Heritage fires back at Obama

[sabra]

Source: MSNBC

From NBC's Mark Murray
In his interview with NBC's Matt Lauer on "TODAY," President Obama used the conservative Heritage Foundation as an example of how the health-care law has incorporated GOP and conservative ideas.

(W)hen you actually look at the bill itself, it incorporates all sorts of Republican ideas. I mean, a lot of commentators have said, you know, this is sort of similar to the bill that Mitt Romney, the Republican governor and now presidential candidate, passed in Massachusetts. A lot of the ideas in terms of the exchange, just being able to pool and improve the purchasing power of individuals in the insurance market. That originated from the Heritage Foundation.

Not surprisingly, Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner has fired back at the president in a blog post. While he doesn't exactly refute that the health exchanges are based on the conservative think tank's market-based ideas, Feulner contends that they go too far in regulations and federal standards.

But the President knows full well—or he ought to learn before he speaks—that the exchanges we and most others support are very different from those in his package. True exchanges are simply a market mechanism to enable families to choose their health insurance. President Obama’s exchanges, by contrast, are a vehicle to introduce sweeping regulation and federal standardization on health insurance.


Read more: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/03/30/2246315.aspx

[Deep13]

1. "...it incorporates all sorts of Republican ideas..."

We will refer to these sections as the crappy parts of the law.

[DJ13]

2. That doesnt leave much to talk about

:rofl:

[yurbud]

30. who is he talking to with that remark? The 3 moderate Republicans left in the universe?

[emulatorloo]

3. oooooh, Heritage Foundation, so big and scary. So horribly credible too.

LOL

[opihimoimoi]

4. HF Lost the Race to Sanity, Credibility, Reality eons ago = LOSS of Respect, Influence

[DuckyCase]

6. They probably spend more money than most of us make in a year to write one of their "studies."

[No Elephants]

21. Heritage will be more credible than Obama when it comes to folks who might be pleased

by the idea that Obamacare is really Romneycare Redux. To that group, Heritage will be a lot more credible than Obama when it comes to what is or is not a Republican idea.

And those of us who think Heritage has no crediblity pretty much don't like the idea that Obamacare is indeed a lot like Romneycare (personal mandate, but no public option) and has a lot of other Republican ideas.

Let's see. Which group remains?

[defendandprotect]

5. Heritage is more right wing elite funded opinion . . .

all astroturf -- all from the same rw elite source --

[harun]

7. That one hit a nerve. Obama has a few tricks up his sleave they weren't expecting.

[No Elephants]

22. Yep. No one expected someone who ran on change and a strong public option to pass a Republican bill.

Tricky Obama had a so-called health care reform plan that was further to the right than Tricky Dick's and DUeers kvell.

Wonders never cease.

[harun]

23. Welcome to Crazy Land.

[EFerrari]

8. Official denial, check.

[nykym]

9. it incorporates all sorts of Republican ideas

We Dems just made them better you twit!

[Oregone]

12. They polished turds up nice and shiny, they did

[Grassy Knoll]

10. Im glad I'm a Dem , I could not live my life being pissy every day.

[No Elephants]

24. Ben Stein claims he became a Rethug bc all the Dems he saw were always angry and all the Rethugs he

knew were always happy, LOL. I almost fell over. And Ben himself gets pretty angry when he does not get his way or when his political view is challenged.

I'm glad I'm a Democrat, too. I just wish more people who get elected with a (D) after their names were Democrats, and glad to be Democrats as well.

[pattmarty]

11. The Heritage foundation is a fucking RW propaganda organization.............

..............Everyone that has posted so far has forgotten one simple thing while praising the bill. You are defending a "republican" bill, for christ sake. It's like any one of us getting involved in a tea party, what do you think they would say to you and how would you be treated? Answer: Just like the Heritage foundations statement. We can say the sky is blue and it's not raining and ALL the RW would fucking disagree with us using bullshit "technicalities" and shouting longer and louder than us. Fuck all these people.

