Former DNC chairman Howard Dean was on NBC’s Meet The Press today talking about the compromise healthcare bill. Dean finally answered the Republicans who have been twisting his words on healthcare, specifically John McCain. He accused McCain of using his words for something that he has no intention of endorsing.
Here is the video:
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Earlier this week McCain said about Dean, “If you live long enough, all things can happen. I now find myself in complete agreement with Dr. Howard Dean, who says that we should stop this bill in its tracks. We should go back to the beginning and have an overall bipartisan agreement. Dr. Dean, I am with you.”
Dean replied, “I, I think, you know, the Republicans’ behavior has been reprehensible. They haven’t lifted a finger. All their, their–they, they have really put their party in front of their country here. You know, they could have made this bill a better bill, but they choose just to kill the bill because they thought they did do that for political reasons. First–and I don’t believe there’s a bipartisan compromise possible.”
He continued, “As David Axelrod said, the Republicans of today and the John McCain of today is not the same–not even the same as the Republican Party of eight years ago, and it certainly isn’t the same as the Republican Party my father was in until the day he died. So it–you know, I respect John McCain, but it’s, he wouldn’t be the first person who twisted my words around and used them for something I had no intention of endorsing, which is the Republicans’ behavior in this bill.”
The Republicans have been warping Dean’s criticisms of the healthcare bill for a week now. They have been trying to muddle the debate in a desperate last ditch attempt to stop the bill. I only wish that Dean would have came out sooner and knocked down these obvious distortions.
Dean is correct today’s GOP and John McCain are not the same as they were eight years ago. The Republican Party is now being driven by a far right ideology, and McCain the maverick has been replaced by McCain the pandering parrot. Republicans are unable to understand that criticism of the healthcare bill does not equal agreement with their position.
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McCain (who I don’t agree with politically) simply said he was in agreement with Dean as far as killing the current bill. That’s not out of context, and it’s not misrepresented. While Dean would desire a much stronger bill after, and McCain presumably would not, changes nothing. McCain still didn’t twist Dean’s words in any way. Dean DOES want the bill killed (for different reasons).
Democrats come up with the urgency, then insist that Republicans get on board and suggest something to the same ends. If not the Democrats bill, than an identical or very similar one. Ta dah! Bipartisanship at its worst. Democrats want to take our definitely imperfect yet world’s best healthcare and shoot it repeatedly. When Republicans don’t wanna, the Dems want to know what alternate method they’d propose of execution. I think “none of the above” is the proposed option, at least until the Dems quit maniacally waving their gun around and we can all calm down and do something helpful. Examples of helpful would be:
Eliminate the ban for cross-state insurance policies
Tort reform so we’re not all paying for silly lawsuits. When there’s real negligence, lawsuits are appropriate.
Openness and accountability. We shouldn’t be passing on our unseen health care bill that no one knows or cares how much it is. In the real world, when you use more goods and services it costs more and you knowingly make that choice. It’s as if we had “food insurance” and people are throwing steaks and expensive food they don’t need or want because it’s “free.”
Government options exists in Europe, Cuba, Canada, the old Soviet Union, and in no cases was or is health care readily available in a timely manner. In some cases it’s cheaper, but when you don’t get quality care at all cheaper is awfully expensive. This bill is not cheap though. Same system, but at a cost of trillions. You’ll pay more for a bunch less. Take that in context.
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