"I don't do policy"
The content-free Republican national chairman
"I don't do policy"
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
It is abundantly obvious - as I noted here at length on July 8, and so many others have reported each day - that the ruling Democrats have been having a devil of a time assembling a broadly acceptable health care reform package, in part because the devil is always in the details. President Obama has naturally taken a hit in the polls, particularly among swing-voting independents who are worried about the price tag and the potential long-term impact on the budget deficit. Clearly, there are tensions within the congressional Democratic coalition, particularly between the blue-state liberals and the swing/red-state moderates, and it will take time to herd them together.
And yet, despite Obama's downtick in the polls, one stat in the new Washington Post-ABC News survey is worth a mention. When people were asked whom they trusted most to handle the health care issue - Obama, or the Republicans in Congress - Obama waxed the GOP by a margin of 54 to 34 percent.
Translation: Notwithstanding all the headaches that Obama and the Democrats are suffering during this sausage-making process, Americans have far less faith in the party that failed them on health care, as on so many other issues, during the past eight years. And I doubt that their faith in the GOP will be revived by the latest performance of the Republican national chairman.
The chairman appeared yesterday at the National Press Club in Washington. His topic was health care reform, and his intended target was Obama. The problem was that the chairman really had nothing to say, in part because he has no clue about the issue at hand, and in part he ostensibly leads a party that, on this issue, really has nothing to say.
So let us ponder the vacuum that is Michael Steele:
The real problem was not that his prepared remarks were comprised of buzz words crafted for him by Republican strategist/wordsmith Alex Castellanos. (It was clear that Castellanos had tutored Steele to dismiss health care reform as an "experiment," because Steele repeated the pejorative more than two dozen times; and that Castellanos had tutored Steele to dismiss health care reform as "too much, too soon, too fast," because Steele repeated variations of that theme a half dozen times, pleading for Obama to "slow down"...which is a fascinating theme anyway, given the fact that the GOP is dismissing as "too fast" a crucial issue that has percolated on the national agenda for the past 60 years.)
No, Steele's real problem came later, during the question-and-answer session. Three exchanges vividly illustrate why the Republicans have been driven to the margins of governance.
Q: "Is it morally acceptable for 30 to 40 million Americans to be without health insurance?"
Steele: "I don't know if that's the consideration for politicians versus a pastor."
Q: "Do Republicans support an individual requirement to get coverage?"
Looking flummoxed, the chairman clearly had no idea what the question was about, despite the fact that this issue - whether Americans should be required to sign up for coverage as part of health care reform - was debated extensively during the 2008 campaign. Steele: "As an individual requirement? What do you mean by 'an individual requirement'? To require individuals to get health coverage? Again, that is one of those areas where there's, there's, different opinions by some in the House and the Senate on this...Look, I don't do policy."
(Translation: He does slogans, not substance.)
And then there was the piece de resistance...
Q: "Why didn't the Republicans, when they held both houses and the White House, do something substantial to address the health care issue?"
Steele: “Well, I think that, you know, there were efforts along the way."
He cited the GOP Congress' passage of the expensive Medicare prescription drug law, but then, apparently remembering that the conservatives in his party actually hate this law, he quickly added, "There's always been a debate about that particular piece of legislation." And then he took a second stab at the core question, about why the ruling Republicans did so little to address health care during the Bush years, why in essence they didn't do policy.
Steele again: "The other reality is, you know, the will to do it...There has been just a general lack of focus on this issue, by many."
Bingo.
