The passionless party of no
The reasons why the GOP continues to be held in low esteem
The passionless party of no
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
Given all the obstructionist complaints and ideological catechisms uttered yesterday by Senate Finance Committee Republicans on the timely topic of health care reform, it's no wonder that the GOP continues to be held in such low esteem nationwide.
As the Senate Democrats prepare to go it virtually alone on reform legislation, amidst the predictable hardening of Republican opposition, it's worth taking note of the newly-released NBC-Wall Street Journal poll - in my estimation, the best of the nonpartisan surveys, because it is jointly conducted by Republican pollster Bill McInturff and Democratic pollster Peter Hart. Even though the public continues to voice concerns about how President Obama is handling health reform, he is rated far higher than his implacable Republican opposition; whereas 45 percent of Americans endorse the way Obama is dealing with the issue, only 21 percent endorse the GOP's approach. And perceptions of the congressional parties are markedly different; whereas Americans generally give the Democrats a split verdict (41 percent view the party positively, 39 percent negatively), the verdict on the GOP is thumbs down (28 percent positive, 43 percent negative).
It's easy to diagnose the GOP's continued low standing. Despite the concerns that Americans may have about Obama's ambitions to reform health care, there is still a broad-based belief that the current system cries out to be fixed in some fashion...and yet, most Americans clearly understand that the Republicans have no passion for this issue whatsoever, and that, now as always, the Republicans would greatly prefer to do absolutely squat.
And the beat goes on. In the opening session of Senate Finance Committee deliberations yesterday, the GOP lawmakers were again true to their naysaying instincts. They complained that the reform effort was moving too quickly (it's been 61 years since Harry Truman called for health care reform); that the Democrats are pushing "artificial deadlines"; that the reform bill should be torn up so that everybody can start all over; that certain reform bill provisions (such as requiring all Americans, with appropriate federal help, to have health insurance, just as they are already required to carry auto insurance) constitute "a stunning assault on liberty" and an "intrusion into private lives." The best moment came when Jim Bunning, the lame duck Kentucky Republican, railed about how the reform effort simply "confiscates more money from taxpayers" - and within an hour, right in front of everybody, he literally fell asleep. The nap as metaphor.
Those kinds of complaints will obviously resonate with some Americans, albeit a minority. But there is a general awareness that the GOP's track record on safety-net issues has long been abysmal, dating back at least to 1935 (when they battled fiercely against the concept of Social Security) and 1965 (when they inveighed nonstop against the concept of Medicare). And then came the George W. Bush era, when the Republicans were even worse.
Until the Democratic takeover on Capitol Hill at the start of 2007, Bush was mostly dealing with a Republican Congress. During that entire period, the health care crisis was growing steadily worse; indeed, according to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average annual premium for an employer-based family policy roughly doubled between 1999 and 2007. Yet what did Bush and the Republicans do on the reform front, when they had both the power and the opportunity?
Nothing.
And they did nothing (aside from enacting $1 trillion in Medicare prescription drug coverage) because, deep down, they are not particularly outraged that insurance companies are denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, or canceling sick people's coverage. These kinds of issues are not in their DNA. From time to time, of course, they have floated some proposals worthy of deliberation - such as maybe helping small businesses buy coverage; or maybe offering tax credits to families that want to buy coverage - but they never make these issues a priority when they're in power. They prefer to raise these issues only when the Democrats have the power and momentum - and then, only as tactics to obstruct what the sincere reformers are trying to do. Such as now.
When confronted with everyday hardship stories, they really don't have much to say. Classic case in point: Eric Cantor, one of the House Republican leaders. Several days ago, at a town hall meeting, a constituent told him the story of a close relative who had lost her high-paying job, and fallen seriously ill: "Just a couple of weeks ago, she found out that she has tumors in her belly and that she needs an operation. Her doctors told her that they are growing and that she needs to get this operation quickly. She has no insurance."
Cantor's response? The sick woman should perhaps seek "an existing government program." (Which is ironic, since the Republicans are ideologically dedicated to shrinking government programs.) He then added, "Beyond that, I know that there are programs, there are charitable organizations, there are hospitals here who do provide charity care if there’s an instance of indigency and the individual is not eligible for existing programs...No one in this country, given who we are, should be sitting without an option to be addressed." (Fascinating. His response was that the sick woman should find a government program, the kind that Republicans have always opposed, or turn to charity.)
