An interesting moment at Robert Gibbs’s press briefing today: In a clear sign that the White House sees an urgent need to go on the offensive much more aggressively on health care, Gibbs went out of his way to hit not just Jim DeMint, but Bill Kristol, who is legendary for his 1990s efforts to scuttle reform.
Kristol, who famously advised in a 1993 memo that Republicans had to kill health care reform to ensure their own survival, advised Republicans today to do the same to Obamacare, writing that Republicans should “resist the temptation” to “appear constructive” and instead should “go for the kill.”
Asked today why Obama went on the offensive against DeMint’s claim that health care failure could “break” Obama, Gibbs said:
“I think what we want people to understand are a few things. One, we’ve been discussing this for decades. And the familiar mantra of delay has been the message for many of those years to put off the needed and necessary reforms that have to take place in our health care system. You could just as easily have quoted a Republican strategist today who said to go for the kill and asked opponents to resist the temptation to be responsible.”
A lot of people have been wondering when the White House would more aggressively link today’s obstruction to health care reform to the previous, notoriously uncompromising effort to kill it at all costs. This could be the start of such an effort.
JedL(DK): He must have overdosed on stupid
Michael Steele on Monday morning at the National Press Club:
You're journalists. You scrutinize this stuff. You mean you're sitting here and telling me that this is not unprecedented? That even you aren't shocked at the degree to which this Administration is bringing the government not just into our lives, but into the very relationship between the doctor and the patient?
Between the patient and his insurance company?
Between the insurance company and the market?
This is unprecedented government intrusion into the private sector. Period.
How in the world does Michael Steele think it is a good idea to defend the sanctity of the relationship "between the patient and his insurance company"?
On what planet does he think it is smart politics to defend the relationship "between the insurance company and the market"?
Anyone with half a brain knows that Americans want to restrain -- not empower -- unscrupulous health insurance companies, yet here is Michael Steele, carrying the health insurance industry's water. The Republican Party should sue him for political malpractice. And we should praise our good fortunes to have him as the head of the opposition.
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