Posted on 02/12/2010 4:11:52 AM PST by Kaslin
Just when you think beltway Republicans have finally begun to understand the depth and breadth of the voter revolt against the size and reach of the federal government, and thus against the President Obama-led Congressional Democrats, along comes Senator Grassley to throw Democrats a life-line.
Grassley fought a brave and good fight against Obamacare throughout 2009, correctly assessing the offers from his Democratic colleague on the Finance Committee, Max Baucus, as both deeply undesirable on their merits and certain to be amended to the worse by House as well.
But the Beltway pressures of facing down cartloads of lobbyists and scores of MSMers chanting "bipartisanship" have taken their toll on the Iowa Republican. When on Thursday Grassley stepped forward with his long-time committee colleague Baucus to propose an $85 billion dollar "jobs bill," energized activists across the country snapped back their heads in wonder. "What part of 'Stop!' doesn't he understand?" they asked in near-unison.
Since the licking in Massachusetts, the protect-Obama media has been pushing out the White House' hysterical "obstructionist" theme, as though super-majorities in both the House and Senate throughout 2009 hadn't given the president all the numbers he needed to pass whatever he wanted. Now it looks like increasing numbers of Democrats are refusing to sign their own political death warrants, and so the White House is hunting for someone to blame, and perhaps from which some leverage could be gained to push through some remnant of an Obamacare that remains deeply unpopular in the country abroad.
Cut off from the heartland, some of the GOP in Washington are desperate to be back on schmoozing terms with the Capitol's media and their across-the-aisle colleagues. They would like to get past the unpleasantness of the past year and do something, anything to make those cable commentators stop calling them the party of no. As a result they are beginning to show signs of folding and in so doing, of forfeiting the message they have worked so hard to deliver for the past year: The president, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid are leading the country over a left-wing cliff.
All Republicans have to do is clearly and repeatedly --without rancor and without over-the-top rhetoric-- explain why Obamacare is unacceptable, beginning with the $500 billion in cuts to Medicare that don't go towards saving the system, the parade of special deals, and the gigantic giveaway to organized labor. They have to make arguments, in other words, about why the president's prescriptions are much worse than the ills plaguing the system.
So too with the economy and the last stimulus-that-wasn't. They must argue, even against what looks like huge odds in the MSM, against allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire, against adding crippling new assessments anywhere in the fragile economy, and for fiscal restraint. Again and again every Republican from Boehner and McConnell on down to the most junior House member must tell everyone who will listen that the deficit was a mere $161 billion in 2007 and looms at more than $1,600 billion next year! They must discuss the threats posed by so much devalued currency.
What they cannot do is urge that even more money be printed when that money is simply a layering on of D.C.-directed tax breaks to winners and losers. The absurd idea that jobs will be created by some combination of minor payroll tax relief and a $1000 tax credit would be hilarious if it wasn't so stunningly empty of merit. It is a gesture --a vastly expensive "We Incumbents care!" banner paid for with money the federal government doesn't have. Just shipping the money out to the states makes more sense than that, but there a dozen ways to better spend time and budget than on such relief or the "jobs bill.". How about the lightning-permitting-and-funding of a score of new nuclear plants? The president called for that in the State of the Union. Surely that would scratch their bipartisan itch.
Better yet, why not fix the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 which has devastated thousands of small to large businesses? Why not order water deliveries resumed to California's Central Valley where as many as 40,000 agricultural jobs have been loss because of alleged threats to the Delta Smelt?
Why not practice repentance of mistakes made rather than re-enacting the blind shoveling of vast quantities of dollars at the stubborn unemployment numbers?
The Baucus-Grassley threatens to undo all the great work of millions of Americans to educate their neighbors and co-workers on the vast damage done to the economy by year one of the Obama agenda. Senators McConnell and Kyl need to take their old friend aside and explain that this is not the time for deal-cutting, but for principled opposition to any more upticks in the size and cost of government.
The GOP needs to stiffen its back and stand on its core principles. The MSM won't like it, but the majority of Americans will applaud long and hard.
Never count the Democrats out because some stoopid Republican will fall smitten to the siren call of bipartasianship. Republicans ALWAYS get rolled. It’s like a sweet young blond whispering in the ear of a fat middle-aged guy’s ear. Apparently, for Republicans, it’s irresistable, except they ALWAYS wake up to the same conclusion: that that sweet young blond is a whore that gives them the clap.
What is it that makes Republicans so dumb that they make the same mistake over and over again?
I’m a resident of Iowa and will be sending him a hand written letter. I suggest that other Iowans do the same. Don’t call, don’t email etc.
Write a hand written letter. Be polite and state your position. Hand written letters get these clowns attention.
Living in D.c. is a disease.
GOOD on you. You’re right, too.
I suppose Grassley doesn't have a primary challenger?
I heard Hannity interviewing Grassley a while back. Hannity was looking for some statement of principle against national health care but Grassley kept talking about bi-partisan support. Grassley couldn't support the bill due to lack of bi-partisan support. And then more about bi-partisan support.
Hannity became pretty quiet and didn't seem to mind getting Grassley off the phone. Grassley sounded like a moron that day.
Maybe the voters of Iowa could request an IQ test for Grassley. He doesn't impress me as being the sharpest knife in the drawer. Like many on Capital Hill, he seems to be a true believer of his own BS....
The problem that the Dems had with the Baucus-Grassley bill is that it would have relied on tax cuts to stimulate private sector jobs. Not about increasing the “size and cost” of government, as Romneybot Hewitt claims here.