What the Republicans are really turned on about, at the moment, is the aforementioned health reform provision requiring that all Americans carry health insurance or face penalties for failing to do so. The proposed penalties (a maximum of $1900 per family, slashed in half from the original proposal) would be defined by the IRS as a tax on noncompliance. The word tax is what has the GOP all excited; to borrow a baseball term, that kind of issue is right in their wheelhouse. (Senator Orrin Hatch: "If it looks like a tax and is enforced like a tax, it's a tax!") Naturally, by targeting this item, they're missing the bigger picture, which is that the typical insured American is already paying an annual de facto tax as high as $1000 just to subsidize the health care of those who are uninsured. And the proposed noncompliance tax would just target the lawbreakers, not everybody.
But talking taxes is what they do, as opposed to mending and strengthening the social fabric. This is why, for all of Obama's woes these last few months, most people think little of the GOP's handling of health care. They instinctively understand that if John McCain had been elected, along with a Republican Congress, there would have been a perpetuation of the dysfunctional status quo, with no impetus for anything better. And that, on Sept. 9, when the current minority Republicans stood at the rear of the House chamber while Obama is speaking, and waved copies of their "alternative bills," it was worse than a stunt. It was a fraud.
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I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that the Republicans are passionate about something besides taxes. They are also passionate about that seminal threat to the republic, ACORN. Here's the latest evidence:
Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi (and a former national Republican chairman widely mentioned as possible veep choice in 2012), sought yesterday to get his ACORN fix by announcing that he intends "to cut off (state) funding to any current contracts" with ACORN.
But, as things turn out, there are several problems with Barbour's crusade: (1) ACORN, on its own initiative, closed its only Mississippi office seven months ago, and (2) Mississippi ACORN never got a dime of state money in the first place.
Here is another poll that Poll-man wont publish in his column. This is from Rasmussen Reports. " Just one-in-three voters (33%) now believe the United States is heading in the right direction, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey."- SWEDE: Nice deflection! Very much like Al Gonzalez's I-don't-remember-and-I-don't-recall answers. My favorite part is your lack of understanding in any issue you cannot defend. ........... How is saying Palin bad-mouthed Obama and asking your opinion on it bashing Palin? Or is it say nothing or praise her, and if not you're bashing that poor defenseless neo-con? .......... BTW, the question I asked you about Palin did not require her to be favored by you.— Talvenada
- SWEDE: You cannot get enough of that neo-con cool-aid, can you?— Talvenada
- Talvenada- sorry, I just don't understand the relevance of your point. Unemployment is going up, not down. The deficit has quadrupled under Obama and even the kindest of CBO numbers indicate Obama will add 10 trillion to our debt, more than double the 5 trillion Bush added. Obama needed some credibility on defense so he framed Afghanistan as the "necessary war" on the campaign trail but now he faces General McCrystal's request for 40,000 more US troops. We'll see if he really is a defense hawk now. His foreign policy is utterly befuddling with his abdonement of missile defense to his appeasment policy with Iran. But you want to talk about Palin? IF that is all you got Talvenada then I would say your gas take is quite empty.
