Michael Steele's Transparent Ploys to Kill Health Care Reform

After months of floundering as RNC chair, Michael Steele has found his calling card: kill President Obama's health care plan. That should help restore his credibility with the Republican party. To do this, Steele knows he can't afford to engage the issue honestly. And while he has a legendary arsenal of tried-and-tested weapons to gun down health reform, he seems clueless on how to use them tactfully. His recent media appearances attest to this.

According to Steele, it simply doesn't matter what's actually in the Democratic reform bill, because "you can read and know where this thing's going," he said Tuesday on CNN. Steele is worried that Democrats are intent on monopolizing health care, and his concerns subsist "whether or not it's in the legislation."

Without pointing to a shred of evidence, Steele declares that the Democratic plan will cause people to lose their health care. When CNN anchor Kyra Phillips clarified that under the proposal, "people will have a choice -- they won't be told to go one way or another," Steele retorted: "I don't know that. I haven't seen the final bill. And you don't either."

Also telling was his declaration this week that the moral question of tens of millions uninsured is not a concern for politicians, but for pastors. He dismissed the idea that Republicans should propose counter-legislation to prove they take this issue seriously. Most striking was when he said: "I don't do policy. I'm not a legislator. My point in coming here today was to begin to set a tone and a theme, if you will..."

As that seems to be Steele's thought process: It doesn't matter what the reform legislation says. It doesn't matter how crooked the current system is, or how many people are suffering because of it. And there's no reason to believe the Democratic proposal will limit anybody's choice, but it just will.

Steele admits he hasn't looked at the health care bill, nor does he "do policy," but that doesn't stop him from authoritatively making conclusions about it -- conclusions that are unsubstantiated and convenient for his party. And seeing as how these conclusions weren't based on reality to begin with, we shouldn't expect his party's tone moving forward to be based on the reality either. It's become amply clear that Steele's version of the truth need bear no resemblance to the actual truth.

To Steele's and his colleagues, it's unimportant that the health care bill on the table will merely increase choice by adding a supplementary option. That doesn't impact their allegations that Democrats want to limit choice and take over health care.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media is doing its part to undermine health reform. They need catchy headlines, and Obama struggling is unique and interesting -- Obama succeeding is stale. But he and the Democratic leadership are succeeding, and the country is highly supportive of their ideas.

The approach that Steele and his Republican colleagues have adopted is to relentlessly enunciate a few key buzzwords and hope the effort falls through the cracks -- use idioms like "government takeover," "socialism," "rationing," and "Europe," to try and scare people. It sounds comical, but only until you realize it has worked like a charm in the past.

The real -- but largely unnoticed -- reason Republicans oppose a public option gets to the core of their survival. A functioning government-run program would disrupt their ideological narrative -- that government is incompetent and incapable of effectively serving its constituents. Any victory for Democrats won't play well for them, but this issue is unique as it could deliver a fatal blow to their core philosophy.

And that's the subtext of these desperate ploys by Steele and his cohorts. In order to remain politically relevant, Republicans need the country to believe government has to be inefficient, backward and corrupt. That's why they opposed Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and now the public option -- because these are public programs that benefit the country. Republicans know that the moment Americans start to see that public policy can actually be a way of improving people's lives, they will face their own Waterloo.

Follow Sahil Kapur on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sahil_Kapur

Comments

[RyanCSmith]

This is VERY spot-on, between the recent private sector fuckups on Wall Street if the Dems deliver a government program that helps the vast majority of the population and actually works it would be a combination of events that would seriously erode the idea that government can't do anything right.

[WRP64]

"Also telling was his declaration this week that the moral question of tens of millions uninsured is not a concern for politicians, but for pastors"

It would appear that Michael Steele has no awareness whatsoever of the existence of ETHICISTS.

Actually, this would explain quite a lot about the current state of the republican party.

[Nofuzzydreams]

But but Socially Security, Medicare and Medicaid are all headed for bankruptcy. Social Security taxes we pay have not been set aside but spent by congress on other things. The rich-tax that is in the plan to fund the public option and to cover the uninsured will also go to the general fund and will not be specifically set aside. So a few years from now, it will also run out of money and more taxes have to be raised to fund it. Bottom line, I am not opposed to taxes on the rich if the money is specifically set aside for the cause. But the money will be spent elsewhere and the cause have to be funded by either more taxes or higher deficits, i.e., the California syndrome!

