Kristol Calls GOP’s Preconditions On Health Care Meeting ‘Silly’
Kristol Calls GOP’s Preconditions On Health Care Meeting ‘Silly’
On Sunday, President Obama announced his intention to host a televised bipartisan meeting on health care reform “to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward.” Yesterday, congressional GOP leaders responded with a list of preconditions for simply sitting down with the President and Democrats.
In a letter to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Reps. John Boehner (R-OH) and Eric Cantor (R-VA) wrote that, “[i]f the starting point for this meeting” is the bills that passed the House and Senate, “Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate.” They also called on Obama to take reconciliation off the table as a “show good faith” to the GOP.
Yesterday on Fox News, Bill Kristol — who has made no secret of his desire to kill health care reform — criticized Boehner and Cantor for setting preconditions and being disrespectful to Obama, adding that they should instead be more direct about their intention not to meet the President half way:
KRISTOL: Obviously when the president invites you to the White House you go. They should politely go and tell him he should kill this terrible bill that the House and Senate — or two bills the House and Senate Democrats have put together and start over. [...]
And Republicans should hold their ground and they shouldn’t be apologetic, they shouldn’t snipe at the president. This letter they sent today I think is silly. Is it really going to be bipartisan? Is it really going to be transparent? You said you were going to be bipartisan in the past.
Forget all that. Just say we welcome a substantive debate. We have been engaged in substantive debate in health care, we Republicans, for a year, and we are perfectly happy to continue that debate. And Mr. President if you want to come to the position of small incremental, sensible reforms in the health care system, more than happy to work with you.
Watch it:
Preconditions or not, it’s clear that both Kristol and the GOP want the same thing — to ultimately kill health care reform. Kristol is merely suggesting to his friends that they make it clearer. Indeed, the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein noted last night on MSNBC that the reality is that the GOP’s position means that a bipartisan compromise will be next to impossible to achieve:
KLEIN: There are two sides with different sets of ideas and they disagree about the ideas and if they can compromise on them, then we get a bill. In fact, you have two sides where one side wants a bill and the other does not want the bill, and it’s actually very hard to compromise between those two positions.
Steve Benen notes that the summit “puts Republicans in an awkward spot.” “If they participate, they’ll very likely lose the policy debate. If they reject the invitation, they’ll look petty and small (even more so than usual).”
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I LOVE it when these criminals eat each other.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:04 pmTeabagging hicks continue to hate this country and continue to completely disrespect the office of the Presidency.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:04 pmPetty and Small. Weren’t they the headlining musical act at the RNC last year?
February 9th, 2010 at 1:05 pm.
Shorter Bill Kristol:
.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:06 pmBill Kristol has been wrong about everything. I guess that’s why Faux news always trots him out. They have their own brand of ‘Reality’.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:06 pmNazism by definition is a conservative movement just as Islamic terrorist is a conservative ideology.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:07 pmClearly Kristol is trying to ’stand out’ once again in the crowded room full of regressive right wingers.
After all these years, everyone should realize you can’t trust the sincerity of anything that comes out of this guy’s mouth.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:07 pmPerhaps this is the moment our President ‘calls them out’.
They’re between a rock and a hard place, all of their own doing.
The Boner & Can’tor are already backpedaling, hoping the news cycle changes quickly.
The fact is, Republics DON’T have a plan…
or a clue…
or a prayer.
In W’s infamous words; BRING ‘EM ON!
February 9th, 2010 at 1:07 pm.
Dear John Boy,
My thoughts exactly…
… Why can’t TP get it right and ban your lousy racist @ss?
.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:07 pmWait…aren’t these fools the same ones that demand America never meet with hostile regimes (Syria, Iran, North Korea) without PRE-CONDITIONS?
Typical GOP hypocricy. And hypocracy too. Rule by hypocrits.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:11 pmBig John says:
Sometimes I just want to give up.
Yes, you should. Definitely. Yes, please give up. Absolutely. Yes.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:12 pm@11, You already said that. Some truth teller. Now you are recycling your talking points. Yawn.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:12 pmWhy yes, you do need a Big John for a big pile of crap….
February 9th, 2010 at 1:12 pmForget all that. Just say we welcome a substantive debate. We have been engaged in substantive debate in health care, we Republicans, for a year, and we are perfectly happy to continue that debate.
