Are Republicans running from their best ideas?
One of the weirder aspects of the health care debate has been the spectacle of Republican lawmakers scrambling to distance themselves from their own ideas.
While governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney helped to pioneer many of the ideas now embedded in the Democratic reform plan.
Now he talks about the approach as if it were the thin end of a communist wedge.
Responsible ideas about end-of-life planning were first backed by Republican Senators, who-cosponsored bills with nearly identical language.
But when Sarah Palin decried the concept as a formula for “death panels,” the GOP’s brightest minds jumped aboard.
The concept of demanding personal responsibility from Americans by requiring them to pay for their own insurance has been elevated by conservatives into a Constitutional battle.
But the idea isn’t liberal at all. Most liberals support a government-operated “single payer” system.
The individual mandate concept grew up out of conservative think-tanks, as an alternative to the more government based “Hillary care” proposed by Democrats in the 1990s.
“The truth is this is a Republican idea,” said Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association, in an interview with the Miami Herald.
Quick pointed out that she first heard of the concept from Senators John McCain, and later from Tommy Thompson, who was George w. Bush’s secretary of Health and Human Services.
The GOP’s muddled fight against the health care would be little more than a curiosity if it weren’t indicative of a much wider confusion on the right.
Since 2006, Democrats have adopted a number of market-based, conservative ideas first advanced by Republicans.
Meanwhile, the GOP has decided that those same ideas are socialist at best and treasonous at worst.
The cap-and-trade program being floated for dealing with carbon emissions was first developed as a market-driven way of dealing with chemicals that cause acid rain.
Two of the primary backers of the approach were George W. Bush and North Country Rep. John McHugh, also a Republican.
Bush even traveled to the Adirondacks to tout the approach, which he called the ‘clear skies’ initiative.
The concept was simple: Get the bureaucrats out of the way and let industry innovate the fastest, most cost-effective way to cut emissions.
Yet these days, the concept of cap-and-trade — which worked brilliantly, by the way — is decried by conservatives as a freedom-crushing energy tax.
Another concept that Republicans pioneered is comprehensive immigration reform. President Bush, John McCain and Lindsey Graham pushed a deal aggressively.
Now, some conservatives are claiming that a new immigration plan is a Democratic scheme, designed to add 20 million Hispanics to the voting rolls.
“The next big push will be amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants who are here,” said Rush Limbaugh on his radio program. “Obama’s gonna need their votes in 2012.”
The take-away from all this is simple: Some of the best ideas in government that have surfaced over the last decade have grown out of Republican circles.
But for some reason, the Democrats are the ones who have adopted those ideas, and begun the difficult task of implementing them.
The result is an embarrassing spectacle. Republicans find themselves in the minority, often sniping at the reforms they dreamed up.
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1- Romneys plan was initiated at the State level and to the best of my knowledge doesn't mandate a Ma. resident buy insurance or face prison. 2- The Obama administration keeps saying there are no death panels, yet they also keep referring to the cost savings of the panels, so I don't know what to believe anymore. The idea seems wrong to me of they will stop coverage at some point.3- Personal responsibility is a hallmark of conservative principals. So is free choice. There's no choice here. This plan will use the IRS to fine people who refuse to participate in the mandated (unConstitutional) programs and if they refuse then I would think they'd be imprisoned. As to who came up with the idea- I don't know, nor do I care. It was a politician, that's all that matters, and its wrong. And please don't besmirch conservatives by linking any conservative thought or principal to Bush, McCain or most other Republicans. They paint their faces orange and green if they thought it would get them a vote.4- Cap and trade at the national level to defeat acid rain is one thing. World wide carbon trading and punishment of developed countries as a method of redistributing western wealth…that's quite another.%- Immigration reform was tried and failed under Reagan. Again, Bush would let in a group of cannibals if he thought it'd have gotten him some votes. Obama or McCain would do the same. Dead issue, wrong, wrong, wrong.Oops, babys fussing. Gramps got to go change her. You must love these days I baby sit and get to stop by so often….
