I just got back from taking little Finn to a routine check-up at the doctor’s office. He’s in the 75th percentile for weight and length. The way they marveled at his rate of growth, I almost expected him to be in the 90th percentile. In any case, he’s healthy and I’m grateful. But, because I was at the doctor, I didn’t see the first hour of this summit. What did I miss?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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I’m chained to my desk and can’t stream videos so just going to sit here and imagine that it’s time for another Beer Summit.
Ooh, I’d attend that one. Who are we inviting and where?
you are definitely on the VIP list…and I guess BooMan can come, too 😉 location? Somewhere with springlike weather works for me. I’m allergic to snow
lamar alexander spewed a lot of bullshit. tom coburn was disingenuous.
so, not much.
oh and msnbc’s video player keeps freezing and crashing. awesome.
A whole lot of political posturing. Blah, blah, blah. Lamar Alexander opened with, “Let’s start over” Repub ideas need to be included, blah, blah, blah, opposed to reconciliation, freight train, ramming thru, blah, blah, blah.
I would have liked for Obama to reply to him more bluntly, like, “No, we’re not going to start over; we’ve been working on this for a year already. And five of the six ideas you mentioned are already in the bill.”
But, no, every single one of them is making a political speech, droning on and I got so irritated I just turned it off.
My mother called after watching the first hour or so, and asked us why no one asks these reps why we can’t just have the same health care plan they already have. If they’re happy with it, we would be too.
We had to tell her that it was because that would be socialist and we’re not allowed to be anything like Europe in this country, for some reason…
Republicans are just spouting their bs talking points without any specifics.
In other news, water remains wet.
Jon Kyl is the stupidest man in the U.S. Senate. Hands down.
I will disagree with that, but on my own live-blogging, I said something similar:
Inhofe is the stupidest man in the Senate.
I tuned back in for that and was stunned by his circular argument. I’m glad they’re enjoying their buffet now so I can get my heart rate down to normal.
Yep. After the lunch break we will go back to Political Cage Match: Round 2.
Bunning…
Well so far he seems the winner to me, but it’s a close race to the bottom.
Glad to hear that Finn is doing well.
now john mccain is making a campaign speech.
moron.
Are people impressed by the length (in pages) of the bill? Should we start using smaller fonts and then we can pass stuff?
That’s the holdup.
2400 is Satan’s number, ya’ know.
and here I thought he suspended his presidential campaign to be there today
Can unsavory be said with respect?
There he goes again……lecturing McCain for rehashing the campaign.
McCain is just a wad.
lot’s of prattling of ratpublican talking points, and nary a concrete proposal, or counter-proposal, in sight.
Republicans: 2400 pages; must start over; process behind closed doors; philosophical differences; cost, cost, cost; Washington, Washington, Washington; 30% of Medicare payments are waste, fraud, abuse–but can’t estimate a reduction in Medicare costs over 10 years because that would hurt seniors.
McCain: Corrupt deals like Cornhusker Kickback, Florida Medicare Advantage 400, Louisiana Purchase, and PhRMA deal (yes he went there but only to complain that it bought TV ads “for” healthcare reform).
Obama: Let’s talk about where we agree (with list of where he agrees with this or that Republican Senator’s or Representative’s proposal); then talk about the technical issues where we disagree and see if we can’t bridge that gap. (Republican response: It’s philosophical; we can’t bridge that gap.)
Key real issues: Pooling through associations (like small business lobby organization like ARA and NFISB) or through exchanges.
Handling pre-existing conditions through high-risk pools or regulatory prohibition of the practice plus individual mandates.
And about two hours of posturing.
.
A summit is a meeting well organized and well prepared with an attempt to reach a certain goal. You have a chairperson, some leadership, perhaps several workshops to iron out known differences, but in the end everyone feels there is a definite accomplishment. For all I read, it was no more than a high level town hall meeting with coordinated talking points but no meeting of the minds. This illustrates what’s wrong in today’s politics and Congress.
Certainly a lack of knowledge how the real world operates with universal health care, ecology, automated production, high quality manufacturing and an air of competitiveness. I doubt the US will catch up in the coming decade. All that’s left is the military industrial complex for empire building (pax americana) with a policy of creating or sustaining trouble spots throughout the world. With the fall of the dollar, it’s become nearly impossible to pay the bill. Change ain’t coming and leadership (another FDR) is out of sight.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."We don’t live in the real world Oui. When Wall Street and Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge control your world and Glenn Beck gets to play the insane court jester that millions of people take seriously when he talks about revolution we live in fantasy land.
ooh good. john boehner brought the 2,700 page bill as a prop.
What I would have done:
Go through each section, line by line if necessary. Say we’ll be here until hell freezes over, but we’re going through this bill together, in front of the American people.
The Republicans will look silly objecting to most, if not all, of its provisions when you lay them out like that.
I had to do that with some evoting activists once. We agreed not to argue the points, but to discuss them for clarity, to make sure we all understood what they meant. Because I knew if they truly understood what the bill said, they would have no objection. And I was right! Most were objecting because of what they THOUGHT the bill said, not because of what it ACTUALLY said.
These guys have staffs to review bills. They know exactly what the bills say. They are mischaracterizing what they say to spin the debate; then when they go talk with their constituents, the constituents feed them back the talking points.
Your process would be a good one but would not keep much attention from the public. The “cage match” quality of this “summit” likely kept a few veiwers watching. Although the Republicans did try to be as tedious as possible to bore people to death.
But the public would have also learned what’s in the bill and what isn’t – which they still don’t.
And believe me when I say even staffers don’t fully know or understand what’s in the bills. I used to work with them!
interesting summation by obama. saving rangel and dingle for the end to set it up was a very clever move.
methinks, reading between the lines, that the rats have been put on notice that if there’s no movement towards a viable compromise [bipartisanship] w/in the next 6 weeks…highly unlikely, imo…we’re going to see hir moved forward using reconciliation.