It is amazing to me how the Republicans keep calling for the Obama to slow down. This issue has been studied to death by everyone involved (except, apparently, the RNC). It will continue to be studied to death even after a bill passes. People have spent entire careers studying this issue.— anonymous- When Steele was asked the 'individual requirement' question, he was like a deer in headlights. He froze for a couple seconds. Seconds that in his head were probably like an eternity. That question is at the root of the contention among players on both sides of the debate. Yet the RNC chairman apparently hadn't been given a talking point, or even worse forgot it. How could he not know that his own party vehemently disparages such a requirement? Why didn't his so-called conservative thought pattern reject a government requirement as wrong? It was a strange moment for him. The incident, and the entire press conference, further underlined the GOP's complete lack of substance on the health care issue. You can only say the word 'No' so many times before a person stops listening to you.— Logathis
Translation: Even though all the polls are trending unfavorable toward Obama and government health insurance controls. I'll just cherry pick a poll that tells me what I want to hear, so I can bash Republicans and not have to write about the accountability and transparency President who is desperate to push through a health insurance bill before anyone can read or digest what it actually contains.— jmc- A good example of the total republican incompetence on the health care issue relates to small business coverage. Tom mentioned earlier the possibility of pooled coverage for small business. Small businesses are a prime republican constituency and employ a significant portion of the workforce. A good part of the current death spiral in insurance coverage relates to the fact that small businesses can't afford health insurance for their employees. Yet the republicans are doing absolutely nothing for this group in the current health care debate--there are no bills and no republicans carrying water for this group. They deplore what the democrats' policies are doing to small business but they have no ideas or interest in alternatives.— liberal
- The problem that the GOP is facing on this issue is that they haven't addressed it other than denying it exists, or even acknowledged that health care in the US is a problem. I'm not the biggest fan of the proposals going through congress now, and I'm usually very free market oriented, but health care in the US is severly broken. It hurts our businesses competiveness (see the auto industry), hurts individuals who must pay for their own insurance, and it costs us all because govt picks up the tab for ER visits when one is not insured. Our cost is far greater than anyone in the world and we basically get the same spotty service as one does in a country with a bad national health care system like the UK, let alone a good national health care system like France or Nordic countries (which admittedly are running those countries into the ground, but so is ours) The GOP must come up with a viable alternative to the current US healthcare system if there's any hope that the current bill, and its cost and taxes, does not pass, but they do not seem willing to even accept that healthcare is a problem and that people in the US want to see it fixed.— donde
- Obama is imploding more and more each day, yet Dickie attacks repubs. Nice smokescreen. News flash to the clueless left: Steele is not an elected official and Obama is doing such a fine job destroying himself why would the repubs even need to tread into that water?— CD75
- The clueless left demonstrates their cluelessness by attacking Steele, who is nothing. He is not a pol or anything. The left is falling right into the repub trap by focusing their vitrol on Steele. That is what the repubs want. They cannot see the forest for the trees. I love it.— CD75
- Why don't politicians do policy? I thought that was their job.— sla6yer
- Although it's true that the Republicans are clueless and have about as much to contribute to America as CD does here (i.e. less than nothing), they have no power to stop health care reform. It's those red-state Democrats I'm worried about, and it will be a real test for Obama and Team Emanuel to see if they can make them line up and sign on the dotted line.— Yersinia Pestis
- They don't do policy but CD75 LOVES IT anyway! Come on dude, you're blind with rage and everyone can see your lack of confidence.— sla6yer
- Finally a story on this health care story! The President is in a rush to pass it (like he was on the stimulus) so people can't find out the details soon enough to stop it. Each day that passes the American people are turning against this effort in growing numbers! If the financial meltdown taught us anything it is, when the govt. competes against private companies the govt. always wins and always finds a way to mess it up and in a big way! Now we are going to rush through a bill that controls a big chunk of our economy and do it in 3 weeks? Why? Because the President says so, sorry not good enough for me! I read somewhere it took the govt. 1 1/2 years to come up with Medicare so if we are going to do it, lets do it right and not let Nancy Pelosi and Chris Dodd write this bill in 2 or 3 weeks behind closed doors without input from everyone involved! What's wrong with waiting a month or two and doing it right? Why the rush? Where's is the benefit of doing it now as opposed to by Christmas? It is a self made 'crisis' by the White House as usual to pass their agenda because it can't pass on its own merits, IMHO!— NEPhilly
- Since the Democrats have all the power, the votes required and a filibuster proof majority, why the obsession with Republicans when they are totally irrelevant and can't stop anything even if they tried? Oh, that's right, to avoid focusing on Obama and the Democrats. BTW, hopefully at least someone will at least SAY they read this bill, unlike the Stimulus Bill and Cap and Trade.— Frito1
- Funny how Polman missed one point of the polling on health care between Obama and Republicans. Yes, Obama leads them 54-34, BUT, as stated in the poll, "the Republican score is up 7 points from last month". So Obama may lead them, but his lead is shrinking.— tom - wilmington, de
- Polman, is the check you receive from the DNC taxable?
- Funny how Polman missed one point of the polling on health care between Obama and Republicans. Yes, Obama leads them 54-34, BUT, as stated in the poll, "the Republican score is up 7 points from last month". So Obama may lead them, but his lead is shrinking. And the opinion on how Obama is handling Health Care overall is now below 50%, with the lead between approve/disapprove now just 5 points...49-44. This compared to 53-39 last month.— tom - wilmington, de
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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