President Obama -- Still Not Listening
"What's the matter son?"
"You got poop in your ears?"
Posted on 02/25/2010 4:16:46 AM PST by Kaslin
With Democrats holding the presidency, a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate, you might think that they could pass whatever legislation they want. But more than a year after Obama took office, his party's version of health care "reform" has not been passed and may be going nowhere fast.
Not to be deterred by facts, the current mantra from the Obama administration is that the Republicans, whom they label the party of NO, are holding up progress.
So, after months of private meetings regarding health care, the Obama administration has set up a bipartisan meeting with the Senate and the House of Representatives for Thursday to be open to the news media and streamed live from the Blair House.
This is serious political posturing time.
After the health care bill stalled in the fall and after the Republican victories in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, one might think that the Democratic Party would listen to the American people. But, no -- the press forward by the Obama administration, which has determined it knows more than anyone else, continues.
Asking for bipartisanship -- then presenting the president's plan before the meeting. Knowing that the Republicans have to show up, but that a difference in fundamental approaches (the Democratic belief that more government control will lead to solutions and the Republican belief that more government control will lead to more waste) will make it impossible to meet in the middle.
This is stagecraft at its best.
Instead of listening to the American people, President Obama is intent on speaking. "We lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are," he said to George Stephanopoulos in an interview on Jan. 20.
Evidently he is trying to make up for lost time by speaking more and listening less.
What needs to happen is for Obama to listen instead of talk. Instead of talking to a room of Washington politicians, how about asking the American people for their input?
The Center for Health Transformation, founded by my dad, former speaker Newt Gingrich, is holding an ongoing, online Summit with the American People. The goal: to discuss solutions to transform our country's health care system.
Now that's a novel idea -- listen to people who propose solutions, instead of speaking to the American people about your solutions. So far, according to the Center for Health Transformation, the online health summit has had more than 20,000 unique visitors.
If Obama did decide to listen to the American people, what would he hear?
He might find out that his plan is not the best solution.
According to a Rasmussen poll released Tuesday, more than 56 percent of voters oppose the proposed health care plan.
What would the voters prefer? How about taking one step at a time instead of leaping off a cliff? Smaller bills that address the problems individually were the preference of 63 percent of the voters in the Rasmussen poll.
One such area of waste we should all agree on is medical fraud. It's money that is being totally wasted, and it should be stopped today.
"Fraud constitutes at least $100 billion or about 13 percent of annual Medicare and Medicaid spending," Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., notes on the Center for Health Transformation online summit. "As a practicing physician, my experience tells me that figure could be much higher. Harvard's Dr. Malcolm Sparrow, author of 'License to Steal,' estimates that annual losses from fraud could easily be in the 20 percent or 30 percent range, even as high as 35 percent."
With astronomical waste in current government programs, why in the world would we want to create a bigger government health program? To waste more money we don't have?
This sounds a bit insane.
As for a potential bipartisan approach, 61 percent of voters polled by Rasmussen said Congress should scrap the current plan and begin again. Hmm, they don't like the current plan, so we should start over. How about starting over with one piece at a time -- say, fraud, for instance.
Maybe the Republican Party should embrace the label as the party of NO as in NO more government takeovers of anything.
Only 34 percent of voters believe that the president's handling of the health care issue has been good or excellent, according to Rasmussen Reports, while "50 percent think the president has done a poor job."
No wonder he's not listening.
We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom. - Stephen Vincent Benet
He’s not listening because he doesn’t care. Getting this thing into law is vitally important to his program to exert total control over the US population, and he’s going to get it no matter what.
I would suspect that if this latest legislative push fails (as I hope it will), he’ll just start acting through executive orders and administrative procedures.
Uh_Bummer is incapable of not trying to chicago “slick”, ie lie about his intentions, because all sensible folks would reject them on their merit.
