Rep. Price on GOP Insurance Proposals
By Mike King
I’ve put up several posts on the inadequacy of the Republican Party’s “better solution” for health care reform and questioned the GOP’s willingness to move to the center in an effort to find a bipartisan middle ground. Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), a physician by training and one of the House GOP’s point people on the issue, writes more about it in the conservative Web site, BigGovernment. I post it here so that readers can get the full flavor of the party’s position.
It will also give you an idea of how difficult it will be for the President and Democratic leaders in Congress to bring Republicans — who believe even though both the House and Senate have already passed versions of health reform — that the whole process needs to start over from scratch. Unless he is willing to do that, Republicans are threatening not to participate in the proposed health care summit Obama wants to hold Feb. 25, according to The New York Times.
Then there’s this, taken from Price’s post: “It appears this summit is simply an attempt by the President to use the White House as a political tool to intimidate his way into a government takeover of health care. The American people and Republicans in Congress will not be taken by this Chicago-style politics.”
It doesn’t seem to matter that Price continuously lies about the proposed plans being a “government takeover” of the nation’s health care system (not even the insurance industry would go that far, much as less Big Pharma or the American Medical Association, which have endorsed the proposals.) All politicians are entitled to have an opinion, but we should be exceedingly skeptical of those who make facts up in order to score political points. Thankfully, the Times, provided readers context to some other of Price’s misrepresentations.
