Mike Enzi, Gang Of Six Republican, Admits He's Simply Blocking Health Care Reform

Mike Enzi, one of three Republicans ostensibly negotiating health care reform as part of the Senate's "Gang of Six," told a Wyoming town hall crowd that he had no plans to compromise with Democrats and was merely trying to extract concessions.

"It's not where I get them to compromise, it's what I get them to leave out," Enzi said Monday, according to the Billings Gazette.

Enzi found himself under attack at the town hall simply for sitting in the same room as the three Finance Committee Democrats. Republicans in the crowd called for him to exit the talks. He assured conservatives that his presence was delaying health care reform.

"If I hadn't been involved in this process as long as I have and to the depth as I have, you would already have national health care," he said.

"Someone has to be at the table asking questions," Enzi said. "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."

Enzi was also hit from the other side, as constituents criticized him for taking significant campaign cash from the health insurance industry while opposing a public insurance option that would compete with private plans and take a bit out of their bottom line.

Enzi's blunt portrayal of his real role in the negotiations makes bipartisan compromise that much less likely to emerge from the Finance Committee. Democrats around the table have already conceded the public option, yet appear to be no closer to winning any Republican support. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), another of the three Republicans continuing to negotiate -- or at least to meet -- has said that even if he agrees to a deal, he won't vote for it unless he can persuade a good many of his fellow Republicans to go along as well -- a prospect that would only be possible in the face of a dramatic Democratic capitulation.

The Republican negotiators are under intense pressure from GOP leadership to walk away from the discussions.

Earlier this week, one of the three Democrats in the talks, Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, said that he would support passing health care with a simple majority if it became clear the GOP wasn't serious.

Ryan Grim is the author of This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America

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Comments

[brt929]

03:09 PM on 08/29/2009

I wonder if Chris Mathews has read this item. Yesterday, he said that he hopes that Enzi would step up as the negotiator, the role Ted Kennedy usually played.

Sounds to me, that he is a typical Wyoming resident- unable to think for himself- and anything with an "R" after it is good, everything with a "D" after it is bad.

Their dismal voting record (they haven't voted for a Democrat since 1965) tells me they are incapable of independent thought. Useless dinosaurs.

[oregonideas]

12:54 PM on 08/29/2009

HEY, GUYS...RELAX..I'M NOT INTERESTED IN ANY HEALTH CARE REFORM....I'M JUST TRYING TO SABATAGE THE EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE CHANGE....THE SYSTEM WE NOW HAVE IS FINE...THE HEALTH CARE INSURANCE INDUSTRY MUST CONTINUE TO MAKE BILLIONS; THE WEALTHY MUST CONTINUE TO GET SUPERIOR HEALTH CARE; THE WORKING POOR MUST CONTINUE TO GET LITTLE, IF ANY, HEALTH CARE SUPPORT, AND AMERICA MUST CONTINUE TO HAVE THE MOST EXPENSIVE AND THE LEAST EFFECTIVE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD.......GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

[Aaron Turpen]

01:49 PM on 08/29/2009

...and if you believe that the above is what this is all about, you're a brainwashed dolt who probably stood at Obama's rallies and chanted "CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE" in a mindless mantra while saluting the Great One.

Gimme a break. This is about blocking the BILLS that are OFFERED in CONGRESS right now. Wake up. Those bills don't reform diddly.

[Aaron Turpen]

11:27 AM on 08/29/2009

Good for Enzi. And Barrasso too. These are MY representatives and for once, I'm glad they're there. I don't buy into the "Republican vs. Democrat" b.s. They're all the same. I do, however, know when something stinks and health care "reform" is a big pile of dookey.

So I'm glad that my representatives from Wyoming are standing up to you east and west coast Commies. If you want socialized health care so much, why don't you do like Mass and get it for YOUR state and leave me out of it?

Oh, wait, your states are bankrupt and holding garage sales to try to make up the billions in deficits. I forgot. You need the rest of us who know how to run our business to bail you out. Woops.

Well, thanks but no thanks. You dug your hole, you get out of it on your own. As for those of you who live in those crappy socialistic hell holes, feel free to come out to Wyoming and live like Americans again.

[JohnDingler]

01:46 PM on 08/29/2009

Yo Turpin, quit using the federal highways system, you stinkin' Commie Pinko. Make your own roads. Renunce that Stalinist program, Medicare, when you qualify for it.

Get a high enough paying job where you would not have to rely on enrolling into the job's Socialist health care program. Pay as you go, dude. It's the only way to go. I call on everyone to quit using those suspicious public libraries; They are just a bunch of collectives. Make your own books. Read at home. Heck, I don't need to read that slime anyway.

Get your own fire department; It's red engines makes them look as if they were painted with the same color that Soviets used to paint their red stars.

And police never are on location as crime is being committed anyway. I guess they are just lazy, donut-eating Leninists.

Dig your own well; Can't trust the water that the collective sells you for cheap.

Don't use any cars, no matter where they were made; All suffer from Commie influence and were infiltrated by the Red Brigade who instituted soft policies: Auto workers get socialist breaks, there is no child labor, they get medical aid, and workers can report greaviences just like in the Chinese rehabilitation committees.

We should all just become disgruntled separatists, ready to arm ourselves with machine guns from a pill box on that mountain top.

[Bozzie49]

09:58 AM on 09/07/2009

Turpin thinks that the roads he drives on were made for pinko's, so he rides a horse,and eats hay, because everthing is organic now days, and that's putting farmers out of work, so they can get welfare from government.for not growing any crops.

