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Health Reform Summit Illustrates Differences Between Obama, Republicans
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2010 Comment (25)By Linda Killian, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
There were no surprises at the Blair House health summit Thursday which served primarily to highlight the real differences between Republicans and Democrats--not just on healthcare but on their general political philosophy.
It's pretty simple--Democrats believe government is the answer to big problems and should take care of people, and Republicans believe the private sector is always the best way to go and people should take care of themselves.
This is a political chasm too big to bridge no matter how hard President Barack Obama tries or how reasonable he sounds.
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Why Sarah Palin Is No Ronald Reagan
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2010 Comment (146)By Linda Killian, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Sarah Palin did her best to try to channel Ronald Reagan in her speech to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville this weekend. She may believe that adopting his conservative rhetoric and following his example will take her to the White House, but let’s face it--she’s no Reagan.
She began her speech by wishing Reagan a “Happy Birthday”--it would have been his 99th--and one can’t help wondering what he would have made of the speech. She hit all of Reagan’s favorite issues and combined them with the populist anger manifested by the tea party movement. She derided the bank bailout and conveniently forgot to mention it happened during the Bush administration. She warned of the attempted government takeover of healthcare, out-of-control spending and huge national debt, and of course, called for lower taxes. -
Democratic Leaders Are Obama’s Biggest Obstacle to Bipartisanship
Tweet Share on Facebook February 4, 2010 Comment (6)By Linda Killian, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
President Barack Obama’s meeting with Senate Democrats Wednesday didn’t have quite the same zing as did his encounter session with House Republicans last week. His meeting with Republicans featured Obama protesting that he is not an “ideologue” and accusing the Republicans of characterizing the Democratic healthcare reform plan as “some Bolshevik plot.”
Obama also chided the Republicans for name calling rather than showing a genuine interest in working together. “You’ve given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion because what you’ve been telling your constituents is ‘This guy’s doing all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to destroy America.’… This is part of what happens in our politics where we demonize the other side so much that when it comes to actually getting things done, it becomes tough to do.”
Obama promised the Republicans “I am absolutely committed to working with you on these issues” and it looks like he plans to make good on that promise. The White House announced Wednesday that the president will host a bipartisan meeting of congressional leaders on February 9 and that session will be just the first in a series of monthly bipartisan leadership meetings the president will hold. In the wake of Obama’s visit with the Republicans, there has been a call for more televised Q&As between the president and members of Congress like the British parliament’s prime minister question time. But next week’s closed door session at the White House will undoubtedly accomplish much more than half a dozen televised meetings where both sides are performing for the camera.
And if the president is serious about actually getting congressional Republicans and Democrats to work together he had best have a private chat first with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has done everything she can to freeze out the Republicans, and who was called on that several times at the Baltimore meeting.
