GOP Counters Obama AARP Healthcare Town Hall

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The plan of this administration to cut services for seniors according to their age is disgusting. The remark of Mr Obama re hip replacement of a person of 80 being denied is unimaginable in this country I fear next we will simply empty the nursing homes and throw people out on the sreet or worse uthenasia I sure hope not. Why were the illegal immigrants put into our medicare medicade systm without ever contributing a nickel to these programs? I would suggest deporting all of them that would give American citizens the coverage that they deserve. My husband and I are on medicare roughly 180 per month our AARP insurance is over three hundred not easy but at least we have good coverage. If you take our benefits away are both of these insurers going to lower our rates drastically less than one half? Stop foreign aide stop the war the cost for those two programs could more than cover medicre programs in this country with money to spare. Are senators and congressman and the White house giving up their fab. coverage I think they should as they are no better than anyone of the citizens in this country This administration has no right to descriminate against anyone due to their age and if you need a hip replcement that should be up to your doctor not some politician who has no medical degree. Any politician that votes to take coverage away from seniors due to their age should simply not be allowed back in office.

E.Pezzano of MD 2:10PM August 06, 2009

If anyone is compared as the Dr. Goebbels of the Republican Party then Pol Pot must be high on the list of your party. He silenced millions because of their beliefs just as you are trying to do in this DEBATE. How else will they get the politicians attention since they are not listening to the people and believe they know what is best for the ignorant masses.
More than half think something should be done to fix the existing system and less than half those surveyed think what is being proposed is what needs to be accomplished. Over 90 percent have insurance and 80 percent are happy with their coverage. In most cases I don’t dignify statements such as yours and I don’t normally make inflammatory remarks. In your case I have made an exception.

Don of VA 11:43PM August 05, 2009

I destroyed my AARP card about 7 years ago.

Don of VA 5:41PM August 05, 2009

Thugs from just one part of the spectrum, I don't think so, it comes from both sides. If they can't cram this through in a hurry before all the facts are heard or the bills being read and digested they know their utopia and Canadian style health care will be lost. We don't need to throw the baby out with the bath water and start over with a totally new system; we need to fix the parts that are not working. If they can not move this monstrosity with 60 votes in the Senate it is their fault not the thugs from this side of the spectrum as you put it. You have been watching too much Olbermann and Madoooow on MSNBC.

Don of VA 5:34PM August 05, 2009

This is not a democrate or republican issue. This is an American issue.
Clearly, "Americans" both democrate and republican are not in favor of the kind of "healthcare overhaul" contained in the House bill.
The laughable notion that republicans are responsible for Congress' inability to pass this insane bill is, well, laughable. Both the House and the Senate have enough potential votes on the democratic side to pass the bill without the republicans. Why are the republicans being blamed for the dems failure to rally their own? Me thinks it is because the bill sinks.

