GOP Intransigence

Roy Blunt's many, many failures as leader of the House Republican's Health Care Solutions Group may be a key reason why he's not one of the nine House Republicans attending today's health care summit at the Blair House. 

Instead, Blunt has been named to the Junior Varsity "Truth" Squad by Minority Leader John Boehner.  Choosing Blunt choice to be part of anything approximating a "Truth Squad" on health care matters is....um... ironic.

• Blunt Receives Coveted "Pants On Fire" Award From PolitiFact.com
• Blunt Assessment: "Some of what he knows just isn’t true"
• Roy Blunt On Death Panels: "It's Easy for That Debate to Go Either Way"
• After months of research, Blunt still woefully misinformed about Missourians' health care struggles
• Even The Mind-Numbingly Dumb Talking Points Are Wrong
• Blunt Fibs Again About His Health Care Record
• What Roy Blunt Used To Think About Long, Complicated Health Care Bills
• Large Majorities Dismiss GOP Attacks On Health Care As "Scare Tactics"
• Blunt Stands By False Claim That Undocumented Immigrants Will Receive Benefits in President's Proposals
• Blunt Assessment: "Astonishing Inaccuracy"
• Roy Blunt: "Medicare has never done anything to make people more healthy"
• Roy Blunt: It would have been "best" if Medicare and Medicaid never existed
• Blunt: My Four-Page Memo is "Actually Much More Detailed" Than Other Health Care Proposals

Roy Blunt, Chairman of the House Republicans' Health Care Solutions Group, isn't planning on taking any solutions to this week’s planned health care summit.  In fact, he isn't even sure he's going; Blunt is apparently worried that talking about ways to expand access to affordable health care might be a "waste of time."

Tellingly, the White House has invited Republicans to post their health care plan on their website in advance of the summit.... but they've refused. 

 Jason Noble has the amusing and frustrating story over at the Prime Buzz of Rep. Chuck Gatschenberger (R-Lake St. Louis) using big boy words in a recent constituent newsletter about federal health care reform legislation. Here's an excerpt, as posted by Noble:

CQ Politics' Political Wire:

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds that nearly six in 10 Americans say the Republicans aren't doing enough to forge compromise with President Obama on important issues; more than four in 10 see Obama as doing too little to get GOP support.

In addition, nearly two-thirds of Americans say they want Congress to keep working to pass comprehensive health-care reform.

Kit Bond has been delaying a vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the General Services Administration, Martha Johnson, for months because he wants money appropriated for a federal office building in downtown Kansas City. The LA Times:

[T]he nomination became another example for the Obama administration of how the political process in Washington has been poisoned by politics that often have nothing to do with the merits. Just this week, Obama brought up the nomination in his session with Senate Democrats when he called for both sides of the aisle to work toward pragmatic solutions to problems.

Via The Turner Report, the MDP has posted audio of KZRG reporter Josh Marsh breaking down Roy Blunt's problems as a Washington insider with a long record of scandal and irresponsible leadership.

I thought this was a particularly interesting moment last night, when Republicans sat with arms crossed and faces grumpy at the suggestion that big Wall Street banks should have to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them.

Those poor big banks -- always getting picked on.

 From a new Public Policy Polling poll:

Our national poll this week found that only 19% of voters in the country are happy with the direction of the Republican Party, compared to 56% who are unhappy with it. Even among independents, who have voted overwhelmingly for [MA Senator-Elect] Scott Brown, [NJ Governor] Chris Christie, and [VA Governor] Bob McDonnell 58% say they don't like the direction the GOP is headed in.

The GOP's own voters are displeased with where the party's going- 38% say they are unhappy with the current direction to 35% who support it. In a trend that perhaps provides at least a ray of hope to Democrats the Republicans unhappy with their own party are disproportionately moderates. 54% of them are displeased to 25% content- the question is what Democrats can do to get those folks to actually jump ship.

Yet another story about the exaggerated and manufactured estimates from Missouri Republicans about federal health care reform legislation. The AP:

[Lt. Gov. Peter] Kinder released “an open letter” to Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon last week asserting that Missouri’s cost could be as high as $450 million a year. Kinder chief of staff Rich AuBuchon said later that Kinder got the figure from House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet, who got it last fall from the Department of Social Services.

But the agency no longer uses the $450 million estimate. That’s because it was based on a previous version of the federal legislation and assumed states would have to shoulder a greater proportion of the expansion costs than is currently proposed. [...]

A few hundred conservative activists filled the Capitol rotunda this morning for a "Sovereignty Rally" to hear House and Senate Republicans rail against the allegedly unconstitutional federal health care reform legislation.  Led by St. Louis area legislators Sen. Jane Cunningham, Sen. Jim Lembke, Rep. Tim Jones and Rep. Brian Nieves, the overwhelming majority of the House Republican Caucus was in attendance and on stage, along with a few other GOP Senators and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.

The rhetoric of the rally was all about the allegedly unconstitutional nature of federal health care reform proposals and the tyranny of Democratic leadership in Washington. There was much talk of "patriots" and "sovereignty" -- but no talk, of course, of what they as elected leaders would do to make health care more affordable and accessible to struggling families. 

I'll have more posts and video about the later today -- here are a few photos of the event to whet your appetite.

Peter Kinder still can't be bothered to use reasonable, correct estimates for how expanded Medicaid requirements will impact the state. The News-Leader (empahsis added):

On Dec. 30, Kinder sent a letter to Nixon, expressing his concern about the federal legislation and calling on the governor to state his position on the legislation.

Kinder's claim that the Medicaid expansion could cost Missouri taxpayers "as high as $450 million per year" is much higher than what Nixon's Department of Social Services claims the House or Senate bills would cost Missouri.

DSS officials estimate the House version of Medicaid expansion would cost the state of Missouri $188 million more each year, while the Senate bill would cost state taxpayers an extra $91 million each year.

I didn't call them that – the American people did (a majority of American adults did anyway). 

Gallup recently asked 1,025 adults to identify political figures as "winners" and losers" for 2009. Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Sonia Sotomayor were all big "winners." On the flip side, the Republicans in Congress, the White House party crashers, SC Governor Mark Sanford and SC Rep. Joe Wilson were all big "losers."

The biggest losers, in pretty chart form:

Yesterday, the American Medical Association endorsed the thrust of the Senate Democrats' health care bill. Though they objected to a tax on "elective cosmetic medical procedures" and the creation of an Independent Medicare Advisory Board, they praised its health insurance regulation and new tax credits to help low- and moderate-income people buy coverage.

Meanwhile, Sen. Kit Bond says the bill is a "disaster" which needs an "exorcism" (because it's been drafted or is supported by the devil, I guess).

Who should we trust here on the general outline of the Senate bill?  The AMA?  Or the Senator who spends more time coming up with clever quotes than ideas? 

There are a lot of pages in the health reform bill from Democratic leaders in the House. That means it's terrible.