[WRP64]

Let;s see, congress has borrow from the Medicare and SS surplus fund (responsibly built up to deal with the oncoming demographic glut of aging boomers). Of course a balanced budget would be nice, but I don't suppose this is any worse than selling Tbills to China. In any case, the fact that we are in debt to the Medicare and SS funds hardly means they are headed for bankruptcy. It just means we will have to pay that debt to keep the programs solvent. By your reasoning, I'm headed towards bankruptcy because my accounts will eventually hit zero if my employer doesn't follow through on her obligation to issue a paycheck. Are we all headed for bankruptcy) (unless we work for Goldman Sachsof course)

[skinsqb17]

. Our insurance carrier is making decisions on what drugs they will pay for each day. My doctor writes a prescription, the insurance company won't pay and suggests another drug. When I tell them I can't take the replacement because of the side effects, it's just too bad. My out of pocket co-pays for the combination of drugs I take for asthma has increased by $2500 in the last two and one half years. I've started getting one prescription from a Canadian pharmacy because the insurance company won't pay it. The Canadian pharmacy charges $48 for 96 tablets. Drug store prices here in Northern Va for the same drug $120 for 30. Insurance company "associates" making medical decision rather than the doctor has to stop.

[WinterParkMom]

The basis for any public option should be:
Coverage for EVERYONE who applies
Structured premium payments of not more than 100 per individual, 300 per family
Deductibles capped at $2000 and based on income (means testing every year like the va)
No mandates forcing people to purchase insurance (this is a windfall for private carriers)
No triggers (this is also a windfall to private carriers)
No subsidies to private insurance carriers
No taxes on employer provided benefits
If someone has private insurance and wants the public option, they can drop private with no problem and be covered immediately under public.
No mandates on employers to buy into the public option to cover employees. Has to be free choice.
Everyone with coverage gets treated for new or pre-existing conditions.
Fairly negotiated reimbursement to private pracitce, specialty doctors and hospitals
Fairly negotiated prices for medications, even on name brand stuff which has no generic equivalent.
AND IT HAS TO BE EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. Within 1 month of the above bill passing, Americans must be able to start buying in and using it.
See my next post on funding

[WinterParkMom]

47 million un insured
20 million under insured
Subtract 10 million poor/indig­ent/mental­ly ill, etc, who are uninsured and will have to get free care = 37 mill un-insured who can pay.
18.5 million can pay $50/mo = 925,000,000
18.5 mill can pay $100 = $1,850,000,000
20 mill under insured will switch and can pay $100 = 2,000,000,000
That is a grand total of $4,775,000,000
That is FOUR BILLION, SEVEN HUNDRED SEVENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS IN PREMIUM PAYMENTS PER MONTH. FIFTY SEVEN BILLION THREE HUNDRED THIRTY MILLION PER YEAR IN PREMIUMS FOR ONE SET OF PEOPLE.
That does'nt count the millions who'll switch from private companies if they can pay $100 or 200 per month and have their entire family covered even with pre-existing conditions. Repeal bush tax cuts asap another 700 billion.
After thinking about it more, institute a 1 penny federal sales tax on EVERY item. I can hear the opponents shouting about making the poor poorer, but my statement is 1 cent on each item NOT on every dollar or hundred dollars. From candy bars tto big screen tv's to your house. 1 cent on everything. If your grocery bill was $100. for 53 items, your bill would be $100.53. That's not putting people in the poorhouse especially when we've been dealing with price increases. Also, if you're saving 300-500 per month on insurance, you have that money to spend and put back in the economy, save, or invest.

[WinterParkMom]

Steele and the hypocriticans and the blue cross dems will be beat down or drummed out of office over this issue. Why should we wait? We've been waiting for 30 years and alot of these people have been in office for 10-20 years. They've been too busy pandering to the lobbyists lining their pockets to actually sit down and work on legislation that benefits the people they represent.

