"it's just not that easy."

Why not?

"Am I missing something here? -- Steele"

Affirmative. In the immortal words of Dan Quayle -- who Steele so often brings to mind -- "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind..."

Ah, it was Michael Steele who wrote the words to "Can't the cowmen and the farmers just be friends?"

Ha! at his huh...

Nice post.
Once again: You got me laughing at Steele, not with him.

The tie-back to St. John the Apoplectic is just icing on the comedic cake.
Though, I believe McCain's technique is to hold his breath until he gets his way...

so the republicans bring a kind of ayatollah-style form of governance to the table? oh, so that's it.

well, now that we know that, we can see how to "do the deal" with them in Congress -- which has been a bit of a problem...

like, fer instance, last week's military funding bill... where almost all of them voted agst it (not, by the way showing any support for our military in harm's way, tsk tsk tsk).

so to "do the deal" we -- what? -- always do what the republicans want or they'll cry like babies (mainly because they don't have a Basiji to beat shit outta the Dems)?

okay, clearer now... thanks steele...

Nancy Reagan to the heroin addicts, "Just say no".

"If it's an access question, people don't have access to health care, then figure out who they are, and give them access!"

This is precisely correct. The problem is that Steele and his party refuse to follow this train of thought through to the next step. They cannot answer the question of HOW to give the uninsured access.

The easy and obvious answer is single payer. But when your response to the very concept is to hold your breath until you turn blue, you're left with what the Republicans currently have on offer: A prolonged blank stare.

My pie-in-the-sky solution to health care: force every Senator and Representative who has taken more than $10k in contributions from the insurance or drug industries to recuse themselves from the process, then let the couple dozen who remain agree and vote on the plan they can come up with.

I realize it's nice to think well-intentioned people can sit down in a room and resolve complex issues, but if policymakers could snap their fingers and fix historic challenges, they would.

That's not really what they're saying, though; they're saying that a tough guy (read: Republican) needs to crack heads until others behave. It's always, always about dominance with these guys.

So, if they just need access, give them access, eh? One of the new attacks from the right is the lack of health providers, so, if you add many to the roles, they will overwhelm the providers. Parking lots will overflow, massive waits for regulars, etc. Geez, I wonder why there is a lack of providers. Now, that powerful union named the AMA could not be possibly at fault, could it? Joe Conanson has written a powerful article about the history of the AMA derailing any universal and public option plan since the days of Truman. They have instrumental with linking supporters of such a system to the isms, communist and socialist, alike. Even after LBJ broke their power with Medicare, H. L. Hunt paid a flunky right wing doctor to launch a powerful attack against Medicare by the AMA. The AMA has been very much behind limiting the medical schools from teaching more students (Must keep up that Quality Control) and have fought against any form of alternative medicine. So, the right wing, now says, don't add to the roles because we just don't have enough doctors.

Yep, for the dullard Steele, it's as easy as, "Access, baby, access!"

“Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers.� HL Mencken

My pie-in-the-sky solution to health care: force every Senator and Representative who has taken more than $10k in contributions from the insurance or drug industries to recuse themselves from the process...

Why, oh why is this not Conflict of Interest? In a court of law, they'd be off the case in a gavelwhack...

I realize it's nice to think well-intentioned people can sit down in a room and resolve complex issues...

It is nice to think that, but that's not what Steele and McCain are talking about. What they mean is, "we'
ll sit down at a table, then you'll do what we tell you". The right wing is always right, about everything, and "negotiation" is not in their lexicon.

Apropos John McCain and his political and strategic prowess: During the presidential campaign he claimed to have a failsafe method to get Bin Laden, which he wasn't going to divulge at the time in order not to warn that fellow in the cave, but which he would implement immediately upon being inaugurated as president.

Now that this election thing unfortunately didn't quite pan out for him as planned, wouldn't it be his patriotic duty to let President Obama in on his secret?

No wonder these guys eschew negotiation. Someone should open a school for special needs negotiators.

It's woth noting (if not already done) that the reason why we cannot get reasonable people around a table and address serious issues is that the Republican Party is dedicated to preventing any issues from being resolved other than through tax cuts or bombing.

theAmericanist: "Why not?"

Uh, if you've been paying attention at all throughout your life, then you already know the answer to that. People have different agendas and different points of view, and reconciling them is almost always a huge challenge.