[socialist_n_TN]

15. Incremental progress is all you'll get...................

with the current corporatist Senate. Elect more progressives/socialists to the Senate and you'll see quicker change and more progressive legislation enacted. It's a long haul thing.

[pattmarty]

17. Very, very, very long haul. My opinion is this country will never be........

..........like even the more conservative European countries. Hell, a conservative in Germany or Italy would be a reincarnation of Bernie Sanders over here. That's how reactionary this country is. I was talking to my wife about maybe moving to Spain (cheaper than "most" European countries), but we have kids here (grown) and she doesn't want to leave. So that's where my head's at now.

[socialist_n_TN]

29. Oh yeah, I DO feel your pain................

In Europe I would be a centrist, at BEST. :) And my wife has actually come around to the idea of an out of country move. Well not exactly come around to it. More like she's actually willing to think about it now. We're thinking Australia or New Zealand. English speaking, similar culture, etc.

[TrollBuster9090]

13. This has traction, and we should play it up. GIN THIS UP!

Obamacare is very similar to A) Romneycare in Mass, B) The 1993 Republican "alternative" to Hilarycare, and C) The proposals from the Heritage foundation that the Republican alternative plan was drafted from.

Progressives already know that most of the progressive ideas were stripped from Obamacare in order to make the plan more CENTRIST to appeal to moderates. That move to the center cost progressive support, BUT IT DID NOT GAIN the CENTRIST support that it deserved BECAUSE THE CENTRIST PARTS OF THE PLAN DIDN'T GET ANY MEDIA ATTENTION. We need to make sure that it does, by drawing attention to the fact that this plan is similar to Romneycare, the 1993 GOP plan, and the Heritage Foundation's recommendations.


WE CAN DO THIS BY FUELING THE FIGHT BETWEEN OBAMA AND THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION. Since the press isn't interested in anything but ratings-grabbing conflict, if we generate enough controversey over a fight between Obama and the Heritage Foundation, MAYBE a few lazy-assed reporters will ACTUALLY BOTHER TO COMPARE THE DETAILS of the two plans.

[SpartanDem]

14. Yeah regulation and standardization such horrible things

it not like the insurance industry needed it.

[amb123]

16. "or he ought to learn before he speaks"?

President Obama IS NOT A FIVE YEAR OLD you f**king simpleton!

[florida08]

18. hmm wonder whose idea it was

to mandate health care insurance? Oh yeah Mitt Romney. He called it a “a personal responsibility principle’’ And guess who backed it?
Scott Boring Brown. Nixon favored it in the 70's and even good old Heritage Foundation supported it in the 90's. This was to contrast
any new expansion of Medicare.

The idea of an individual mandate as an alternative to single-payer was a Republican idea,’’ said health economist Mark Pauly of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. In 1991, he published a paper that explained how a mandate could be combined with tax credits — two ideas that are now part of Obama’s law. Pauly’s paper was well-received — by the George H.W. Bush administration. “It could have been the basis for a bipartisan compromise, but it wasn’t,’’ said Pauly. “Because the Democrats were in favor, the Republicans more or less had to be against it.’’

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/03/28/health_insurance_mandate_began_as_a_republican_idea/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Top+political+stories

[DainBramaged]

19. "he ought to learn before he speaks"

I guess President Obama is just too darn 'uppity'.


:rofl:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

20. You lost me at Matt Lauer.

[SoapBox]

25. Ohhh...sometimes the truth hurts!

"True exchanges are simply a market mechanism to enable families to choose their health insurance"

Translation...

We would rather you bend over and just take it, while we and our crooked corporate croonies take all your money.

[mvd]

27. Exactly!

Well said.

[unkachuck]

26. "...a vehicle to introduce sweeping regulation and federal standardization..."

....hey eddie, all Obama did was to make a few simple improvements to your basic shitty concept....and now, it's slightly less shitty....

[Roland99]

28. Fired back? They're shooting blanks.