Craig of TX 1:41PM August 05, 2009

If "Orwellian" is in the dictionary, Republican Boehner’s picture should be next to it. George Orwell's 1984 envisions a world in which freedom means slavery, and two plus two equals five. Reality has no power compared to language, when manipulated to its maximum potential. Republicans are offering a cynical non-solution as the cure-all for America’s broken down healthcare system.
Of course, if Republicans keeps it up, "yes" might soon mean "no."
Back in 1993, Bill Kristol mobilized Republicans to block the Clinton health care plan with an infamous two- word talking point, "no crisis." Now 16 years later, GOP pollster and master of double-speak Frank Luntz is offering conservatives a new lexicon for scuttling President Obama's health care initiatives. While feigning support for "reform," Luntz insists, Republicans should oppose Obama by warning of threats to the "doctor-patient relationship."
Of course, the President is threatening no such thing. And as it turns out, George W. Bush not only used the same language Luntz now advocates. As its draconian positions over abortion policy and the Terri Schiavo case showed, it is the Republican Party which is intent on abridging the doctor-patient relationship.
But you'd never know from the Luntz memo designed to buck up his beaten and battered Republican allies. Desperate to block success on health care which could help solidify a Democratic majority for years, Luntz suggests different rhetoric for the Republicans' 21st century obstructionism. Unlike Kristol's denial of the crisis, Luntz warns GOP officials, "You simply MUST be vocally and passionately on the side of REFORM."
And by "passionately on the side" of reform, Luntz means "actively working against." Although he concludes by telling GOP candidates, "It's not enough to just say what you're against" and insists "if you offer no vision for what's better for America, you'll be relegated to insignificance at best and labeled obstructionist at worst." Needless to say, he never says what that vision might be.
Instead, the Sun Tzu of the Republican art of rhetorical war recycles decades-old spin in ten new talking points. Among the lowlights:
The arguments against the Democrats' healthcare plan must center around "politicians," "bureaucrats," and "Washington"...not the free market, tax incentives, or competition. Stop talking economic theory and start personalizing the impact of a government takeover of healthcare...
The idea that a "committee of Washington bureaucrats" will establish the standard of care for all Americans and decide who gets what treatment based on how much it costs is anathema to Americans. Your approach? Call for the "protection of the personalized doctor-patient relationship."
If that sounds familiar, it should. Throughout his presidency, George W. Bush said the same thing.
A quick look back shows that "protecting the doctor-patient relationship" has been the Republican Party mantra for selling the full range of its health care privatization schemes. In May 2006, President Bush told an RNC gala:
"Ours is a party that understands the best health care system is when the doctor-patient relationship is central to decision-making. That's why we're strong believers in health savings accounts...And so we reformed Medicare. We said to our seniors, we trust you; we trust you to make decisions that meets your needs."
That same drumbeat provided the rhythm for the entire Bush presidency. In March 2001, the President told the American College of Cardiology, "I want to talk about protecting the doctor-patient relationships with a patients' bill of rights." In 2004, the President Bush pushed for malpractice liability reform, claiming that "one of the most vital links of good medicine is the doctor-patient relationship." In February 2006, the White House introduced its ill-fated proposal "Reforming Health Care for the 21st Century" by claiming its intent to "strengthen the doctor-patient relationship." Pitching his plans two months later for association health plans, medical savings accounts and malpractice litigation curbs, President Bush declared:
"The best way to reform this health care system is to preserve the system of private medicine, is to strengthen the relationship between doctors and patients, and make the benefits of private medicine more affordable and accessible for all our citizens."
Government has a role to play...We have a major role to play in strengthening and reforming this health care system, but in a way that preserves the doctor-patient relationship."

Big Mo Ahmed of CA 2:13AM August 05, 2009

Dr. Frank Luntz is the new Dr. Goebbels of the Republican Party. “You simply MUST be vocally and passionately on the side of REFORM,” Luntz advises in a confidential 26-page report obtained from Capitol Hill Republicans. “The status quo is no longer acceptable. If the dynamic becomes ‘President Obama is on the side of reform and Republicans are against it,’ then the battle is lost and every word in this document is useless.”
The healthcare debate in August 2009 resembles the political meetings in Germany in the 1930s. Angry right wing lobby financed protestors in Philadelphia shouted down both Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Arlen Specter.
On Saturday in Texas, demonstrators against what they called government-run health care surrounded Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett and followed him out to his car, shouting "just say no." The crowds are partly the result of conservative Web sites asking for turn out at town hall meetings - including three in Virginia, Mississippi and South Carolina. Hundreds of events by both Democrats and Republicans are being targeted by the thugs in every state. Fox News only shows the thugs and disruptions rather than cover the news and analysis of these events.
But the turnouts also reflect the false fear over the increased taxes and government controls that are part of the health bills being considered in Congress.
"They know that that means somebody's taxes are eventually be used to pay for this - and they are worried that that's their taxes," said Max Pappas of the conservative Web site Freedom Works.
Americans can pay now or pay a lot more later – GOP is avoiding the unavoidable. GOP should offer real solutions rather than false platitudes and rented thugs to disrupt civil townhalls.
Political analysts say Democrats face a very tough August recess. Beyond the shout-downs, anti-reform forces have also mounted phone campaigns. Voters, seniors, patients, insured, not-imsured, under-insured, employers, small businesses, doctors, healthcare providers should find out the truth rather than catchy one liners: "Chicken in every pot, a car in every garage!", "Remember Maine!", "WMD in Iraq!" etc. etc.
Huge Bush tax cuts for the rich, two unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, unfunded Prescription Drug Coverage, partly unfunded No Child Left Behind are the huge costs Americans have borne. These alone amount to $ 1 Trillion plus!

Mo Ahmed of CA 2:02AM August 05, 2009

AARP will not represent me in the future.

Sondirk of TX 8:44PM August 04, 2009

I don't believe being against Obamas healthcare extermination reform is a republican thing, I'm quite sure many democrats, independants ect.. are against this too, as for being a snail not many people would be rushing into a reform that wants to give Seniors the boot. I would rather be a snail then a rat.

domino of CA 9:19AM August 04, 2009

When a Senator cannot understand and properly interpret the Healthcare bill, what makes anyone think that they can engineer it and make it work effectively?
This is absurd.

Keith of GA 4:21AM August 04, 2009