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Originally Posted by wowitsdark  I'm a bit confused as to what you mean here. I appreciate your knowledge of what's really going on (you're absolutely correct in that nothing has been added to appease the GOP - it's all an attempt to bring blue dogs onboard), but your statement about bi-partisanship seems to be in contrast to the first part of your post.
If it was bi-partisan they *would* have been trying to appease the GOP... but they've totally shut the GOP out, and have, as you indicated in the first part of your post, spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get fiscally conservative democrats in line. |
I can understand making concessions to the blue dogs, we need their votes and they're willing to work at this. The GOP is a different story though. Changes have been made to try to garner GOP support, but it doesn't seem that they're willing to give an inch, so really, why keep trying? It's time for the dems to "sack up"and put through something that's really going to help average people.
I like to see debate on an issue, and don't want to see things rushed. But the longer this drags on the more convoluted the bill will become. Eventually it will just become a few changes in regulation and maybe a tax break or credit that really isn't going to make much of a difference to those that need help.
Keeping the status quo would be the most beneficial for me. I have a 100% company paid PPO. It's 90/10 and our ded. is 200 per person / 600 per family. We have it good (as far as insurance) a public option would likely put that in jeopardy, but it's not just about me and my family. There are a lot of people who need help and they need it now. When the biggest chunk of a person's pay is going toward medical cost or people are trying to decide whether to purchase food or medication, there's a serious problem.
I understand the GOP reluctance to work with the administration. When Bush was in office, I was usually distrustful of most of the things his administration did, not able to look at it with an open mind. I'm sure there were times that I didn't need to be, but when you don't trust someone, everything they do is suspect until proven otherwise.
If there was more give and take from the GOP, I could see hashing it out and coming up with a compromise. But it seems that the focus is on the negative and simply want to blast anything liberals may come up with. They've agreed on a few points, like Ins. companies not being able to exclude people for pre-existing conditions, but otherwise they're digging in their heels. Where as the dems have continued to to water down the bills to make some head way. It's not working and the dems are just continuing to be the woefully ineffective party that they are unfortunately. If they're not going to get support either way, it's time to find their balls and put through some real changes.