I still don't know why the Republicans didn't take up Obama's offer.

[mmonk]

It is their ideology on steroids for the future. It would wreck our future for a long time running and directly attack Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Their hatred is so great, they can't even tell when they have won the war.

[givemebackmycountry]

1. Simple. Because it's Obama's offer.

And if you think that he doesn't know that, I got a bridge for sale.

[O_a_DEMorDINO]

3. If the Black Guy agrees then

they are AGAINST it, no matter what.

I say Obama needs to put it to the test.

Have Michele go to schools and openly speak out against kids drinking draino and see how may of the less intelligent will come out for drinking draino.

[mmonk]

5. I think this is actually so maybe with the Tea Party members or if

not them, their followers no question.

[WinkyDink]

8. It isn't race; it's PARTY.

[O_a_DEMorDINO]

12. it is more race

than party.

I lived through segregation and post segregation, it never went away in America, it is just more covert now.

Disagree all you want, I do not care. It is a free country and you are entitled to be wrong.

I will go with my first hand experience over a strangers internet comments every time.

[KoKo]

16. Remember the Tea Party gets big funding from Koch Brothers and other interests like Think Tanks..

and they don't care about race but their agenda to shrink Government and get rid of all of the New Deal Programs. They find tools to support their agenda. Some of their tools are racists but, don't blame the tools-- blame those who fund the tools. If we forget the influence of Corporate Money, Think Tanks and Military Industrial Complex we will just keep running around in circles fighting against tools.

We need to vent our anger by getting Corporate, Think Tank and Military Influence OUT of our Elections.

Public funding for elections and free air time. Get the money out.

[hobbit709]

2. Because they hate him so much they'd rather destroy the country.

It's their version of Gotterdammerung.

[mmonk]

4. I wonder how much of their ideology they actually believe?

I don't think traditional Republicans believe it but their Tea Party freshmen counterparts may actually believe it.

[hobbit709]

6. Until the traditional ones squelch the teabaggers it won't matter.

They've become infected with their own fear and have become scared of the monster they created.

[WinkyDink]

10. The part about getting every last Widow's Mite. THAT much.

[FSogol]

11. Better question: how much of their ideology they actually understand?

:shrug:

[mmonk]

13. The Republican representatives or their voters?

[WinkyDink]

7. Didn't want Obama to get any good headlines, even if the plan was their own atrocious one.

[FBaggins]

9. Because if it worked he would get the credit and they would lose an election issue

And if it didn't work they would get the blame and still lose the election issue.

[mmonk]

14. Worked at doing what?

[FBaggins]

19. I have no idea.

I'm not saying that it WOULD "work" (by whatever standard you choose to apply)... I'm saying that if it DID work, it's the "president's plan" and his "leadership" brought both sides together "across the aisle" (etc/etc/etc).

[ProgressiveEconomist]

15. BINGO! Mitch McConnell has often said his first priority is making sure Obama is

a one-term President. Republicans want to humiliate him by cutting him out of resolution of every pressing issue.

I wonder what was discussed at the Republican caucus meeting last week shortly after which Boehner stopped returning calls from the white House. President Obama wisely went on the air within hours after he finally connected with Boehner ar 5:30 pm Monday and was told Boener and McConnell would negotiate only with Reid and Pelosi, NOT with the White House.

Republicans tried to do the same thing to Bill Clinton after the 1994 "Contract with America" midterm victory. Bill Clinton made a very strange speech about how he was "still relevant".

IMO most Republicans know full weill that only more economic stimulus, Infrastructure Banks, and small-business tax breaks targeted to ACTUAL job creators can bring down unemployment. That's why they will resist such measures mightily until next November, even though millions are suffering needlessly without them.

The whole Debt Ceiling circus, IMO, is mainly designed to take spending and targeted tax cut measures the economy needs urgently "off the table". Republicans act is if they don't know the difference between strutural and cyclical deficit, but they and their advisers certainly do know the difference and know a manufactured "debt crisis" at the bottom of the business cycle is hogwash.

[mmonk]

20. All true.

Ironically, McConnell offered a way out of the impasse that wasn't taken.

[chrisa]

17. Because, if the debt ceiling is not raised, Obama will get 100% of the blame.

Americans are stupid and believe everything they are told. Fox News tells them that this is all Obama's fault. Therefore, that becomes the reality.

If Obama gives in, they win. If Obama doesn't give in, they win.

[NNN0LHI]

18. Here is why

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/get-your-goddamn-governme_b_252326.html

Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!


Posted: August 5, 2009 06:45 PM

At the risk of bringing down the digital wrath of blog-savvy oldsters, I've noticed that a considerable number of the anti-reform Republican "hooligans," as Rachel Maddow describes them, who turn up at various town hall meetings to shout incomprehensible loud noises just happen to be senior citizens. And while the old people who turn up to protest health care reform are, to some extent, victims of the usual Republican lies and disinformation, they're still adults and therefore responsible for their opinions, their actions and their ziplock baggies filled with crazy.

Yes, they've been tricked by Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh into believing that health care reform will somehow involve golden-grilled ACORN thugs showing up at bingo with a tray of syringes filled with black liberal death juice. Yes, they've been tricked by Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs into thinking that this "halfrican American" president with his terrorist pals and Kenyan birth certificate is trying to supplant God's U.S. government with a liberal fascist homocracy.

But failing to grasp the extraordinary contradiction evident in receiving Medicare benefits while simultaneously shouting nonsense about "government-run health care" is quite simply inexcusable.

President Obama at a town hall meeting last week described a letter he received from a Medicare recipient:

"I got a letter the other day from a woman. She said, 'I don't want government-run health care. I don't want socialized medicine. And don't touch my Medicare.'"

-----------------------------------

At a town hall meeting held by Rep. Robert Inglis (R-SC):

Someone reportedly told Inglis, "Keep your government hands off my Medicare."

"I had to politely explain that, 'Actually, sir, your health care is being provided by the government,'" Inglis told the Post. "But he wasn't having any of it."

[ladyfutura]

21. Two Reasons

1) They are anti-Obama no matter what
2) They must always push for more, being extremists

[dkf]

22. If we want to keep entitlements as is we face perpetually rising taxes.

We should level with the people as to that level of taxation. Now we seem to think taxes magically stay the same while benefits increase at the ridiculous pace of medical inflation.

Funny how we imagine the benefit expenses increase without taxes increasing. There is a great disconnect in the public.