AUDIO Of Jim DeMint Saying Health Care Will Be Obama’s “Waterloo”
A source sends over some audio of the quote of the week — GOP Senator Jim DeMint on a conference call, saying that if Republicans and conservatives stop Obama on health care reform, it will “break him” and be Obama’s “Waterloo”:
The audio adds a harsh overtone, even stridency, to the quote, and as such, it’s likely to find its way into ads pummeling Republicans as obstructionist:
DeMint said:
“If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”
Obama himself just responded to DeMint, saying the following:
“This isn’t about me. This isn’t about politics. This about a health care system that is breaking America’s families, breaking America’s businesses and breaking America’s economy. And we can’t afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care. Not this time, not now. There are too many lives and livelihoods at stake.”
You’d think maybe DeMint’s quote could end up being a Waterloo of sorts, wouldn’t you?
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“This about a health care system that is breaking . . . America’s economy.”
Trouble is that the reforms proposed so far don’t do a darn thing to fix health care so that it doesn’t break America’s economy; the proposals so far make things worse.
If the Dems want another 1994-like drubbing at the polls, they can have that by being another do-nothing Congress. That’s what got their butts beat then, and the potential is there for it to happen again.
“Trouble is that the reforms proposed so far don’t do a darn thing to fix health care so that it doesn’t break America’s economy; the proposals so far make things worse.”
But this simply is not true.
The Waterlooer becomes the Waterlooee.
Again, easy easy easy add. Show part of one of President Obama’s speeches where he emphasizes helping the people then replay that clip then go to other Democratic leaders and their quotes about helping the american people and keep going back to DeMint’s quote and then at the end “Do you want someone reforming healthcare that is focused on you or someone who is focusing on partisan politics?” Fade to black. I am sure if I could think of that in 2 minutes that some bright Dem pol can come up with something a helluva lot better in a day or so. And it wouldn’t even cost that much to make. Hell its all right there for you.
sgw-
I keep saying the same thing… where is the DNC on this?
The repubs. are writing the scripts for us… I wish they would quick dragging thier feet and wake up!
Lux at Open Left has it right….
I don’t know about this. The math from the CBO doesn’t seem to add up.
I don’t think that healthcare is bankrupting the nation. I think perhaps the budget deficit is.
What worries me – is this is the same way the stimulus was sold to us, as needed right away & being very high-minded etc – then after the fact it seems that just wasn’t so.
So, I am saying, “What’s the hurry?” If we are going to do this, we need to do it right. Let’s take some time and do it right.
@cdub: Sorry, the bill(s) we see in the House so far INCREASE the long term health costs facing the country:
“The health care overhauls released to date would increase, not reduce, the burgeoning long-term health costs facing the government, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf said Thursday . . . In the legislation that has been reported, we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount and, on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs,” he said. Elmendorf was not addressing the narrow question of whether the Democrats’ legislation would be budget-neutral over 10 years . . . But budget analysts and some members fear the legislation will not slow the growth of health care spending enough to prevent it from overwhelming the federal budget after that 10-year window . . . Elmendorf said that CBO has not completed its evaluation of the House plan, but what it has seen so far does not represent “the sort of fundamental change, the order of magnitude necessary to offset the direct increase in federal health costs from the insurance coverage proposals.”
@cdub: Also note – “The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office dealt another blow to House Democrats on Friday night, saying their health care bill would increase the federal deficit by $239 billion over the next 10 years.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25104.html#ixzz0LpTn2dTd
(Note: Pretty cool – I simply copied and pasted from Politico and it automatically added the “Read more” link.)
Obama is getting desperate.
“So, I am saying, “What’s the hurry?” If we are going to do this, we need to do it right. Let’s take some time and do it right.”
That was Sen. Bob Kerrey’s stance in 1994. Here we are, fifteen years later and fifteen years further along in a system that was known then to not work, and yet still there are people who worry about adopting what the rest of the world’s industrial democracies successfully adopted decades ago.
Per person we spend twice as much as those countries, and get poorer results than they do. We collectively have a shorter lifespan and higher infant mortality.
The longer we wait the worse it gets. The longer we wait the more backwards we become and the more painful and expensive the wasted dollars and loss of life and quality of life while we stubbornly insist that eating our **** sandwiches is good for us.
