Pundits on the left and untruthful Democrats have given Republicans a bum rap, calling them 'the party of NO'. Truth is, they had plenty of ideas to bring to the table, but were shut out by Pelosi and the Democrats. by 1deciple
(centrist)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
I get really tired of hearing Democrats and left-leaning 'pundits' from the media falsely characterize Republicans as the party of 'no'. They consistently misrepresent the Republican members of Congress by implying that since they have no constructive ideas of their own to offer the legislative process, all they can do is say 'NO' to everything Democrats put forward. This is simply not true. Republicans have been seeking to participate in the legislative dialog from the git-go, but have been systematically excluded from the process.
All the way back in July of 2009, shortly before the August recess, Representative Tom Price (R-Ga), along with 52 Cosponsors, introduced H.R. 3400, The Empowering Patients First Act, a simple, 200 page, no-nonsense bill designed to transform American health care in a positive way, without a government takeover of medicine. It was immediately referred to ten Democrat controlled committees, where it remains to this day. The media' insists the GOP never had a plan of their own, but the truth is, they did. Pelosi never gave it a chance. So much for bipartisanship. She had her own bill cooking and simply wouldn't countenance any competition from the other side'.
Between the introduction of the initial 2000 page "Pelosi" Health Care Reform bill, HR 3200, in early September, and consideration of the final proposal before its passage on November 7, at least 57 Republican amendments were offered in good faith, seeking to make HR 3200 more about empowering patients and less about growing government. Each was again systematically referred to Democratic-controlled committees for alleged 'bi-partisan consideration'. It is noteworthy that only 27 of these were even accepted' for discussion, by only two of the ten committees.
The final Pelosi Government Healthcare Takeover bill, H.R. 3962, moved a step further away from bipartisanship by entirely removing a total of 12 Republican amendments (only 1of which was bipartisan) and gutting numerous other amendments of the 27 that survived the Committees on Energy and Commerce and Education and Labor (Ways and Means refused to accept any Republican amendments).
Only 5 Republican amendments survived fully intact (4 others that remained intact were bipartisan) while 6 others were either significantly gutted or modified during the Pelosi rewrite. Several other Republican amendments were withdrawn with the assurance from Democratic leaders they would work to incorporate them into the final bill, but for the most part none were included in the final bill. No one expected they would be.
Republicans were unsuccessful in contributing much to the makeup of the health care reform proposals under consideration, it's true. It was not because they didn't try very hard to make their voices heard. Rather, it was because Pelosi and company refused to allow them a voice. For any reporter to label the Republicans as the party of NO' is not simply disingenuous, it is a grossly irresponsible misstatement of the facts. It is unfair, shows a shameful bias, and is not worthy of being considered serious journalism.
Arthur Bruce Robertson
1deciple
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Posted By: No Name Supplied
Date: 2010-03-05 06:57:53
Well it is not a big suprise the democrats do not work with republicans on this health care bill. For anyone who says the President is working with them, that summit was a show and they only did it to go after the republicans. Okay the reason the democrats did not want to put any republicans ideas in the bill is that most of them do not give the government power. I mean most of the republicans ideas are simple things that we can do to cut prices but at the same time not get the government involved. In the end though we just got to hope some of the democrates will vote against this to stop this government takeover of health-care.
Now I do not know if anyone listens to Micheal Savage but this is what he has been saying. First thing, if you can pass this bill you can pass anything that goes against the Constitution. Second if you think about it there are some religeous people who do not beleive in using modern health-care, so if you force those people to buy modern health-care insurance you would be taking their freedom of religion which would be a complete violation of your First Ammendment.
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