He lies about everything, if the congress doesn’t get the limelight out of their eyes and remember they represent folks in a country in crippling debt in a dangerous world we are in big trouble..we need common sense
Speaking to, not listening to, not even speaking with. It is as though he wants to tell US what our values should be...
I believe we should encourage him to continue “not listening”...
It does make our job a lot easier leading up to November...
When this video entrapment conference is all done...Any Republican showing their face in their needs to be shown the door as well later on this year...
It’s a suckers play, and those that don’t play will win in the end...
Obama’s going to lose his package on this one, and he only has himself and his handlers to blame...
Amazing how you can become a lame-duck President after the first mid-term election in your first term...
We certainly do not need to let up till November...But be aware, they are going to be pizzed, to the highest level of pizztivity after the mid-term...
So that might be fun to watch...
I’m buying stock in popcorn, because till November 2012, this is really going to be fun to watch...I know a lot of people will watch too...So we might as well invest now...
Obama is a shrewd pr1ck and the Republicans are falling right into his trap. If they fall for this BS they don’t deserve to run the country, their stupidity is colossal. Let Obama stew in his own health care proposal, the American people don’t want it by a wide margin, forget health care, at least for now, jobs and the economy is where the focus should and must be. With Obama evryone will be out of work but they will have “free” health care, just like Cuba. Health care is not free,
it’s always paid for by the same people who pay for everything, the public.
Why are they holding a “summit”?
Isn’t the proper place for this on the floor of the House and Senate?
The one thing the GOP could NOT do is give the asshat the floor for 6 hours for an infomercial which would do two things: allow Odummy to blame the GOP for any problems and for him to again push his party to move his program forward into law.
I agree, this is not the best battle field for the GOP but from what I understand, both the house and senate GOPers heading up there will speak with one voice. That maybe why Odummy tried to get Snowe to attend because she was not invited by the leadership as they know she is a weak sister. They know it and Odummy knows it too.
The first point the GOP should make is while the whitehouse thought it important to try to get Snowe into the meeting, they did NOT invite any hourse or senate members who happen to be members of the doctors caucus. It should be apparent to anyone the irony of discussing a medical bill while excluding any subject matter experts. The point to made by that is the bill is POLITICAL, nothing more.
Vince
What he wants is the “Federal Insurance Exchange”. A totalitarian control agency that can set prices and coverage terms. Other health insurance will be outlawed. It will be the only game in town. In addition a Federal control board already set up in the stimulus will control who is allowed to have what care. In addition to all this they will mandate people buy it. All unconstitutional and tyrranical. The MSM has no clue and if they did would allow the Commiecrats to answer all stupid questions with stupid vauge answers.
“The bill is political and nothing more”
I have felt all along that this “health care” bill is just a pretty wrapper for CONTROL. It has nothing to do with health care reform.
President Obama -- Still Not Listening
"What's the matter son?"
"You got poop in your ears?"
If he cared or if they cared they would listen they know thier on the fast track to extinction come November and in 2012 but it’s all about moving thier cause forward no matter how small the steps may be! We need to disembowl these criminals and thier enterprises. We should demand prosecution.
Impeach them all.
“Isn’t the proper place for this on the floor of the House and Senate?”
Well, comrade, we have to move away from the old form of government in order to show the people that it does not work. There is too much opposition by capitalists to the will of the people.
The new form of government, the forum, with a glorious leader at its head, is the new Democratic way.
Those of us who are the most brilliant, the most enlightened, the most worthy, are those who will rule for the benefit of the people. We have the levers of power and will operate them accordingly.
Be patient comrade. Hope and change are coming.
/SARC/
IMHO
I don’t think it’s necessary to encourage him not to listen. He does that on his own. He’s the “messiah”, he knows better. Don’t you get it?
Let's get it straight. We are not the party of NO. We are the party of HELL NO.
Obama only listens to the marxist voices in his head.
I had a boss once who said “Let the horses think, they’ve got larger heads” we said ‘I thought’
Olympia Snowe said she was not going to attend. I say good for her
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