–
February 9th, 2010 at 1:13 pmBull f***ing shit. Slandering the President doesn’t count as debating.
Big John says:
Killing nazi liberalism is a GOOD thing. Why can’t TP ever get it right?
February 9th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Right..
Big John says:
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Common sense conservatism: Strong live/weak die.
Life’s tough liberals. Get use to it.
February 9th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Who’s the real Nazi here?
February 9th, 2010 at 1:13 pmP.D. says:
@11, You already said that. Some truth teller. Now you are recycling your talking points. Yawn.
–
February 9th, 2010 at 1:14 pmI don’t know if it counts as a talking point…he’s just inflating an already over-inflated ego.
Telling lies on the internet is nowhere near the same thing as fighting at the Alamo. Though the Army is hard up for soldiers right now, so maybe you should put your ass were your mouth is instead of merely speaking out of it.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:15 pmRight #12, it’s all a plot to show how Obama is weak on terrorism, and here he is wanting to meet with them.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:16 pmglamourdammerung says:
Though the Army is hard up for soldiers right now, so maybe you should put your ass were your mouth is instead of merely speaking out of it.
This creep won’t do that – he’s a yellow coward internet toughboy.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:16 pm@ #9
Zimone, give it up buddy.
We do not live in a reality-based society.
‘Calling-them-out’ will have little to no effect on a population that either
A. can’t be bothered to care unless they experience the injustice firsthand
B. willfully allow themselves to be deceived in order to allow themselves the excuse to express hatred and disdain for altogether separate reasons from heath care.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:17 pmPlease do. No one will miss you. Buy a length a rope and find a tall tree. Good night….good riddance.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:17 pmSilly is as silly does, sir.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:17 pmBig John says:
“Then I think about those brave heroes who defended our freedom at the Alamo… and I carry on.”
I see you’re a Texan, and not an American.
Amarillo?
There is always a particularly odious bunch at the big table in the back of IHOP in the morning….
February 9th, 2010 at 1:18 pmHitler and Islamic terrorists say/said the exact same thing.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:19 pmBig John: “What do you want to do this morning, Lil’ Jack?”
February 9th, 2010 at 1:21 pmLil’ Jack: “IHOP Big John!”
Big John: “Your place or mine?”
Didn’t everyone know as soon as Obama announced plans to meet and televise it, repubs would find a way not to make it? He schooled them before, and he’ll do it again. They’re too embarrassed to go through with it.
I’d love to see, ‘Ok, sure here’s starting over: single payer, universal health care, no compromise’.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:22 pm“We have been engaged in substantive debate in health care, we Republicans, for a year, and we are perfectly happy to continue that debate.”
These are the folks that are so keen to ‘define’ marriage. They’re gonna have to define ’substantive’ and ‘debate’ next.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:22 pmWatch Comedy Central at 1:30 for Colbert’s ‘Sarah’ rant.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:23 pmLook, here’s the bottom line…
1) If we take Republicans at their word that you should respect the office of the president, which they insisted we do when it was Bush, then Kristol is right about something (for once), and the Repubs SHOULD go AND be respectful about it.
2) President Obama knows, and we know, and the Repubs know, that the Repug agenda on this issue is to prevent healthcare reform at all costs. That’s what their corporate masters want, so that’s what they want. People could be dying in the streets and begging congress to reform healthcare, and it wouldn’t matter, because money talks.
And I hate to say it, but to a large degree that’s true of the Dems in congress as well, right Mr. Baucus?
February 9th, 2010 at 1:24 pm@30, Flag.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:26 pmBig John says:
http://www.ourchurch-graphics.com/member/r/royalkinggeteqh/Jeff3.jpg
Pussy pansy.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:27 pmGoing OT here — ( I miss the TF thread)
February 9th, 2010 at 1:27 pmWith repugs criticizing the Obama administration’s handling of the underpants bomber, even as Obama says they are using the same handling that was successful in 300 cases during the Bush years — the repugs call even that statement a lie — but the 300 figure actually came from them.
…
[It was the] Bush Justice Department that cited the 300+ figure — not once, but twice — as evidence of its success in combating and punishing terrorist activity…
Since 2001…efforts have resulted in the securing of 319 convictions or guilty pleas in terrorism or terrorism-related cases arising from investigations conducted primarily after September 11, 2001, and zero terrorist attacks on American soil by foreign nationals from 2003 through 2007.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/09/obamas-handling-of-terror_n_454886.html
FLAGGED, racist scumbag
February 9th, 2010 at 1:27 pmBig John says:
Being a truth teller is not an easy thing. Sometimes I just want to give up. Then I think about those brave heroes who defended our freedom at the Alamo… and I carry on. America is worth it.
