A leading GOP negotiator on health care struck a further blow to fading chances of a bipartisan compromise by saying Democratic proposals would restrict medical choices and make the country's "finances sicker without saving you money."
The criticism from Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., echoed that of many opponents of the Democratic plans under consideration in Congress. But Enzi's judgment was especially noteworthy because he is one of only three Republicans who have been willing to consider a bipartisan bill in the Senate.
In the Republicans' weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday, Enzi said any health care legislation must lower medical costs for Americans without increasing deficits and the national debt.
"The bills introduced by congressional Democrats fail to meet these standards," he said.
We’ve seen the polls showing that the majority of people don’t like the ObamaCare proposals in Congress. We’ve seen his popularity dropping dramatically, today reaching a record low of 46% approval and 53% disapproval. We’ve seen the outrage in public meetings, the Tea Parties, and other expressions of opposition to the ultra-liberal agenda. All of this is based upon bad policies that the American people do not like and do not want.
Now we learn that Congress will likely be feeling the results of this in the 2010 elections. According to people who professionally analyze upcoming election prospects, many of whom are Democrats themselves, the Democrats could face a loss of 25-50 seats next year.
Some of the most prominent and respected handicappers can now envision an election in which Democrats suffer double-digit losses in the House — not enough to provide the 40 seats necessary to return the GOP to power but enough to put them within striking distance.
Top political analyst Charlie Cook, in a special August 20 update to subscribers, wrote that “the situation this summer has slipped completely out of control for President Obama and congressional Democrats.”
"Many veteran congressional election watchers, including Democratic ones, report an eerie sense of déjà vu, with a consensus forming that the chances of Democratic losses going higher than 20 seats is just as good as the chances of Democratic losses going lower than 20 seats,” he wrote.
At the mid-August Netroots Nation convention, Nate Silver, a Democratic analyst whose uncannily accurate, stat-driven predictions have made his website FiveThirtyEight.com a must read among political junkies, predicted that Republicans will win between 20 and 50 seats next year. He further alarmed an audience of progressive activists by arguing that the GOP has between a 25 and 33 percent chance of winning back control of the House.
Personally, I don’t think the Republicans deserve this kind of push. The Democrats are messing up royally, but the Republicans didn’t do so hot when THEY were in charge, either. But since we KNOW the Democrats will shove all the radical-liberal garbage they can down our throats, SOMEBODY has to stop them.
Look, the bottom line is that government spending MUST decrease! Not just to the point where the yearly budget deficit is “reduced,” but to the point where it is ELIMINATED and turned into a surplus! We must begin paying down the debt, and the first lesson taught to those in debt trouble is to STOP GOING DEEPER INTO DEBT! Lesson two… pay it back as quickly as possible.
If the Republicans will take us there, fine… but I’m not confident. I purely wish that the American electorate would abandon the “two-party” mindset and become more receptive to alternatives like the Libertarian Party. We need fiscal sanity, and so far neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have shown any. Where else can we go?
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