You've refreshed my memory, Brian. Must be I'm not the only one who has been muddled, thinking I was mistaken about McCain having once touted some of the ideas which Republicans now scorn. In the age of sound bites and tweets, politicians on both sides can count on the public forgetting what was bombasted a year ago.
Brian – It goes back further than you indicate. Clinton governed as a Rockefeller Republican, and as we know from the Cow Palace in 1964, "true" Republicans dislike a Rockefeller Republican almost as much as much as they dislike Dems these days. Remember welfare reform during the Clinton years. It became a bad idea because Clinton implemented it. He also put 100,000 new police on the streets in the name of law and order. Sometimes nothing is quite so scary as your own shadow.
I think the first comment is Exhibit A of Brian's post. The modern conservative platform seems to be, Whatever comes out of a Democrat/liberal/socialist mouth, I'm against. No matter who thought of it first, how effective it might be, who used to support it, or how bad the current status quo is.Next up: The GOP/Tea Party hates offshore drilling.
No these are good points Brian brings up.I remember the cap and trade arguments when they were first made by conservative economists back in the 1990's and embraced by the Republicans at the time.I think the party of Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan needs to take a look at who we are following. I for one have no respect for lightweight quitters like Sarah Palin who I notice now has a puff piece show on fox and who I doubt even understands the basic economic arguments behind carbon trading pro or con.
The GOP really has become the party of No. It's unfortunate that Washington is so partisan. If you look at Bush's presidency many Democrats supported No Child Lef Behind, Patriot Act, and the Iraq War. There were some- not a lot but some- that supported his tax cuts and Medicare prescription drug benefit plan. I realize that Republicans support Obama on Afghanistan, but other than that what bipartisanship have the Republicans shown? The moderate Republican is nearly extinct.
I can see where Brian is coming from with this Blog but the bottom line is you need to do what is right now. I think that MA's record with "Romney Care" shows that maybe they had it wrong. It has proven to be a failure. So why would any sane person think that it is a good idea to expand something similar nationwide? So what if republicans change their minds. If you can't learn from your mistakes you have a serious character flaw in my opinion.Read this from the NY Times regarding the problem with the HC law:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/opinion/21holtz-eakin.html?scp=9&sq=health%20care&st=SearchI sure hope this guy is wrong. But given the list of first quarter losses tagged to the new bill that companies are already predicting, costs that will be passed onto consumers, we may have a problem on our hands already.As for Cap and Trade, even if it was a good idea I think it should be reconsidered in the wake of the financial crisis. Creating more of these types of derivatives is a serious mistake given how they will be traded. There is a lot of money to be made trading on the “environment” but do most folks now see this as a sound financial idea given what we have seen on Wall Street related to mortgage backed derivatives? Ones with this sort backing are yet another time bomb.Remember “if you can’t change your mind are you sure you’ve got one”?
3:01PM- Clinton did NOT put 100K cops on the street anymore than he put 100K teachers in the schools. IIRC the average salary for the cops would have been $13K a year! Even in the 90's no one in their right mind worked for that kind of money as a cop.Tell me friends, when was McCain, the maverick as he called himself, ever labeled as a conservative? NEVER. The guy made his mark by crossing to the left side and embracing their ideas. That's why so many people on the right had a hard time voting for him.Lets also remember the only reason Clinton signed the welfare reform package was because the Republican Congress of the time (Contract with America era) forced it to the forefront. Scratchy, I think you have a good point- moderation is dead. But it's moderation on either side that's died, not just on the right. I see no moderate moves from the left, not one, not even a glancing look at tax cuts or spending cuts. How can we possibly sustain this paradigm if no one will make the hard decisions and start exercising some fiscal discipline?Paul brings up a good point also, the health care package looks like it's going to cost zillions right off the bat. And, one of the big student loan companies just announced a 25K worker firing. That's 25,000 people added to the unemployment rolls because Gov't has no place competing with private industry. Anyone who studies socialism at can see that.Offshore drilling? Go for it Obama! That's IF the move is sincere and not just to get a couple of Republican votes to block a filibuster on cap and trade, which is what it's rumored this is all about. If the President wants to start a sincere move towards domestic energy production he has my full support.
