# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![sleeping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@sleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/81 "2010-01-31T03:40:23Z")
I was disappointed with Obama’s SOTU address, but this really cheered me! Confrontation makes it difficult for Pubs to keep lying and obfuscating. He should do this more often. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/82 "2010-01-31T04:03:27Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > The Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act creating Medicare Part D prescription drug benefits was passed in 2003 under Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress and a Republican president. So what you are saying is that the Democrats did not block healthcare reforms that were proposed by the other party. Makes them look like bi-partisan to me. It’s a shame the Republican think playing politics is more important than governing now that they are in the minority. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/83 "2010-01-31T04:06:12Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > **DanBlather** said they didn’t ‘do a fucking thing to address healthcare’ and he was completely wrong. They passed a massive majorly flawed entitlement program. Well if it’s majorly flawed then t did not address the healthcare problem; it made it worse. Nice job Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/84 "2010-01-31T04:23:38Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > The opposition is not to any increase, it’s to an unsustainable, dangerously large increase. The opposition is to an enormous increase in government. It is not trivial, it just isn’t. Do you think that the federal government should have significantly less or even no involvement in healthcare? Is it your position that the feds should drastically cut their current healthcare outlays? Do you think it a good idea if the feds were to eliminate one or more of their current healthcare programs, since that could potentially save taxpayers 100s of billions if not a trillion or more dollars? Which program would you like to see cut? How about VA medical benefits? How about the military’s TriCare coverage? Maybe Medicaid? Perhaps Medicare would be more to your liking? Now, I know that _you_ know that this a bit of a set-up, but only just a bit of one. You know that it would not be politically possible–even for the GOP–to eliminate Medicare or any of the other programs. I understand that. But if your concern is really about how much a serious overhaul of U.S. healthcare would cost then shouldn’t you support eliminating one or more of the above programs? Think of how much we could lower our deficit if we had the balls to cut that stuff! If your party is going to walk the budget-hawk walk (and not just talk), they should be proposing elimination of the costly, wasteful public healthcare “giveaway” programs that already exist. If it’s good enough for your grandma, your buddy Tyrone in the Army mess-cleaning school, or your brother Darrell who’s getting Medicaid because of his trumped-up Oxycontin-addiction-based disability… then it’s good enough for me and every other American who can’t afford even basic healthcare coverage right now. So which way would you have it? Care for all? Care for no one? Or care only for whatever special-interest groups you happen to think deserve it? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/85 "2010-01-31T04:28:25Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Not true. The House Republicans invited Obama to the discussion before anyone had ever discussed the possibility of cameras. what you saw on TV was for your benefit. Nothing was gained from the event. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/86 "2010-01-31T04:50:22Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Nothing was gained from the event. Not so; anything that makes Congressional Republicans look weak and petulent can’t be all bad. ---
**Author:** ![dukette71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@dukette71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dukette71)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/87 "2010-01-31T05:35:56Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > what you saw on TV was for your benefit. Nothing was gained from the event. It definitely didn’t help the Republicans much. So have you actually watched it yet? ---
**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 31, 2010, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/88 "2010-01-31T06:43:48Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > **DanBlather** said they didn’t ‘do a fucking thing to address healthcare’ and he was completely wrong. They passed a massive majorly flawed entitlement program. Yes, I know. I was pointing out that the Republican demand that the health care bill be deficit neutral was an idea that they felt free to disregard only a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/89 "2010-01-31T06:51:35Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > what you saw on TV was for your benefit. Nothing was gained from the event. Which parts of what you watched did you find interesting, and did the President say anything you might agree with? ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/90 "2010-01-31T06:58:08Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Give politicians a TV camera and you feed their ego for a day, > Teach them to use a teleprompter and you feed their ego’s for a lifetime. This is gold. The Republicans seem to actually believe their own talking points and this time it bit them in the ass. > [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Well, if you reject every Republican idea, that’s not bipartisanship either. Saying you’re “open to Republican ideas that work” doesn’t make you bipartisan if you then reject every Republican idea as unworkable. But they generally are unworkable. Republicans stopped caring about actual governance a while ago. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/91 "2010-01-31T07:09:13Z")
Seems to me from watching it is that the Republicans felt strong after the MA win, and thought they could invite Obama to the meeting, blast him with election year platitudes and speeches, make him look bad, and win win win. But they didn’t take into consideration that Law Professors can easily shoot down platitudes and electioneering. The really sad thing about this is that here was a chance to truly have an honest and open debate about what is going on in this country. I think if the Republicans at the meeting had actually brought up points of possible compromise and showed that they were willing to work with the president, they would have won the day. Instead, they proved to the world that they consider the only compromise worth having is the one that gives them everything they want. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/92 "2010-01-31T07:54:41Z")
