# Obama at House Republican Retreat, Q&A **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 30, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004 "2010-01-30T06:14:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/41 "2010-01-30T19:05:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > How about the first legislation that would actually do anything about abortion in the thirty years that it’s been a political issue? Last I checked, that was the single issue that decided a fair chunk of the Republican base, and even a bill with that in it can’t get through, due to Republican obstructionism. Damn it, I puked. Was hoping to avoid that. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/42 "2010-01-30T19:27:14Z")
Perhaps the best naturalistic assessment of the event was the fact that Fox News cut away from the Q & A 20 minutes before it finished, carping that Obama was “lecturing” too much. Schooling them, in other words. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/43 "2010-01-30T19:33:19Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Leaving out one of the base’s wet dream portions of the bill because there wasn’t even enough Democratic support for it is not the same as actually including a Republican proposal. The base’s wet dream was single-payer. Public option WAS the compromise. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/44 "2010-01-30T19:53:50Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Yup-“microphone” and “teleprompter” evoke the same image and are used interchangeably _all_ the time. > There were damn good reasons to put it out for the public: > > 1. It if it _isn’t_ put out for the public, the opposing party can make any claim they want about how it went down. If it wasn’t public, it never would have “gone down”. This wasn’t a planning meeting. Nothing was hammered out. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > 1. Rumors of compromise and capitulation will ensue without a public record. A public record of what, a room full of politicians mugging for a camera? > [@Czarcasm](#): > > 1. It’s a show of strength when the country needs a strong leader. I don’t know about a show strength but I agree the country needs a strong leader. Presidents represent the people and not just one party. In a nation evenly divided by 2 parties there is a need for someone to steer legislation down a common track. This media event was no different than what has now become a 2-party State of the Union Address. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/45 "2010-01-30T21:05:17Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > If it wasn’t public, it never would have “gone down”. Not true. The House Republicans invited Obama to the discussion before anyone had ever discussed the possibility of cameras. ---
**Author:** ![Cort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/77aa72/32.png) [@Cort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cort)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/46 "2010-01-30T21:20:51Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Which material Republican values or ideas or proposals were incorporated into either the House or Senate Bill? Something significant with regard to the structure of the changes, in the prongs of the overall strategy to be employed once this miraculous Bill was passed, that is. What ideas again? I forget. (If somebody brings up the abortion red herrings, I’ll puke.) Here is a short, incomplete list of ideas proposed by Republicans which were eventually incorporated into the House and/or Senate bills: 1. Create a high risk pool for uninsured folks with pre-existing conditions. 2. Allowing insurance companies to sell coverage across state lines to add choice and competition and bring down costs for consumers. 3. Creating pools where self-employed and small businesses could buy insurance. 4. Provide insurance to children or allow children to remain covered on their parents policies until they’re 25 or 26. 5. Creating an affordable catastrophic insurance option for young people. ---
**Author:** ![blinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/43a26b/32.png) [@blinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkie)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/47 "2010-01-30T21:49:35Z")
Glad you posted this. I tried watching it of Fox but they impartially stopped showing it half way through. And Drudge pretended it never happened. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/48 "2010-01-30T21:58:48Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > The base’s wet dream was single-payer. Public option WAS the compromise. And very, very popular it was with the public and Republicans alike. Solomon-like, that compromise was. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/49 "2010-01-30T22:01:11Z")
> [@Cort](#): > > Here is a short, incomplete list of ideas proposed by Republicans which were eventually incorporated into the House and/or Senate bills: > > 1. Create a high risk pool for uninsured folks with pre-existing conditions. > > 2. Allowing insurance companies to sell coverage across state lines to add choice and competition and bring down costs for consumers. > > 3. Creating pools where self-employed and small businesses could buy insurance. > > 4. Provide insurance to children or allow children to remain covered on their parents policies until they’re 25 or 26. > > 5. Creating an affordable catastrophic insurance option for young people. Well, that’s good enough for me. They can add the single payer option back in if we get this, as far as I’m concerned. This makes up for the $871B in extra expense. It’s all good now. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/50 "2010-01-30T22:06:35Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > And very, very popular it was with the public and Republicans alike. Solomon-like, that compromise was. Fuck the Republicans. And fuck the Conservadems in the Senate. With 60 Democrats, we should have been able to at least push a public option bill past filibuster. Instead we got the corporate-owned Democrats working with the goddamn Republican losers to block what was probably a bill that would have helped more people directly than anything Congress has done in the last thirty years. If the Democrats actually had some party discipline, there wouldn’t have been a single Dem joining the filibuster. Even if the Senate Dems were against public option, they should have joined with the caucus on procedural votes. They can vote against it in the real vote, fine…we had enough Dems that would have voted for it without them to make 51. As far as actual Senate procedure goes, Republicans are a non-entity. Regardless of how much credit they want to steal, regardless of how much the Democrats want to paint the Republicans as the problem, they (prior to Brown’s election, anyway) really didn’t mean shit for Senate business. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/51 "2010-01-30T22:11:37Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Fuck the Republicans. Yes, this is what I mentioned earlier, the open-tent, non-partisan welcome that the Republicans enjoyed. Nicely summarized. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/52 "2010-01-30T22:27:17Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > And very, very popular it was with the public and Republicans alike. Solomon-like, that compromise was. This doesn’t count, that doesn’t count. The playbook says to shoot down every idea that comes your way and accuse the other side of obstructing. You have learned it well. How 'bout you step up. You say the Democrats wouldn’t compromise by including Republican ideas in the health care bill. What ideas? Tell us some that were offered and not included. > [@Stratocaster](#): > > Yes, this is what I mentioned earlier, the open-tent, non-partisan welcome that the Republicans enjoyed. Nicely summarized. Nice selective quoting on your part, there. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/53 "2010-01-30T22:32:47Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > This doesn’t count, that doesn’t count. The playbook says to shoot down every idea that comes your way and accuse the other side of obstructing. You have learned it well. Talk about “talking point” responses. How’s about this: I reject any proposal that will add almost a trillion dollars in expenses with no honest, realistic way of offsetting them. Any other “concession” is meaningless window dressing. How’s that? > [@](#): > > Nice selective quoting on your part, there. Oh, bullshit. Read the whole fucking post. It was a microcosm of what I already asserted, that the Dems had 60 in the majority, so who needed the evil old Republicans. What exactly did you think his point was? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/54 "2010-01-30T22:41:54Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Talk about “talking point” responses. How’s about this: I reject any proposal that will add almost a trillion dollars in expenses with no honest, realistic way of offsetting them. Any other “concession” is meaningless window dressing. How’s that? Swing and a miss! We’re looking for Republican ideas that were offered for the health care bill, but dismissed by Democrats. The count is 0 and 1. Here comes the windup, the pitch… > [@](#): > > Oh, bullshit. Read the whole fucking post. As posted by **jayjay** : > [@](#): > > Fuck the Republicans. And fuck the Conservadems in the Senate. As quoted by **Stratocaster** : > [@](#): > > Fuck the Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/55 "2010-01-30T22:51:25Z")
You’d like to take these things as a given, but it’s just refreshing to have someone in charge who (a) has the ability to understand the issues (b) can be bothered to understand the issues, and © speaks coherently in recognizable sentences. Fwiw, I can’t see any ideology in what he says, he’s like a modern European leader in that sense i.e. largely a business manager. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/56 "2010-01-30T22:55:17Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Swing and a miss! > > We’re looking for Republican ideas that were offered for the health care bill, but dismissed by Democrats. The count is 0 and 1. Here comes the windup, the pitch… Another non sequitur. Nice going. You keep enthusiastically missing the point, which is that your premise is false. If you proceed from the premise, “Since we all agree that health care coverage should be augmented by the government, and since we all agree that it needs significant expansion driven by government intervention, and since this can be done in a cost-effective way–let’s work out the details,” you might have a point. However, the opposition, most anyway (and, as it happens, me) reject the very premise. What proposals do you think are possible from a group that believes that this is only going to be a God-awful boondoggle? None, the Dems know it, and that’s why they are largely uninterested in gaining Republican support, at least while they had a super majority. Fuck the Republicans indeed. And, by the way, the point regarding the public option was that this abortion of an idea died because it couldn’t even get enough Dem support. It died because it was and is a politically toxic abomination. But if you or anyone sleeps easier thinking of it as a concession to your Republican pals in Congress, feel free. And talk about selective quoting. jayjay’s point, to those who actually read the whole post, was the Dems could have and should have bulled this through without Republican support. Try reading it again… > [@](#): > > With 60 Democrats, we should have been able to at least push a public option bill past filibuster. Instead we got the corporate-owned Democrats working with the goddamn Republican losers to block what was probably a bill that would have helped more people directly than anything Congress has done in the last thirty years. > > If the Democrats actually had some party discipline, there wouldn’t have been a single Dem joining the filibuster. Even if the Senate Dems were against public option, they should have joined with the caucus on procedural votes. …maybe this time it will stick. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/57 "2010-01-30T23:11:10Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Which material Republican values or ideas or proposals were incorporated into either the House or Senate Bill? This is what **Cort** was responding to. You can retract it now, along with your misplaced sarcasm, if you wish to be honest. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/58 "2010-01-30T23:16:51Z")
> [@Digital\_Stimulus](#): > > This is what **Cort** was responding to. You can retract it now, along with your misplaced sarcasm, if you wish to be honest. Those were nothings in the grand scheme of the bill, whether or not they were concessions to Republican (I don’t know that they were). More importantly, the major Republican objections were ignored. But I bet you already get that and just like putting on your sanctimonious face so you can cluck your tongue at all us obstructionists. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/59 "2010-01-30T23:31:33Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Those were nothings in the grand scheme of the bill, whether or not they were concessions to Republican (I don’t know that they were). More importantly, the major Republican objections were ignored. But I bet you already get that and just like putting on your sanctimonious face so you can cluck your tongue at all us obstructionists. The fact is that you made a specific claim. One that was rebutted, which you then responded to with sarcasm. That’s all I pointed out. But you can continue to move the goalposts as you wish. **cluck, cluck, cluck** ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/60 "2010-01-30T23:40:10Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > The parties have differing objectives, so it’s disingenuous to use the Dem’s specific objectives as the starting point. Additionally, the Dem’s plan will drive down costs only if one believes the accounting gimmicks and Medicare cuts (which have not been voted in for the past seven years) which will offset the nearly $900B cost. We have zero reason to believe these offsets will materialize. They never have. It is enormous dishonesty for them to pretend this is the time they really mean it. > > The Dem plan is an insurance reform plan; the actual medical cost reduction portions are magical speculation. Which brings me back to the same point. The Dems want expanded coverage, and pretend that this can be done without adding expense. The Republicans won’t join in that pretense, so they dismiss the objective as unachievable. With that as a given, what compromise is possible? Each side points to the other as obstructionist and delusional. Repeat ad infinitum. Medicare cuts? It is obvious you and MaGIVER did not watch the discussion. He had no teleprompter. He fielded all questions. When they were done a couple repubs said they wish it had not been filmed. They knew who the adult was in that room. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004.md?page=4)