I am TEH WARRIOR, fighting against TEH GAY OVERLORD’S minions. Fighting behind enemy lines, I risk life and limb just to serve my country, Texas so that TEH GAY LIBRULS don’t take over. I have been wounded several times, but I think of Jim Bowie and Davey Crockett and I rejuvenate to fight another day. Give me the Purple Heart (just not the bandaid with the purple heart), the Medal of Honor, the Bronze Star, you name it. I don’t need to serve in the military because I serve in the war against LIBRUL GAYS…
February 9th, 2010 at 1:27 pmKristal and the Republicnaughts are more than willing to compromise, as long as the end product is giving corporate masterdom all their wish list. Or no health care bill
We’ll split it right down the middle 98/2 %.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:28 pmBig John says:
25, You’re not shoveling manure for greasy mexicans thanks to us.
Your post and you are both fine exemplars of what CONservatism truly is…a hateful ideology meant to divide and hate on others so that the elites can distract y’all from their Reverse Robin Hood act…
February 9th, 2010 at 1:29 pmWhat Kristol really says:
Why are hiding that middle finger behind your back?
February 9th, 2010 at 1:29 pmWho is this BigJohn bigot troll invading us today?
February 9th, 2010 at 1:30 pmMoronic posts.
Thinks he’s living in a John Wayne western?
Prolly an old geezer who can’t get over his hero, Ronnie Raygun, is dead.
Is Little John a “cowboy”?
February 9th, 2010 at 1:30 pm*were*
February 9th, 2010 at 1:31 pmDr. Hussein Matt (Sponsored by Magnum Condoms) says:
http://www.ourchurch-graphics.com/member/r/royalkinggeteqh/Jeff3.jpg
Is Little John a “cowboy”?
Nah…he’s just a coward internet toughboy.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:32 pmBig John,
February 9th, 2010 at 1:32 pmWe’re you one of the seven surviving members of the battle of the Alamo? Thought not. You’re just a shit talking troll who takes credit for others accomplishments.
Maybe you can point to a success for the comunist conservatives so we can understand.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:32 pmbig john is the sock puppet trajan.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:32 pmFred ♪♫♪ says:
big john is the sock puppet trajan.
–
February 9th, 2010 at 1:33 pmIs he one of Olby Sucks sock-puppets?
#30 Flagged for blatant racism…
…and also for being coward internet toughboy.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:34 pmBig bad John…
February 9th, 2010 at 1:37 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIaVhMjcoz0&feature=related
Big John aren’t you embarassed by what you do? Clearly you arent proud of it otherwise you wouldn’t hide it from family and coworkers. It is a shame someone would become so alienated that this is the best they can resort to.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:37 pmEveryone else at the Alamo was killed. How did you escape?
February 9th, 2010 at 1:47 pm.
Funny that Bill Kristol thinks that the G(no)P should demand that the House bill and the Senate bill be thrown out and that the G(no)P should demand that their agenda BE the legislation that gets passed.
… Of course its getting along when it’s the G(no)P demanding they don’t need to.
.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:50 pmBig John says:
I put on my boots. Wrangle me some calves. Put my brand on ‘em. I’m a man that knows what’s mine. You libs want to take my calves and give them to a bunch of bums who don’t want to work for a living. Not gonna happen.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
http://www.ourchurch-graphics.com/member/r/royalkinggeteqh/Jeff3.jpg
February 9th, 2010 at 1:52 pmshoe (formerly shoeless, sponsored by Nike) says:
Everyone else at the Alamo was killed. How did you escape?
–
I guess he rode his cattle out of there. Well maybe not…if he was at the Alamo and hypothetically someone could live this long he’d be almost 200 years old (191-193 give or take–assuming he was at least 18-20 years old at the time).
And seven Texan defenders did survive the battle. Little John obviously wasn’t one of them.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:56 pmWe’ll just take half of those calves. Thanks.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:57 pmBig John says:
nazi
*drink*
.