Obama-Pelosi-Reid want a smaller private sector and a larger government.
Grassley has assumed the position once held by Bob Dole in the US Senate; Tax collector for the welfare state.
Tennessee has joined several other states in trying to pass a Health Care Freedom Act. NO COLAs for granny, retired Military or retired fed employees. BIG NEW fees for Tricare for Life retired over 65 Military's secondary health ins. (DOD bill already passed, delayed but goes into effect 2011)
New Dem mantra: Woof, woof eat dog food granny....ala let them eat cake.
TRI CARE FOR LIFE This from a google search:
This option would help reduce the costs of TFL, as well as costs for Medicare, by introducing minimum out-of pocket requirements for beneficiaries. Under this option, TFL would not cover any of the first $525 of an enrollee’s cost-sharing liabilities for calendar year 2011 and would limit coverage to 50 percent of the next $4,725 in Medicare cost sharing that the beneficiary incurred. (Because all further cost sharing would be covered by TFL, enrollees could not pay more than $2,888 in cost sharing in that year.)
Bill Would Restrict Veterans’ Health Care Options 11/06/09
Buyer and McKeon Offer Amendments to Protect Veterans and TRICARE Beneficiaries
Congress plans to block Tricare fee increases
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w
By Rick Maze - Staff writer, Oct 7, 2009
Tricare fee increases imposed last week by the Defense Department will be repealed by a provision of the compromise 2010 defense authorization bill unveiled Wednesday by House and Senate negotiators.
Snip
The fee increases were announced on Sept. 30 and took effect on Oct. 1, but the defense bill, HR 2647, includes a provision barring any fee increases until the start of fiscal 2011.
Snip
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Bill Matz, president of the National Association for Uniformed Services, said the announcement of fee increases was shocking considering that the Obama administration promised earlier this year to hold off on any new fee Tricare fee increases until fiscal 2011.
“President Obama and DoD assured NAUS and the entire military family earlier this year that there would rightly be no increases in any Tricare fees” in fiscal 2010, Matz said. “We took them at their word, and I can’t believe that a co-pay increase like this was allowed to go forward,” he added.
Sorry but none of your links work :(
Rename, repackage, rewrite it a tad smaller, and sell another pig in a poke.
Tennessee has joined several other states in trying to pass a Health Care Freedom Act. NO COLAs for granny, retired Military or retired fed employees. BIG NEW fees for Tricare for Life retired over 65 Military's secondary health ins. (DOD bill already passed, delayed but goes into effect 2011)
New Dem mantra: Woof, woof eat dog food granny....ala let them eat cake.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2433867/posts/
Obama's War on Seniors
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2449659/posts
Socialized Med Thread
TRI CARE FOR LIFE This from a google search:
http://economicspolitics.blogspot.com/2009/05/tricare-for-life-is-obama-trying-to.html
This option would help reduce the costs of TFL, as well as costs for Medicare, by introducing minimum out-of pocket requirements for beneficiaries. Under this option, TFL would not cover any of the first $525 of an enrollee’s cost-sharing liabilities for calendar year 2011 and would limit coverage to 50 percent of the next $4,725 in Medicare cost sharing that the beneficiary incurred. (Because all further cost sharing would be covered by TFL, enrollees could not pay more than $2,888 in cost sharing in that year.)
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9925/12-18-HealthOptions.pdf
http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/hcva09/hcva110609-1.htm
Bill Would Restrict Veterans’ Health Care Options 11/06/09
Buyer and McKeon Offer Amendments to Protect Veterans and TRICARE Beneficiaries
Congress plans to block Tricare fee increases
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w
By Rick Maze - Staff writer, Oct 7, 2009
Tricare fee increases imposed last week by the Defense Department will be repealed by a provision of the compromise 2010 defense authorization bill unveiled Wednesday by House and Senate negotiators.
Snip
The fee increases were announced on Sept. 30 and took effect on Oct. 1, but the defense bill, HR 2647, includes a provision barring any fee increases until the start of fiscal 2011.
Snip
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Bill Matz, president of the National Association for Uniformed Services, said the announcement of fee increases was shocking considering that the Obama administration promised earlier this year to hold off on any new fee Tricare fee increases until fiscal 2011.
“President Obama and DoD assured NAUS and the entire military family earlier this year that there would rightly be no increases in any Tricare fees” in fiscal 2010, Matz said. “We took them at their word, and I can’t believe that a co-pay increase like this was allowed to go forward,” he added.
But for someone who is at or approaching retirement--especially someone who retired after a full-time career in the military, Option 96 is potentially devastating.
How would increasing costs for veterans save money for the government? Option 96 lists 3 ways:
1. To reduce demand for tricare medical services.
2. To reduce beneficiaries’ incentive to switch to Military Treatment Facilities to avoid the out-of-pocket costs of comparative civilian health plans.
3. To increase Tricare For Life beneficiaries’ awareness of the cost of health care and promote a corresponding restraint in their use of medical services.
I know what the verbiage of the budget trying to say, but that sounds to me like at least two slaps in the face for aging veterans.
It is true that when people pay for at least part of a service they receive--including medical care--they will use more discretion when using the service. But to sock something like this to someone who lived in just expectation of being covered is a grave disservice to the defenders of American liberty.
The links work when I took the html out.
Grassley is a good senator except for this obsession he has with ‘bipartisanship’. He thinks we got to make a deal, no matter how bad the deal is.
Always reminds me of Neville Chamberlain and his little slip of paper - ‘Peace! Peace in our time!’
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.