(The profanity was a four letter word beginning with “s”.)
I was born with epilepsy. If I did not have a secure job with good health insurance I would almost certainly not be able to find health insurance on my own, and so would have to spend exorbitant amounts of money should I ever need emergency care for some unexpected reason.
That is wrong.
If you disagree, I welcome you to get a pre-existing condition and find out for yourself what life looks like from the short end of the stick.
The system you are stubbornly embracing harms us all.
oddjob: I sympathize. I also have a pre-exisiting health condition that might make acquiring health insurance through any means other than my job prohibitively expensive and/or almost impossible.
We can reform the health insurance industry to prevent them from ruling us out for pre-existing conditions without changing the whole darn system. You can support that type of reform (as I do) and still push back against the misguided aspects of Pelosi’s plan. Nobody who opposes Obama’s “plan” wants to see you go without healthcare – please don’t demonize the opposition like that.
You would still leave intact a system that causes us to spend twice as much per person on healthcare as the rest of the world’s industrialized democracies while getting poorer results from it.
That’s a stupid thing to do.
@oddjob: I’m all for reforming the system to control costs. I think that virtually everyone in the country is! But the plans that have been proposed so far aren’t any good. They increase the burden on the federal government over the long term and Obama has said that one of his major goals is precisely the opposite of that. The Dem bills have some good aspects and some not so good aspects. I suggest we get this done correctly without demonizing the opposition. No one is calling for leaving this system intact, that’s a strawman argument.
I gues we’re back to this strategy for GOP:
Lindsay Graham: “Basically I think he’ll (Obama) fail…”
http://thepage.time.com/quotes-from-lindsey-graham-on-health-care/
Please don’t think that I don’t want health care reform. I do. I want good reform.. is all. I’d like to see this done, and done right. I get the feeling now that this is being rushed – and NOT done right.
It echo’s why so many of us GOP has jumped ship this year, and probally won’t return. We don’t send our senators or politicians to washington to play polotics with our lifes or that of our children. We want them to cover us under a uniformed/affordable health care! They have talked about it for decades, and the poloticians are to darned scared to do it! Now that one of our prez. has the guts and means to pass a Health Care reform, we have idiots like this who plays politics with it, and be damned what it does to the children and adults of this Nation. It’s time to fire Republicans/Demacrates who is doing this. It’s time we stand together as a united Country, an not on party! Period!
It will always feel rushed because there will always be thouse who want status quo. Despite sbj’s assertion that I’m using a strawman argument, I don’t think so.
I also submit that Sen. Rockefeller doesn’t think so:
“There is a very small chance any Republicans will vote for this health-care plan. They were against Medicare and Medicaid [created in the 1960s]. They voted against children’s health insurance.
“We have a moral choice. This is a classic case of the good guys versus the bad guys. I know it is not political for me to say that,” Rockefeller added.
“But do you want to be non-partisan and get nothing? Or do you want to be partisan and end up with a good health- care plan? That is the choice.”
Since the days of Rutherford Hayes the GOP has been first and foremost the Party of Big Business. They always oppose damaging big business. They have dependably done so for well over a century.
That the health insurance industry isn’t interested in insuring everyone or lowering costs as long as they themselves maximize their profits concerns the GOP not at all. The only thing that worries them is that the insurance companies might be harmed by this legislation.
Take my word for it, Health Care is breaking our buget and destroying our deficit. How do I know? My husband just died from Cancer! The cost in the last 18 months he lived through 5 surgeries,radiology, an chemo. would have given Health Care to a small army. It throw families into proverty, and once that’s done the state and Federal medicaid/medicair take over and it breaks the camels back, in medical cost just for that one person. You have millions on medicair and medicaid! For decades this system has been tanking, and no one has the guts to do anything.Reduce medical cost by 25% and it will pay for this Health Care Reform. One ambulance ride four blocks cost us $800.! A ride to the city 50 miles to the city Hosp. Cost us $2,800! They spent a $100 probally on gas if not less and paid two workers for 3 hrs to and from and that totalled up to $2,800.
Alberta,
I sympathize – I lost my wife to cancer last November. I know exactly.
However – what is this going to cost me?
Will I have a copay?
Will I be paying 20%
Who pays the Dr’s?
