Joe Conason: Bipartisanship is for suckers

[babylonsister]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/07/17/healthcare/


Bipartisanship is for suckers

Hey, Democrats -- Republicans have no intention of addressing America's healthcare ills. Any reform is up to you

By Joe Conason


July 17, 2009 | Whatever hopes the Democrats in Congress and the White House may still cherish about bipartisan cooperation on healthcare reform, the Republicans are sparing no effort to mock them. Rather than expend much energy on seeking compromise or creating solutions of their own, the minority party appears wholly preoccupied with spreading propaganda against reform through all their reliable stooges, outlets and devices.

If the Republican leadership in either the Senate or the House of Representatives had conceived an alternative plan for reform -- confronting the twin crises of coverage and cost -- they could promote such ideas on all the media platforms available to them, from Fox News and Drudge to the mainstream media.

Instead, however, the Republican noise machine offers only noise, in the hope of frustrating the Democrats and blocking change. Although they understand very well that the public is demanding reform, if only because pollster and strategist Frank Luntz told them so, they don't seem to care.

snip//

Individual Republicans in both the House and the Senate may well share the concerns of Democrats about the rising costs and diminishing accessibility of health insurance, but as a matter of policy, their party is bluntly opposed to any real reform. Last month, Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, put out a four-page press release, dubbed the Republican healthcare plan, that was so vague and devoid of required detail that his members could hardly endorse it without laughing. The next Republican non-plan will be unveiled on Monday at the National Press Club in Washington, where RNC chairman Michael Steele promises to announce a "unifying set of core Republican principles for healthcare reform." Still no actual bill, but maybe Steele will recite the core principles in rapping rhyme.

Listening to Republicans and their pet pundits on Fox News, CNBC and talk radio, it quickly becomes clear that the conservative objective is not to fashion a solution acceptable to both parties, but to obstruct. The question they ponder daily is not how to reduce costs and provide healthcare to all; no, the question they repeatedly ask is whether and how they can "stop whatever comes out, healthcare-bill wise, from the Democrats."

So much for bipartisanship, a vanishingly rare commodity that is of no value to the Republicans, who know that voters will credit the Democratic majority for reform whether the minority offers support or not. What the Democrats need to understand is that there can be no cooperation without sincere partners. Among the opposition on Capitol Hill there are no such partners. There is only a cabal of legislative saboteurs, egged on by the right-wing media. The Republicans are pursuing the plan laid out by their strategist Luntz that is designed to kill reform -- and it is now time for the Democrats to recognize that grim reality.

[Demeter]

1. Yes, Well, We Keep Saying That--But We Don't Count

After all, we are only the blood and bones and skin of the Party. We campaign, volunteer, advocate, donate and VOTE. But we don't throw millions into the pot....and we don't have a K Street lobbyist or a C Street Brothel.


What will it take? A General Strike? A Tax Resistance Movement? A Civil War? Or a mass emigration to Europe, Asia and anywhere people are a little more sensible?

[Hydra]

2. Bipartisanship was always a pipe dream

As was reported as soon as the new congress came in, the Republicans said they had one strategy and one job- "To say 'No.'"

The more stuff they stop, the more they gain.

Simple, isn't it?

[subcomhd]

3. kick

[Tutankhamun]

4. A Democrat who speaks of "bipartisanship" is just a Republican in disguise.

The Republican health care agenda is simple: make health care more expensive while finding creative ways to deny treatment to those who are actually insured.

Why would we want to team up with those who simply want us to fail?

[Skittles]

5. Obama held out the olive branch and the repukes puked on it

and everyone knows this; now Obama can legitimately tell them to FUCK OFF

[Jakes Progress]

6. It's taken almost six months

but I think the admin has gotten this message.

Let's hope.