The Washington Post ran this today:
Political differences masquerading as philosophical onesThe argument was that the Republicans were grandstanding about principles when there were simply a few political differences that could have been addressed. Examples of Republican duplicity were given.
"There's a philosophical difference in how we do this," Sen. Tom Coburn said at the Blair House Summit. "It does have to do with the philosophical difference," Rep. Eric Cantor agreed. "There are very deep philosophical differences in how we approach health-care reform," Rep. Marsha Blackburn emphasized. "There really is a difference between us," explained Rep. Paul Ryan. "And it's basically this. We don't think the government should be in control of all of this."
Read more....
I think my wife made a good point of all of this:
Show me how Medicare and Medicaid which are going broke under government mandates and operation can be fixed... and fix it. Show me how the Veterans Administration system which has had a history of inefficiencies and poor treatment of soldiers can be fixed so that current and ex-soldiers demand to be treated there instead of civilian hospitals... and fix it. Show me how the government will protect doctors against trial lawyers so that they can afford to offer service to government-sponsored patients at government-set rates... and do it.Call it politics or principles ... or just call it being practical. Oh, and reduce my overall costs... you know, premiums and taxes for health care.
Then I might consider that the government should be in charge of a larger portion of American health care.