What we witnessed yesterday was Obama being condenscending toward the Republicans and to two men Senator McCain and Senator Coburn who had reached out to him to offer help after he was elected. The arrogance from Obama knew no bounds yesterday as the looks he shot Republicans said it all. This President is not used to being questioned, but used to hearing himself talk which he did yesterday more then the Democrats with their sob stories or the Republicans with their facts. If you take all the Democrat time including Obama it was 3-1 over Republicans.
It was enlightening yesterday to see not only Obama but most of the Democrats speaking didn't understand what was in their own healthcare bills. The Republicans on the other hand came well prepared and understood what the Democrats were trying to push through with their huge healthcare bills and had the facts on their side.
Yet in the end, Obama wants to do reconciliation which he fought against as a Senator to pass this takeover of 1/6th of our economy with only 51 votes in the Senate. This will harm the rules of the Senate for years to come for what? So Obama can say he passed a Healthcare bill he doesn't understand?
How many Democrats will walk the plank for Obama/Reid/Pelosi? Only time will tell if Democrats in the House grow a backbone to stop this madness and actually for once listen to the American people who want the bill scrapped and a reset to start over.
Coburn rebuts Obama on medmal and health care reform
By: John McCormackWeekly Standard02/25/10 10:34 PM EST
Oklahoma Republican senator Tom Coburn says he had a "pretty positive attitude" leaving today's health care summit at the Blair House in Washington. He had even suggested Obama and lawmakers have another such meeting on health care. But now, after reading news reports saying that Democrats are set on using reconciliation to ram the Senate bill through Congress, Coburn is wondering if today's summit was pointless.
"It's fairly disappointing," Dr. Coburn told THE WEEKLY STANDARD this evening. "If the Dems are just going to run the bill anyway, why’d we just do it?"
Coburn's remarks today focused on waste in the health care system, which totals one-third of all health care costs. Due to time constraints, Coburn didn't get a chance to correct some of President Obama's misconceptions about what causes waste and how to reduce it.
Obama said during his closing remarks that "if we're serious about delivery system reform, if we're serious about squeezing out the waste that Tom Coburn referred to, you should embrace those mechanisms that are in this bill" such as Medpac, an independent board that would recommend Medicare cuts.
But Coburn wants to control costs by creating a transparent health care market that is "patient-centered," not a "government-centered" plan that uses MedPac to cut Medicare. "The whole idea at the time of Medpac is to ration care," Coburn said. "The way you change behaviors is to incentivize them. You don't come down with a rule and a hammer. What you need is a scalpel not a hammer."
Obama said today that tort reform would only save $5 billion a year, but Coburn replied this evening that tort reform would, in fact, do the most to save consumers money.
"The biggest cost driver that accounts for this 33% [of health care waste] is defensive medicine," Coburn said. Obama's figure, based on a CBO report, doesn't take into account all the tests doctors needlessly order to avoid lawsuits.
"You fix the tort system in this country and you’ll cut costs like crazy. It’s $250 billion a year in defensive medicine costs," Coburn said. "If you just got rid of half of that, in one year you’d cut everyone’s cost of health care five percent."
Coburn's final word for the president on health care: "The last thing in the world he ought to do is divide this country further over this issue."
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Coburn-rebuts-Obama-on-medmal-and-health-care-reform-85443182.html#ixzz0gcV6whlc
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