Chuck Hagel: GOP Being "Irresponsible" On Health Care Reform

The Hill:

Republican senators trying to kill healthcare reform have acted irresponsibly, one of their former colleagues asserted.

Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) chided some of his former colleagues who have suggested that halting healthcare reform would be politically beneficial to the GOP.

Read the whole story: The Hill

Comments

[pomegrante]

nice to see and hear from the next sec of defense:Chucky's back!!!!!!!!!

[llmitchellb]

While Republicans are being named right and left in official posts for Obama - Why isn't Chuck Hagel? He's probably the strongest to pull these parties together.

[ywcachieve]

I can't understand how President Obama's whole presidency rests on one thing, healthcare. NO other president was treated like this. NO other president was able to get hearlthcare for all, yet their presidency was not contingent on this one thing.

The president of the US has many things to do. So the people are in grave error here, trying to base this president's tenure in the WH on this one thing, or else.

[Bloggerrogr]

This is big stuff. I remember in 1965 that it was a major struggle to get Medicare enacted into law. I was only 22 at the time, yet I can recall it seemed to go on forever while President Johnson wrangled with a Congress that had more than the 60 Democrats that President Obama has, yet it still took months for all of the process to work itself out.
Make no mistake, there are other major challenges for President Obama, but most likely his legacy will be for getting health care reform accomplished during his administration.

FWIW

[ConnieInCleveland]

Glad to hear from one of the former Republicans, who used to represent a real party, which cared about America more than party. it's no wonder many have left, or leaving politics all together.

[not one of the sheep]

Why all the bruhaahaa about the Republicans? They are irrelevant. The problem is in the Democratic party and their inability to work together to get anything passed without infighting. Typical misdirection done by both parties when they themselves don't want to accept responsibility for their own shortcomings.

[keepemhonest]

yawn .... Fox viewers website is that way>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[not one of the sheep]

Say What? Fox What? Thanks for the nonsensical and absolute irrelevant post that has nothing to do with the original subject matter.

[Bloggerrogr]

"I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat" - Will Rogers, American humorist c 1940

FWIW

[Ravenback47]

I have seen no evidence where the Repubs have changed from being responsible to irresponsible. Fifteen years ago they were vehemently opposed to health care reform. And in 2009, they are still vehemently opposed. Where's the change?

[Zoica]

Why is stopping health care reform good for the GOP??? If they sink the ship, they'll drown, too -- and it will be their fault!

[Periwinkle]

It makes no sense. If they derail health care reform and the people who still have insurance see their premiums rise by double digits over the next year, it's unlikely they'll pull the Republican lever in the voting booth. Then there are the uninsured who are dropping like flies for lack of medical care. They won't be voting Republican any time soon.

[RMcAelfinn]

It's good for the GOP only to the same warped minds who thought making the Schiavo affair a national issue was good for the GOP.

[JessWonderin]

funny . . . wasn't it the same group that OPPOSES the Public Option the same folks that uses the threat that "da Government" will short change Social Security and Medicare to scare the "older segment" into supporting the Party Of NO?

[textynn]

The GOP has always been the party for slavery. Demanding that people get their health care through their employment is a formula that makes employees slaves. That is especially true when you throw in the preexisting BS that the Medical Insurance Industry dreamed up. Today employers can pay less and less if they provide health care. People get to the point where the health care is the main pay and the pay is secondary. Employers know they have people over a barrel and feel no incentive to raise pay or extend profits to workers. They own them through their medical and people can be skill-stunted through this formula as well. By skill-stunted I mean they can make so little pay that they can't afford to keep up their skills or acquire new skills through continued education that would give them more power in the work place. Employers have too much power over people and this is why no one is making any money.

It's called slavery and the only reason actual slavery was ever allowed to end is because the Elite found the system of minimum wage even cheaper than housing and taking care of slaves...even when they gave them far below sub standard health care and housing. That's what I learned in college about the eventual end of slavery in the US.

[IllinoisTexan43]

Excellent point. Millions of people don't have an clue how much their health insurance really costs because employers pay a substantial percentage of it. As employers chip in less year after year in order to cut costs, a lot of people will be in for a wake up call. Just because you're employed and have employer subsidized healthcare, you're by no means safe.

[Oonagh]

Caption should just state.... Republicans are irresponsible.. period.

[JessWonderin]

Actually if you are in the top 5%, they are EXTREMELY "responsible"

[knowhelpnow]

I'm wondering if Hagel would vote for the Public Option or Universal Health Care if he still was a Senator? The people in Nebraska would like to know.
He maybe trying to get to the place that he will switch parties but we already have enough Blue Dogs around on this issue as it is we don't need anymore. Health care reform is the most important thing that Democrats can do and should do if they were following their parties line and the people who elected them into office.
I say forget bipartisanship on this issue they are going to water it down until Health Care Reform is nothing accept giving the private insurance all those people who can't afford insurance a mandated to buy insurance or pay a fine, you can see them drooling even now.
What happened to the nuclear option anyway, you know that thing the Repugs used to push all those tax breaks for the elite and corporations while borrowing from China to fund these wars.

[Imzadi]

Specter and Hagel were the two GOPers I respected. Specter switched parties and Hagel is no longer a Senator.

*sigh*

[jennylynn]

Guess your stuck with pelosi, reid, rangel, frank, water and dodd.

[Imzadi]

au contraire - YOU are stuck with them...

[swift goat pet for truth]

I would vote for any of them a thousand times before I would vote for any GOPer.

And I believe by "water", you mean Rep Maxine Waters, a rep from the district adjacent to mine when I lived in LA.

Glad to see you think so highly of her. Me, too.

[mcmutter]

Poor republicans (those without money) are just so confused - they keep electing people who continue to hold them down in their lives.

[jennylynn]

Are there any without Money? They all work for a living.

[NotStarvingArtist]

That's a specious argument. It is much more likely that more in the Republican base are currently unemployed because they are less educated than Democrats and Independents. This is not just my opinion. It is a documented fact that the states that voted Republican in the 2008 election are lower in K-12 education than those that voted Democrat or Independent. The unemployment rate in Feb 2009 was 3.8 percent for college graduates, 6.2 percent for those with some college or a two-year degree, 8 percent for high school graduates and 12 percent for drop-outs.

[swift goat pet for truth]

oh yeah.

All those South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma GOPers all work.

right.

[HeavensToMergatroid]

I'd suspect there are plenty who are clamoring against government intrusion while living on Social Security and drawing Medicare and otherwise without a pot to pee in. They probably give what little extra they have to religio-political organizations in an effort to make their religious beliefs law.

[KarateKid]

I might still be a Republican if the Chuck Hagel's had stayed in the majority, but, sadly, it has been taken over by the unhinged. I will always respect this fellow grunt.

[Rog49Thomas]

Political parties are created to represent their constituents.

Chuck, given that the RP's constituents are corporate interests, they are being highly responsible.

The Democrats at least have a few people among their constituents - that's why we're getting fake health care reform from them. Great taste, less filling.