So no....no waiting, we want it and we want it now and we want a strong public option.
See my next posts

[jbusch8]

I still don't understand what they mean when they say "we don't want to rush this, lets wait...."

Thats like the commercial where millions upon millions of dollars fall out of the sky, and the couple looks at eachother and one says "should we go after it?".. the other says, "we should wait.. maybe there will be more!" and before you know it, its all gone.

The democrats have 60 in the senate and a nearly 3-1 majority in the house, plus they have the presidency­....WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?!?!?!?!?!?!

[JanSP1971]

Michael Steele is a joke and everone knows it. He sold his soul to the republican party and they need him so there is someone besides a white face talking for their party.
MIchael Steele how do you sleep at night?

[theclosetconservative2]

I've had my own issues with Michael Steele but JanSP1971's attack is unwarranted. Sold his soul to the Republican party. I wonder of she was in favor of the way Democrats in Maryland treated him when he ran for the Paul Sarbanes Senate seat. They threw Oreo cookies at him. http://theclosetconservative.com

[WinterParkMom]

He probably needed it.

[Bernique]

closet -- you just made that up.

[Gunga-Din]

Eventually. a good move mr.Steele

[CharmCity]

WHEN the reform for Healthcare passes, I will not feel sorry for the Repugs and Michael Steele's alike who tried to torpedo the cause. Tick, Tock, Republican­s... walk deeper into the wilderness.
There is no doubt we need reform. Saying otherwise is silly. Saying we need more time is foolish. Saying it will cost too much is a LIE. The old tricks of Name calling and fear-mongering is gone.

[Economike]

The party that time forgot.

[Mover]

I will have to agree with Steele on this one. What I see from the congress' health care reform plan is a government takeover of the insurance business. Consider Hawaii who created a "public plan". Tens of thousands of Hawaiians moved to the public plan from their private insurer. The programs lasted 7 months before they repealed it due to budget over-runs and the eminent killing off of private insurers.

No one can compete with the federal government. The government can print its own money. The consequences of printing hope dollars are the devaluation of the dollar, higher prices for everything you need or want, and it is particularly hard on the poor. Remember rich people and poor people pay the same price for milk and bread.

If the is worth less who will lose?

Oh, and will your congressperson take the government plan? (ANS: no)

[Lady Rose]

Good to know that you agree with Steele and are commenting on a bill you haven't read (just like he didn't read it but is commenting on it)

Congress already has health insurance that provided by the public (our taxes) - no need for them to change - it's about time the public has a not-for-profit health care option.

So you agree with Steele and you both don't care about the millions who are sick and dying without insurance - very compassionate of you. I hope you never lose your job or whatever your source of health care is. I hope the insurance you have been paying for never decides to toss you to the curb if you do get sick.

Even though we disagree - I do have compassion for you - because with insurance you are vulnerable - as soon as you get seriously ill your beloved for profit insurance company will no longer insure you.

Good to know you want to keep on paying all those expenses for the uninsured, but secretly and not out in the open by way of higher premiums and your taxes that go towards subsidizes for profit health care -- I prefer reforming the system to use my tax dollars for better health care, preventive health care, and know what it is costing up front.

Wishing you a healthy and wonderful life free from worry of ever getting sick or losing your job and benefits, may the light of compassion shine on

[Mover]

Congress' health insurance is your tax dollars buying them insurance from a private insurance companies. It has no relation to any "public option".

Currently there is no government insurance plan other than Medicare, Medicaid (and its derivatives) and the military healthcare system. And, the president's plan is to decimate Medicare and Medicaid (-$509B).

There is no one in this country who is sick and dying because they do not have insurance. Everyone gets free emergency healthcare in the USA. Most get medicaid, SCHIP or some other inflationary government program. Some, who are not afraid, can get help from churches.

Real compassion is helping others to help themselves. There is nothing in the current healthcare plan offered by the government that helps anyone to help themselves, with the exception of politicians helping themselves.

It is very poor form to boast of things that you have no clue about (i.e., my healthcare situation). Not to mention displaying a lack of compassionate.

FYI: The reason healthcare and healthcare insurance costs so much is directly related to government interference.

