Obama To Dems: GOP Will Attack Regardless Of How You Vote

[jefferson_dem]

Obama To Dems: GOP Will Attack Regardless Of How You Vote

In a final push to get health care reform through the House of Representatives, President Barack Obama warned lawmakers on Saturday that a vote against the legislation would not immunize them from Republican attacks.

The president, according multiple attendees, played the role of political prognosticator during his roughly 30 minute address before Democratic caucus members on Capitol Hill. Addressing, implicitly, those conservative Democrats who are worried about voting for a nearly trillion dollar health care overhaul, he insisted that they would not be safe from partisan attack even if they opposed the bill.

"He certainly talked about the politics and he said that the Republicans want us to fail and no one should feel if they as a Democrat helped us to fail that they would be ," said Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

"None of you can expect the Republicans not to go after you if you vote against this bill," Waxman continued, channeling the president. "They want this bill to go down for their own partisan reasons."

Another high-ranking Democratic hill staffer briefed on the meeting put it this way: "Obama's main message was that the GOP won't go any easier on you if you vote against the bill. It's a tough vote, yes, but they're going to take heat either way."

While politics took up much of the discussion, policy took up very little. Obama, according to several lawmakers, did not talk about the public option or the controversial amendment to make abortion restrictions much tighter. He discussed, primarily, the momentous nature of the vote and the need for the party to be on history's right side.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/07/obama-to-dems-gop-will-at_n_349546.html&cp

[Kdillard]

1. He is absolutely correct and dems need to be on the right side of history on this one.

[emulatorloo]

2. K&R n/t

[Historic NY]

3. Its time to stand up & be counted on the right side for change.....

Dems hold the majority its time to use it.

[Arkana]

4. He should have said this much sooner, but that doesn't make it

any less true.

Plus, the Democrats who vote for it can expect help from the White House in their reelections. The ones who don't? Not so much.

[tblue]

7. I'm just glad he said it. I really wasn't sure our bipartisan president got it.

Thank God. I am so happy to hear he's really getting in there and exerting pressure.

[DrToast]

11. He should have said this in public!

In interviews, etc.

[HopeOverFear]

22. He did say it in public

He said it to congress during his address.

[vi5]

5. That's all well and good....and he's right....

..but ultimately if they (centrist dems, blue dogs, anyone who wants to vote against this) feel they are going to catch more hell and more recriminations from voting against what Republicans want than they will voting against their own party, they will continue to do so.

Unfortunately nobody involved in the democratic leadership including Obama, want there to be any recriminations for anyone with a D after their name in response to scuttling democratic legislation and/or making it weaker.

So good for him for stating this explicitly, but as someone else on here stated it should have been said sooner. And he should also take this to heart himself and realize that likewise, just getting Olympia Snowe's vote is going to make anyone believe the Senate bill is "bipartisan".

[katandmoon]

6. Oh please. Like it's the REPUGS they fear? It's the health industry they don't want to piss off!

[and-justice-for-all]

10. +1

[IndianaGreen]

13. Our Congress is bought and paid for by corporate America

The only audacity they have is when they come around election day and ask the same voters they screwed to reelect them.

[backscatter712]

15. And the health insurance industry will attack Dems no matter how they vote.

They want Republicans in power - it's lucrative for them. They try to entice Democrats to vote against their political interests through donations and threats of attack ads, but when election season comes, they will all side with the GOP - that's in their interests.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. Finally!!! A Democrat that GETS IT!!!!!

All of those hapless Democrats, particularly in the Senate, whom voted for the IWR in 2002 seemed to believe that by voting for the resolution they would deny the Repubs a chance to use it against them in that year's midterms. How wrong they ended up being................:eyes: There is no such thing as "immunization" when it comes to parties using issues and votes against each other. And Repubs are not prone to voting for/supporting Democrats no matter what, so why do they even bother trying to pander to them anyway?

[and-justice-for-all]

9. Fuck the GOP!! Give'em the finger and tell'em to go fuck themselves!!

[IndianaGreen]

12. So why didn't you fight for single payer, you hypocrite of a President?

We voted for a transformational presidency, not another politician!

[BklnDem75]

16. Just to piss you off, IG

...and he didn't run on single payer.

[geek tragedy]

17. Because he didn't support one since joining the Senate?

Funny how that part always gets left out.

[Cha]

18. Just so you could come up with something

stupid.

[Phx_Dem]

19. We also didn't vote for a President who promised single-payer health

care. Because he didn't. If you thought he did, that's your mistake.

[juajen]

21. You don't remember then Sen. Clinton telling the world that

Obama did not support single payer? Funny, I don't remember you taking up for Hill, did you?

[depakid]

14. If the administration and Dems in Congress finally learn that lesson

they might actually begin to make some major progress.

[BlueIdaho]

20. The only thing that would ever please the republicans

is if we disbanded the Democratic party and turned this nation into a fascist right wing dictatorship.

Fuck them they do not speak for America.

[applegrove]

23. Right on.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

24. NO SHIT, MR. PRESIDENT!! We've been trying to tell your naive ass that for 10 months!!

And yet you crawl and beg for Repuke votes!!!