And that's just when dealing with people who are acting in good faith. Add to that the situation we have now, where one side is quite blatantly lying, poisoning the well, and otherwise purposefully obstructing any progress, and an already difficult challenge becomes an impossible one.

"Do the deal" -- Do I get to pick the deal that we're doing? :-) Universal health care, do the deal!

They just like knocking heads -- or at least the idea of knocking heads. Whatever the issue, that's the solution.

Shade Tail doesn't quite GET the question, much less answer it: the real answer is that far more participants benefit from perpetuating any political problem than benefit from solving it.

So, no, it's not "People have different agendas and different points of view, and reconciling them is almost always a huge challenge."

That's bullshit.

A certain faction in any political dispute of consequence in a democracy isn't to be "reconciled", it's to be DEFEATED.

To do that generally requires two things: a compromise, then a tough vote.

Most of you guys don't like either, so you avoid 'em like the plague. (You're not alone, cuz the other side generally does the same thing.)

But to pretend that you won't do something because it's difficult, when the fact is you don't want to do it, is serious hypocrisy.

It's not complicated: to isolate and defeat the faction(s) that can't be reconciled, requires compromise to get a majority, then to force a tough vote.

All this talk of head-knocking makes me think of how Moe used to keep Larry and Curly in line. Somehow, the image seems especially apropos with this bunch....

They're confused, because it really is just that easy with republicans. Just sit them down and get Daddy Limbaugh to yell at them a little harder. Then make sure they apologize for making him have to do it in the first place.

digby described this as the "head-knocking style of governance."

alternatively, i think of this as "the mandrake the magician school of governance." force of will followed by mass hypnosis....

This head knocking style of governance is lacking something rather crucial, and that is the actual knocking of heads.

Without a club, with which to bash in someone's head, a la in the movie "The Untouchables," and the willingness to use the club to make a point, no one will take the admonition seriously.

On a related note, one of the problems with the single payer system, at least insofar as what some bought out Democrats propose, is that you cannot continue to cut Medicare reimbursement rates and then hold up Medicare as a system to emulate. Doctors raise their rates and insurance companies raise their rates too, it is called inflation. However, it seems that Congress continues to reduce reimbursement rates. It is almost as if it is doing it on purpose to make it so unpalatable for doctors to work with medicare. If the insurance companies pay X for a procedure and Medicare pays 1/2 X for the same procedure, guess who the doctor will prefer to work with, paperwork included.

So do 3/4 X. Raise the Medicare reimbursement rates. That does nothing to change the overhead savings of 3% for Medicare versus 30% for the insurance companies. That is where you rein in the costs, by taking profit out of the equation.

Will taxes go up. Duh! Of course they will, but your insurance premiums will go away entirely. I have paid between $1200 a year to up to $6000 a year for insurance for my family (not including what my employer contributed). I seriously doubt my taxes would go up that much and if they did I would be ok with it because I know that no CEO is buying yet another yacht with the money that should be used on cancer treatments.

Personally, I like Matthew Yglesias' claim that this is the Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics. It applies to domestic policy just as much as it applies to foreign policy.

The movie "Idiocracy" is quickly becoming a documentary. Remember the scene where guy from the past tries to explain that he thought the crops just needed water and not Bondo (or whatever they called that gator aid stuff they had been dripping on the plants).

"Bondo's got what plants need...electrolytes" Yeah plants need Bondo...why...its got what plants crave. Plants crave electrolytes and Bondo's got what plants crave...over and over and over.

"Idiocracy" is a documentary of what happens if republicans continue to influence the policies of this nation. Steele is a prime example...how is it even possible that such a mentality be the head of the RNC. Willful contorted distortion to dumb to do anything but pat itself on the back for being so cool.

Am I imagining things or what? It seems Republicans as of late have had the intellectual skills of a 9th grader. These guys must do heavy drugs to have their IQs lowered so much.

theAmericanist: "Shade Tail doesn't quite GET the question, much less answer it"

Actually, yes I do. Furthermore, the answer I gave you is the correct answer, and it remains correct whether you like it or not.

Your arrogant self-righteous nonsense notwithstanding, real governance requires good-faith compromise. That is reality. If you can't deal with that, then too bad for you.

9n6MfV