It seems you must believe that the Hawaii story is not true. All I can say is: Look it up. While you're at look at TennCare.

FYI: I show my compassion by voluntarily giving money to organizations that directly interact with the needy, whether it's food shelter or healthcare. Not by having it forcibly removed from my family so some half-wit politician can increase his/her power.

[dfranz]

The point is that insurance companies should not be in the middle of primary care and the costs of health care have reached the point of breaking average Americans. I was recently laid off due to the economy. My wife has a chronic disorder which requires monitoring by a doctor. Our Cobra payment equals 2 weeks of my unemployment. If we let the insurance drop she will never be able to have her condition insured because it will be a pre-existing condition. Why do we need insurance companies at all? Why should they be making the kinds of profits they are while I am literally sacrificing to make payments to them. Shortly before I was laid off my company changed insurance companies because there had been a 20% increase in premiums. My personal doctor isn't a prefered provider so now I have the option of staying with him at my own cost or find a new doctor.

Yeah, I'm with the Republicans, we have a WONDERFUL system why change a good thing?

[vippy]

Only people walking in your shoes will be for healthcare. The rest listen to FOX NEWS
and to the 1.5 million dollars spent by the Healthcare Insurers that Obama's plan should be ousted. People don't crow about the 2 wars we fight and can't afford but they shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to their healthcare. yeah, they don't get sick I know!

[emiliob6]

Michael Steele is a sleazeball, when he was running for Governor he tried to deceived the voters by implying that he was a Democrat, he had bumper stickers that read STEELE DEMOCRAT, between Steele and that other confused pub Ron Christie they are in a tight race on who has the most crap dripping from their lying mouth.

[Nofuzzydreams]

You are a racist insulting a black man.

[TruthnPolitics]

Good for Michael Steele. Obama's health care should be killed. Even Obama doesn't know what's in the bill as he had to admit. Information so far by those who have read the changing Bill is that it is BAD. We are talking about rationed health care, and at a cost higher than current health plans. We don't need higher taxes at this moment. It will cost thousands in taxes for each individual to just pay on the deficit Obama has created.
http://www.stop-obama.info/barack_obama_028.htm

[Economike]

Obama created?

[masanf]

It is absolutely hilarious that you people act like Republican opposition to the president's health care bill, you know the bill that the Mayo Clinic called horrible and the CBO said would both increase the cost of health care and harm the economy, is some sort of scandal. Of course they oppose it, just like the Democrats opposed a whole lot of what Bush wanted to do, such as reform Social Security.
The people on this site USED to love citing polls. Well, several polls have recently come out indicating a majority of Americans are opposed to the president's plan. Are you going to insult these Americans too?

[Bernique]

masanf -- polls that oppose the president's plan? Rasmussen (a right wing pollster)? please cite the others (if any)

[pfrogger]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rescind17-2009jun17,0,3508020,full.story

my favorite standardized insurance policy is rescission (story linked above). basically you regularly pay premiums for years. at some point a serious medical condition may happen. the insurance company realizes that the illness will cost so much to them, that it's not profit effective to keep you. so they dump you. IMMEDIATELY! they don't have a pay a penny for your care after that. NOTHING! And it's legal. So some politicians had some healthcare CEOs up to Congress for a hearing. And they asked these CEOs if they could, please, pretty please, limit this practice. The CEOs said NO. ANd what did Congress do? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! This practice is standardized for 1000+ illnesses.

Isn't this just criminal? No, it's perfectly legal, and actively encouraged by all the insurers.
won't the politicians stop them? they'll ask politely, and when told no, they'll tuck their tails between their legs and scurry away.

[Mover]

Are you saying that Democrats, who have been in control of congress, the law body of the USA, for over half a century (with 2 breaks totaling 9 years, with at least 5 Democrat presidents, and that practice is legal???

I think I would give up on them as the people that look out for the little guy and hire some folks who give a care. Most Republicans are guilty as well.

The problem is the insurers buy lobbyists & congresspersons; and we can't. Voters assume that congresspersons are our lobbyists. Face fatcs: You don't earn enough to buy a congressperson.