What about their Malpractice Insurance?(skyrocketing)
Can I see my current Dr’s?
Can I have elective procedures?
Can my Dr. order more that one test?
Can I get a 2nd opinion?
Can I get a 3rd opinion?
Can I travel to a better hospital? See a specialist?
Can my Dr order the tests he’d like done, or only the test’s the government plan approves?
There are a hundred questions like this – I’d like real answers to.
Also – who pays for this? The cbo projects quite a different forecast than the adminstration’s numbers…
Read up people. Read the details, not just the twitters, the newsbites and the rumors. Find out the details for yourself. Take the time to read the proposal start to finish. Put pressure on your congressman, regardless of their affiliation, to come up with a solution. This is in your hands, not your politicians or your Presidents. The work will get done when the people will it.
In any situation I look to who opposes legislation and how much they are spending to oppose as a quick indication of the validity. Pharm and Insurance companies putting up $60M to help defeat Universal Health care tells me a lot, as does the fact that the American Medical Association supports…
So who do you trust and believe is concerned about your Medical treatment, your Doctor or your Insurance Company?
The U.S. already pays DOUBLE per capita what the EU Countries spend, yet we are no better than middle of the road in Cancer, Heart Disease, Life Expectancy etc. The only medical measures we rank #1 in besides per capita spending is Teen Pregnancy, Obesity and Plastic Surgery!
Countries like France pay per capita what the U.S. spends per capita now on Medicare and Medicaid, so I am at a loss as to how we can’t find a way to provide Universal care.
It is lunacy that I can’t leave my job for fear of losing my Insurance…And if I happen to have a preexisting condition, forget about moving to a new job!
The real irony is the GOP is backing the Insurance industry, of course, when in reality what better Stimulus package is there than telling every Company in America, those billions of dollars you have tied up in Employee health care, that money is now yours for Capital! Tens and tens of billions of dollars put into the hands of Business to spend!!
Senator, with all due respect, your “waterloo” comment resonates loud and clear. At 77 and having voted in a number of elections it is perfectly clear to me you don’t give a tinker’s damn about people who cannot afford health care. Your remark reeks of partisan politics pure, plan, and simple. I am ashamed to say that I EVER voted for a republican (small letter ‘r’ intended); for you are very small minded.
The goverment is not good at runnig anything. Would you like to stay at a government hotel? Would you like to go to a government hospital? Senetor DeMint has introduced legislation that would give you a better choice. S.1015 Health Care Choice Act. Check it out.
They’re giving away chapter 13 of DeMint’s book at http://www.SavingFreedomBook.com — where he goes into detail about his ideas for health care.
Did you notice the pause between “we can” and “and along with the American people”? Very telling. The American people are an afterthought to this guy.
Yes, I stand with Barack Obama in his reforms for the health care system. There are many reasons why his reforms must be be quickly implemented, firstly more than 47 million U.S. residents have no health insurance, and the numbers keep growing. Secondly our Working families are experiencing double-digit increases in the costs of their health insurance, more out-of-pocket costs for doctor visits and skyrocketing prices for prescriptions, forcing many to delay getting needed medical care or worse…last but not least the failure of the previous health care systems will demand for new reforms such as this, playing politics at the time when millions of citizens life is at stake will certainly hamper the well-being of the country.
Interesting report below:
Link :http://en.oboulo.com/the-failure-of-america-s-health-care-system-65187.html
Fingers crossed!
Well the economy is broken already ! if the republicans had not taken the country into several pointless wasteful wars, ignored the warnings about the national deficit for years, not regulated the financial markets which have destroyed peoples pensions and investments, there would be more money to provide a health system for ALL and not the rich and employed which would be consistent with the equality values espoused in the Constitution !
MediaCurves.com just conducted a study with 615 viewers of a recent pro health care reform ad by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) discussing statements from Senator Jim DeMint. Results showed that the ad failed to increase favorability levels across all political parties. Democrats, Republicans and Independents all reported “skepticism” as the emotion they felt most while watching the ad. For more in-depth results, please visit http://www.mediacurves.com/HealthCare/J7499-ProReformAd/Index.cfm
Thanks,
Ben
These days, I start surfing blogs and these articles are very interesting, thank you.