to explain how his “Dime Standard” can be taken seriously when he is leaving hundreds of billions of dollars out of the calculation.

Second, another $177 billion of these savings comes from taking away Medicare Advantage plans from the 20% of seniors who have them. Their shrieks have only just begun and when they do, many members of Congress will be scrambling for safety: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574374584177632694.html

The foregoing suggests that either the president is seriously misinformed by his economic and political advisors (a possibility that can never be ruled out with this inept crew) OR (more likely) that even he doesn’t take this pledge seriously. It’s a great talking point, but he fully expects the media to be complicit (and the public too inattentive) in letting him get away with saying one thing and actually do something quite different. This is BO’s MO.
I defer to others to explain why this is not obvious to Mr. Brooks.

[ncalburt]

David Brooks had an Obama ICE PICK lobotomy. Even the nut job rag New republic wrote a mocking hit piece on Brooks BROMANCE with his Messiah . They called his worshiping pathetic .

[TexasCajun]

David Brooks should stop the act and come out of the closet.