NO!
This is false. While the GOP may not have united behind one proposal of their own making, several Republican lawmakers did put forth their own versions of what they thought healthcare should be. And I'm sure every one of those proposals was better than anything put forth by the DemocRats.
No, socialized medicine is bad period!!
NO, there is no such thing as a less bad government run health care system. The only hope America has is to kill the bill completely.
Let the dems own it. It's their funeral.
Note for future reference -> Bruce Bartlett IS A RINO GARDEN FARMER!
“Should Republicans Have Compromised to Produce a Less-Bad Healthcare Bill?”
No, because then the big, fat government version might not have passed.
The Republicans obviously want the Dems plan just as badly, judging by their twinkle-toes “resistance” to it.
In terms of strategy the GOP did not do too bad with this bill: they offered an outline of a reform that respected the free market approach and stopped there. The premise of Bruce Bartlett is incorrect that they offered no alternative.
The author is correct that a compromise with the Dems would have been far worse. In fact, the bill as it is is already a compromise between various factions of the left.
One thing the GOP could have done better: they should have offered an alternative that is easy to understand and strikes at the heart of the problem: they should have given the same tax exemption the corporatons enjoy, to individuals as they purchase health care or health care insurance. That would have made all citizens who are now a third party to health care transactions, into consumers of health care. That would have been a principled, simple and radical position, exactly what a minority party should be adopting strategically.
Please, let it be true...
Send it to the pits of Hades where it will never see the light of day again.
BS, the dems did this on their own. Obama said, he didnt want input from the people who made the mess. he was talking about republicans even though they were not fully responsible.
The dems shut republicans right out. This article should point that out in the first paragraph.