- SWEDE: I like how you waste no space pushing aside my comment, and throwing in an insult at the end. Then, like an Ann Coulter do ALL the talking about YOUR POV, and how things can ONLY be interpreted thru the prism of YOUR ideology.— Talvenada
- So, to finish up a little housekeeping from yesterday: In a string that has nothing to do with past presidents SMIKE posts, “Becks' comments are no more ridiculous than Clinton and Carter accusing anyone who dare oppose Obama as racist. But of course save all the vitriol for Beck but no critisism whatsover of Clinton and Carter. You and Nigel are flat out phonies on this..” Then posts, “..Civility and evenhandedness is a two way street. President Carter and President Clinton accusing the people who oppose Obama's policies as racists do no favors in advancing the cause of civility..Then, JimR (wondering how Carter and Clinton have arrived ) posts, “.. It just seems to get back to 'Carter, Clinton, Pelosi, Reid!!!' Thank heavens we've let Ted Kennedy off the hook…” And we end with Mike’s, “So Carter, Clinton, Reids, and Pelosi's comments don't matter. But Glen Beck's does. Astonishing is all I can say Jim. There is a concerted effort at the top the Democratic party to label conservatives as racist and your moral equivalent is a talk show host? “ ???????? Mike, I made no moral equivalent – you did!! I didn’t introduce Carter, et al – you did!! I don’t let them influence me to the point of distraction from the original post– you did! That twisting and spinning to put it on me is astonishing. That’s the stuff of studies that Big Pharma compiles. You got some serious stuff going on. Time for a cold one, or something.— JimR
- SWEDE: The relevance of my point is your consistency. The Dixie Chicks dissed Bush, which Conse 'Pubs--like you--condemned. Palin disses Obama. You and me, we know that Conse 'Pubs will say nothing or defend Palin.......... My POINT is politicians are hypocrites, but most if not ALL Conse 'Pubs--like you--are also hypocrites. However, most other non pols are not hypocrites like their pols. ......................So, continue to DUCK the question, and prove me right!— Talvenada
- The party of YES!! Yes, we want Obama to resign. Yes, we want Obama to fail. Yes, if Obama fails it's ALL his own fault.— Talvenada
- SWEDE: Beck says America will NOT survive Obama, and he wants help in saving the country.— Talvenada
- It sounds like you are criticizing Mississippi for NOT giving any taxpayer funds to ACORN. Hmm...I wonder if Pennsylvania gave any taxpayer funds to ACORN...or if Philadelphia did. Hmmm...— Falls Ed
- Oh, freaking waaah. Social Security & Medicare are going broke because Americans feel no obligation to their countrymen. Divide & conquer has been the American way since before the Civil War. I want working-class Republicans & Dems who go on and on about "socialism, blah, blah" to see what happens when the programs are dismantled. Look at what happened to your savings when everyone in the 80s was convinced to put your retirement in a 401k (or eq.) plan—how much is it worth after the market crash? Do you remember Guilded-age American charity houses? No? Go find a book on them, then realize why the concepts of public pensions & health care spread internationally. I know...everyone looks forward to grandma moving in. For every good idea our gov't has, there are a hundred members of the legislature that have a great idea on how to make sure doesn't work as intended. Maybe Britain has something with the whole "preserving decency and order over self-expression" thing. I also hear Somalia is a private-enterprise libertarian paradise, with for-profit police forces and warlords as ward leaders, to boot.— science
- While Polman yells lies and smears, the TRUTH is that ObamaCare will HURT seniors and slice their health care. Thus, ObamaCare will hurt granny. On Tuesday, the CBO said that cuts to Medicare "could lead many plans to limit the benefits they offer, raise their premiums, or withdraw from the program." The Dems and Dick do not want to talk about the truth.— CD75
- I say "no" to both of these parties— Mark Glaeser
- Funny how Polman mentions the WSJ poll. Here are some other tidbits from it..:Country headed in the right direction? 39% YES, 48% NO; Obama approval rating..51% (it was 61% this past April); Obama handling the economy..50% Approve, 41% disapprove; handling foreign policy..50% approve (57% in July); Preference for who controls Congress in next election..40% Republicans, 43% Democrats, with the gap narrowing; 49% believe gov't is doing too many things left to businesses and individuals (compared to 45% should do more); 40% believe Obama has the right set of goals to improve the economy, compared to 59% who do not believe it; 61% believe both parties are at fault for partisanship in Washington; 23% are satisfied with the state of the economy, while 76% are dissatisfied (how's that stimulus working for you?); 45% think the stimulus package was a bad idea, compared to 34% that think it was a good idea; 62% believe deficits should be kept in check instead of spending to improve the economy regardless of deficits; 41% think Obama's health care plan is a bad idea, with 39% thinking it's a good idea; 36% think under Obama's plan healthcare will get worse, compared to only 19% that think it will get better; and my favorite part of the poll...which bodes ill for the left of the Democrat party....of those polled, 24% were liberal, 34% moderate, and 36% Conservative. Just keep pushing that liberal agenda...it will work wonders for the future.— tom - wilmington, de
- It is becoming more evident by the day that the Obama White House is a political machine that uses bully tactics to get what it wants. The latest evidence: "I have never heard of a president asking a sitting governor not to run for re-election," Michelle Paterson told NBC New York Wednesday. "I thought it was very unusual and very unfair."— CD75
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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