Big John says:
You libs want to take my calves and give them to a bunch of bums
Giving calves to bums? There’s a bizarre mental image there.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:59 pmIf Obama said Ok, we start over, at the end Republicans would still be against it. They were against the Paygo, until Obama said he supported it, then they voted NO.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:59 pmJeffy John wears Jorts. hahahahaha
February 9th, 2010 at 2:02 pmWhaaaat? Can this be true? Kristol actually thinks that the GOP was — *GASP* — wrong about something?????
Surely pigs are taking wing and icicles forming on the doorsills of Hell e’en now…
February 9th, 2010 at 2:07 pmThe best course of action is for Obama to schedule the conference with invitations to the Republicans with no preconditions on either side. The invitation should be done very publicly with the President at a press conference so that it will be reported in the media. The Republicans can show or not show, but conference will move forward if it means the Dems discuss using reconciliation to pass the bill. If they show then there will be a substantive discussion. If they don’t show then the conference will be for the Senate and House to agree on a reconciliation bill. That will force the Republicans into taking a position in public. My bets are that they won’t show because of what happened at the Republican retreat. They cannot afford to engage in public debate with Obama that they will lose. The fact that the invitation is made and the Republicans refuse to attend will show the public exactly what they are doing in Congress. Either way Obama scores a win in the eyes of the public.
February 9th, 2010 at 2:12 pmThanks for reminding me P.D. Here’s the clip, funny.
February 9th, 2010 at 2:13 pmhttp://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/264042/february-08-2010/sarah-palin-uses-a-hand-o-prompter
Big John says:
What part of “my calves” do you people not understand?
Heh. You really ARE retarded.
http://www.ourchurch-graphics.com/member/r/royalkinggeteqh/Jeff3.jpg
Pussy pansy.
February 9th, 2010 at 2:14 pmYou libs want to take my calves and give them to a bunch of bums who don’t want to work for a living.
February 9th, 2010 at 2:15 pm——-
Are we talking about Scott Brown’s white trash mama again?
I put on my boots. Wrangle me some calves. Put my brand on ‘em. I’m a man that knows what’s mine. You libs want to take my calves and give them to a bunch of bums who don’t want to work for a living. Not gonna happen.
Better watch out…TEH GAY OVERLORDS will experiment on your calves by injecting them with TEH GAY SERUM and soon you’ll have TEH GAY CALVES serving their interests and not your own. We libs are here to distract you from the real danger…
February 9th, 2010 at 2:21 pmKLEIN: In fact, you have two sides where one side wants a bill and the other does not want the bill, and it’s actually very hard to compromise between those two positions.
very well said.
there’s no compromise between doing something about the problem and sticking your thumb up your butt and yodeling.
February 9th, 2010 at 2:27 pmbig john your other name David bowie? he was a punk azz coward as well.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:05 pmRacistJohn
For goodness sake and the sake of all mankind DO give up and put a bullet through your useless skull
February 9th, 2010 at 3:18 pmTypical Congressional Republican tactics — making up the rules as they go along.
“Start the game from the beginning, or we’re gonna take our marbles and go home!”
Next they’ll be demanding a do-over on the 2008 election.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:22 pmWhen Kristol breaks Reagan’s 11th commandment and calls something the GOP leadership does “silly”, you can bet the farm it is effing retarded.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:31 pmAre Big John and John Cornyn one and the same. I recognize the sentiment. Me, me, me, my, my, my. Let the hungry eat dirt.
I’ll give you 5 to 1 odds he considers himself a good Christian too.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:38 pmRascalcat
Not so sure about that. Considering is most likely FAR beyond RacistJohns capabilities
February 9th, 2010 at 3:51 pmLittle Johnny earlier stated “remembering those brave heroes fought for our freedom at the Alamo…”
Those brave heroes at the Alamo fought for our freedom? If I recall correctly, Texas became a State in 1845 while the battle at the Alamo was fought in 1836.
So correct me if I’m wrong but in reality, those brave heroes were fighting for the freedom of the citizens of the Texas Republic….Not for America.
February 10th, 2010 at 12:30 amDefended our freedom at the Alamo???
They wanted the freedom to own slaves, which the Mexican government had outlawed.
February 10th, 2010 at 11:43 amBill Kristol has been wrong about everything. I guess that’s why Faux news always trots him out. They have their own brand of ‘Reality’.
February 15th, 2010 at 6:33 am