Flash – Brian Mann posts again on what ails the GOP [stop] Boring…
Let's see… Democrats are implementing Republican ideas. Republicans now think Republican ideas aren't far enough to the right. This is exactly why people on the left should vote for Greens.
We've reached this conclusion before. The Republicans thought that their future was in governing from the center. Wrong!The Republicans need to move to the right. The Democrats need to move to the left.That's about what is going to happen.
Interesting news on cap and trade.http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/21566
I think the most important thing you failed to mention is that Republicans are unable to see any good in people. Oh yes, they are great patriots. No doubt they love America. They just don't like Americans.
PCS, now there's some real good clear thinking and a very thoughtful post.So much for the left being more intelligent than the right.
Bret:Yeah – and all the really enlightened claimed that they were "centrists".Looks like the center is getting steam-rolled.The Bible mentions that lukewarm never fair as well as the "hot" or the "cold". Looks like that is the case in real life.
"not even a glancing look at tax cuts"Incorrect."In fact, 40% of Obama's stimulus package involved tax cuts. These include the Making Work Pay Credit, which reduces federal taxes for all taxpayers with incomes below $75,000 by between $400 and $800."And:"The Tax Policy Center, a private research group, estimates that close to 90% of all taxpayers got a tax cut last year"http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/18/tea-party-ignorant-taxes-opinions-columnists-bruce-bartlett_2.html
"- Romneys plan was initiated at the State level and to the best of my knowledge doesn't mandate a Ma. resident buy insurance or face prison. "Nor does the law that just passed Congress. It imposes a fine, not prison. It's fair enough to oppose that (I do) but at least tell the truth about what's in it.
Brian, the fines are assigned by the IRS. Just what do you think will happen to those who refuse to pay the fine?
Fact Checker- I stand corrected. Now if they'll just leave to Bush tax cuts alone that'll be another couple grand a year I won't have to pay out.What would be even better is more and more and more tax cuts!
See, Bret: He's your messiah too!
Keep dreaming Brett. People need to get used to the fact that federal taxes are going to have to go up- on everyone not just the wealthy- to avoid insolvency.
I know I'm dreaming Scratchy, and you're likely right. What you forgot to add in is that entitlements from the Fed gov't will be rationed and cut while those taxes go up, up, up. Sadly, many people just can't see that scenario. They just assume higher taxes mean the stauts quo can remain.
"leave to Bush tax cuts alone"I think the only one, or at least the main one, they're considering repealing is the estate tax. Could be wrong, though.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/small_biz_big_tax_Tm9zntbp2I339WyBwwOgzKhttp://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/04/bureau_of_labor_statistics_dan.htmlSmoke and mirrors.
The truth hurts doesn't it Bret? Don't take it personally.
PCS, no idea what you mean. Care to be clearer?
Bret,Actually Republican Chris Curry seems to explain it well. You can read his comments "How the GOP Purged Me" at http://www.frumforum.com/how-the-gop-purged-me. Here is one interesting paragraph.It started with minorities: they left the party. Then women; they divorced the GOP and sent it to sleep on the couch. Then, the young folks; they left and are leaving the Republican Party in droves. Then, someone stood up and told my niece and my grandchild that they are not fully Americans — just second class Americans because they are homosexual. They wished hell and damnation upon my loved ones just because they are different. Are we led by priests or are we led by rational politicians? Now, we have became the party of the Old Straight White Folks. We should rename the Republican Party the OSWF rather than the GOP. But there is a lot more. Republicans, since the early 90's, actually have lost their minds.
PCS, I'm not a Republican, so I don't follow you. They left me a long time ago, just as the Democrats left my grandparents.
I guess I wouldn't admit to being a Republican these days either. It's so much easier to blame everyone for our problems.
"Republicans, since the early 90's, actually have lost their minds."Yes, they became Democrats!
in fairness, pcs, bret has been railing against republicans for a while around here. but it's because he thinks they're too liberal! by his own admission, he's to the right of rush limbaugh, after all.
Thanks HT! If I have to have a reputation I'd rather it was for leaving people and their money alone as opposed to forcing my way into their lives and stealing their hard earned money.