Bozzie

[oregonideas]

01:51 PM on 08/29/2009

GEE AARON, I'LL BET YOU WEAR A SIX-GUN ON YOUR HIP....IT'S NICE THAT WYOMING HAS BEEN BLESSED WITH ENOUGH OIL AND NATURAL GAS TO BALANCE YOUR STATE BUDGET, HOWEVER, PLEASE DON'T TAKE TOO MUCH PERSONAL CREDIT FOR THAT FACT...PLEASE REMEMBER, THERE ARE ACTUALLY PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP FROM THOSE ABLE TO PROVIDE THAT HELP....YOU CONDEMN THAT AS COMMUNISM OR SOCIALISM, WHILE OTHERS MIGHT USE THE TERM "SOCIAL RESPONSIBLITY" OR "COMMUNITY" I WON'T WASTE TIME TRYING TO CHANGE ANY OF YOUR OPINIONS, BUT PLEASE DON'T PRESUME TO DEFINE YOURSELF AS "THE REAL AMERICA"......THE REAL AMERICA IS MADE UP OF 280 MILLION PERSONS, EACH DIFFERENT IN MANY, MANY WAYS....YOU'RE PART OF THAT REAL AMERICA, JUST AS I AM.....I WISH YOU THE BEST AND HOPE YOU MANAGE TO DEAL WITH YOUR ANGER AND FIND HAPPINESS IN YOUR LIFE

[IrishTouch]

11:06 AM on 08/29/2009

WHY is this guy even in office?

[bookbadger]

03:43 AM on 08/29/2009

I am totally shocked. I did not see this coming. I am not using sarcasm.

[haroldballs]

10:58 PM on 08/28/2009

I don't get it. Of course they are blocking it. That's what Americans want. At least someone gets it.

[SteveDenver]

11:13 AM on 08/29/2009

Well, it's wat 34% of Americans want. The rest support a public option and reform.

[runfastandwin]

07:35 PM on 08/28/2009

Please please please walk away, all 3 of you a holes.

[pyro]

06:06 PM on 08/28/2009

I think Obama maybe should take Bill Mayers (sp, sorry) advice, and say that Jesus told him to reform health care. It worked for Bush, it might work for us!??

[quindy]

05:22 PM on 08/28/2009

I am sure that the uninsured people of Wyoming will be thrilled to know that their representative is doing everything to deny them the health insurance.

[Will Welch]

09:43 PM on 08/28/2009

Oh right--We're just effing thrilled. Of course half of the uninsured (most of whom can in no way afford private insurance) have been bamboozled into thinking that a public health insurance plan will turn them into communist drones. And this guy's seat is as safe as it gets.

[ScooterTwo]

05:00 PM on 08/28/2009

Guess that stack of paper next to him is simply toilet paper. He needs it, for all the stuff that comes out of him...

[SteveDenver]

11:14 AM on 08/29/2009

Out of his mouth...

[ladyblug]

04:08 PM on 08/28/2009

Let's boycott health insurance. If we all drop what we do have they will loose their customer base and profits. Scary but possibly very effective.

[lori572]

04:21 PM on 08/28/2009

Or we could, en mass, sign up for the military. maybe the government can open that plan up to civilians who pay a premium, which would be less then they pay private insurers.

[Will Welch]

10:32 PM on 08/28/2009

And lets at least demonstrate against health insurance companies

[dans5843]

01:52 PM on 08/28/2009

Kansas congresswomen said on Thursday
"Fellow republicans seeking a great white hope"

COME ON, DOES ANYONE WITH A BRAIN, NOT THINK THAT WAS RACIST?

[LCLA]

04:25 PM on 08/28/2009

If it looks like a duck,
waddles like a duck and
quacks like a duck,
you've probably got a duck.

[lori572]

01:19 PM on 08/28/2009

.."majority rams this thing through without consensus, the majority of people in the nation will be very,very upset. Polls show overwhelmingly, the people don't want it!"

In response to this silliness, majority votes win (reconciliation requires a majority), they are not rammed through in the minds of the majority that voted.

And then there are the polls (ignoring the vote). As a graduate of public health, let me tell you about polls. Only about 1/3 of people contacted, respond. They are motivated by a bias and the only thing that can be said is, OF THE PEOPLE POLLED, ( not the others), that group had a majority.....

Public health has been alive and well for over 100 years here in the USA and it works. Public health has a proven track record of increasing life span and quality of life. It was when Reagan cut public health, we dropped in our world rating on health care effectiveness.

[SteveDenver]

11:26 AM on 08/29/2009

What are you smoking? You must be consulting only Fox News. You made up all of this.

First you say, "Polls show overwhelmingly..." Then in the third paragraph you decry the reliability of polls. I think that's called shooting yourself in the foot.

Your facts about 100 years of public health care are also way off the mark. That means that during the Dustbowl and Depression years, there was public health care. Huh?

According to every fact sheet easily accessible online, the U.S. is 37th in health care -- behind EVERY country with public health care. Our longevity is lower, infant mortality rate is higher.

Jesus is risen and he's coming again (but hang onto your lucky penny and rabbit's foot, you wanna cover all bases).

[TroyJMorris]

02:22 PM on 08/29/2009

Um, Lori was QUOTING someone. Hence the quotation marks.

[AceInTheHole]

12:32 PM on 08/28/2009

Ted Kennedy asked the question, "When does the greed stop? My answer is, Not until these miscreants walk through the gates of hell. Now I ask the queston , when will these miscreants negotiate in good faith, and my answer is, after they walk through the gates of hell, and it is to late for them to profit from any negotiations.

[GTFOOH]

11:31 AM on 08/28/2009

Right thinking Dems should take Enzi's words to heart and push the reform through reconciliation, restoring every concession that Enzi was able to extract. In fact, they can call it the Enzi restoration health care process!

[chriss0114]

12:36 PM on 08/28/2009

you are absolutely right on

[dans5843]

01:44 PM on 08/28/2009

You should run for the senate