I liked Seth Meyer’s line on SNL tonight that thinking they could take down Obama by inviting him into a war of words was like thinking they could beat Aquaman by getting him into the water. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/93 "2010-01-31T08:43:21Z")
Not very kind to Obama, comparing him to Aquaman. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/94 "2010-01-31T08:58:21Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Which parts of what you watched did you find interesting, and did the President say anything you might agree with? that he would consider, maybe, possibly across-the-board tax cuts, a better handle on earmarks, more transparency in general. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/95 "2010-01-31T11:30:16Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > The Repubs passed out a booklet at the conference and declared it a health care proposal. Take the crap out and it distilled down to about 6 pages. Obama held it up and told them he read it . It was talking points with no programs and no implementation . > They should have just passed out a one pager with NO in big block letters. As Colbert described it on Thursday night, the proposal mentioned in the SotU response is 19 pages long. Roughly paraphrasing: The first page is a cover page, so that doesn’t count. Neither does the table of contents, the last blank page, and the half that is the Democrats plan. So that leaves six pages with the kind of margins normally reserved for eight-grade term papers. ---
**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 31, 2010, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/96 "2010-01-31T11:40:40Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > I think I see your point now. The Republicans do not want large increases of government spending, so in order for the Democrats to claim a bipartisan effort, they would have to significantly reduce spending in this bill. The Democrats, however, do not believe that you can improve health care with the massive spending increase so no compromise with the Republicans is possible. > > Apparently saying that you are “open to Republican ideas that work” is not enough to earn you bipartisan credit. Under your way of thinking it seems like you have to be open to Republican ideas regardless of whether you believe they work or not in order to claim you are being bipartisan. That seems like a sick and twisted version of bipartisanship that no one should aspire too. I think we’re in agreement on the impasse (though probably not on much else ;)). The objective that the Dems have set, which is to significantly expand coverage, with the assumption that this can be done in a cost-effective manner, is not an objective/premise shared by the Republicans. Consequently, anything they offer will be “unworkable,” relative to that premise–the premise the Republicans do not share. The Republican proposals will seem small, inadequate, off the mark, missing the point from the Dem perspective. From the Republican perspective, the “smallness” is exactly the point–they believe (as I do) that the offsets for this program are an illusion (I believe a dishonest one, frankly) and however much we’d all like everyone to have all kinds of coverage, we can’t go into massive debt to do it. So, their major objections and proposals are effectively ignored. Including any individual item that is a Republican “idea” completely misses the point if it’s tacked onto a bill like this–it is “immaterial.” It’s moving deck chairs around on the Titanic. It is a dismissal of the real Republican objectives and concerns. It accepts their ideas in no material or meaningful way. And, again, why would the Dems do otherwise if they believe the angels are on their side and the Republicans are just wrong? Just enough with the “get off the sidelines” jive, when what they mean in reality is, “no way in hell we’re changing this bill in any way that will remotely satisfy you, tough shit.” Of course, Massachusetts changed all that. Dems screwed the pooch there and for their hope for health care. ---
**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 31, 2010, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/97 "2010-01-31T11:43:04Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > So which way would you have it? Care for all? Care for no one? Or care only for whatever special-interest groups you happen to think deserve it? Well, I don’t think it’s all or nothing, and I accept the fact that the ship has sailed on certain programs. They exist and they won’t be eliminated. Government never gets smaller. But that does not, for me, lead to a conclusion that we ought to do more, just by definition. ---
**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 31, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/98 "2010-01-31T13:43:54Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > If the GOP said they were willing to go for the Democrat plan (the _real_ one including the public option and a ban on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions) as long as the Dems admitted that the plan couldn’t be paid for without raising taxes, then would the GOP go for it? Seems like a fair compromise to me. It would definitely seem more logical, but no, it would not seem like a compromise to me. Nor do I think the Dems will offer it up, since it would be political suicide. Talk about a blood bath in November. > [@](#): > > Write your GOP congressperson and suggest this compromise. Let’s get going on this! No, you first. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/99 "2010-01-31T15:03:18Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > The Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act creating Medicare Part D prescription drug benefits was passed in 2003 under Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress and a Republican president. And was done so with pure deficit spending. Yet the major objection to current HCR from the republicans is that it would increase the deficit. So to sumerize: Deficit spending to help Americans is a great thing when the republicans can take credit for it. Deficit spending to help Americans when the the democrats could take credit for it is SOCIALISM! And deficit spending to kill brown people who don’t think much of Jeebus is always a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004/100 "2010-01-31T15:32:52Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > The objective that the Dems have set, which is to significantly expand coverage, with the assumption that this can be done in a cost-effective manner, is not an objective/premise shared by the Republicans. I agree that the Republican’s objective is not to expand coverage. I wish they would say that instead of making up bullshit about death panels and socialism. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-at-house-republican-retreat-q-a/527004.md?page=6)