We were watching Pelosi and her presentation on CSpan, and my wife asked,

[old mark]

"How can the Republicans be against this....what do they say to the people they represent who have no health insurance?"

I have no answer for this - they have completely abdicated all responsibility and humanity. I wonder if any of them have the capacity to feel shame at what they are doing?


mark

[GreenTea]

1. The republicans push "government take over" to the sheep & that "EVIL" word we've been fed

and taught to hate & despise since we were born -"SOCIALISM"! - Forced to hate it, taught to hate it since the earliest days we could recall by the ruling class, the wealthy, the corporations & republican ideology, that socialism is wrong, it's bad & it's evil. Why?

The same elitist rich who don't want to share, who want it all and who have manipulated to get it all through the decades.

Oh, such a bad thing they tell us is socialism....Yet, the military, the police & fire, public education, road & bridge building, the post office, all government employees INCLUDING republican politicians and subsidies for the corporations are ALL socialism & socialist programs paid for by our taxes.....

Yes, and now we want health care for ALL, with our taxes.

What the fuck is wrong with socialism the rich practice it among themselves and have used the government socialism for corporate endeavors, tax breaks, subsidies & incentives all the time.

I'm a liberal progressive which means I am for socialism for ALL (not just the wealthy)!

[louis-t]

2. They are not embarassed.

Rachel knows.

[livetohike]

3. I just e-mailed my Rep. (a freshman Republican) and asked

him about the same thing. I asked him that if he votes "No" on this bill, then how can he say he is representing his district, when he knows there are many people here without health insurance. I asked him what his answer to those folks will be.

I doubt I will hear an answer from him.

[movonne]

4. I believe that many are stupid...if they were not they wouldn't be

watching faux....I don't think they have a thought of their own..

[Spazito]

5. I think any Republican that has the capacity to feel shame has been...

drummed out, left or is leaving and all that is left are the scumbags who have NO conscience whatsoever.

[jody]

6. IMO many voters oppose the bill because they sincerely believe no politician can be trusted. Given

mismanagement in so many departments including multi-billion dollar overruns of military hardware it's no wonder voters don't trust our government.

[RKP5637]

7. The republicans today represent a whole new group of evilness IMO. And are as

Anti-American as one can get.

[demosincebirth]

8. I agree with you..They must have inherited some kind of mutated gene

Maybe they'll evolve into a new species. Who knows.

[RKP5637]

12. I always realized people had different opinions, but once people used to

try to set aside differences and work for the best of the country. These republicans today must be evil mutants from a new degenerative species...

[demosincebirth]

15. I remember those years.

[old mark]

19. ...but since they don't believe in evolution, maybe they were all created that way. nt

[Soylent Brice]

9. my wife asks the same thing. she's not real big on politics

but because of me she knows far more than the average person. we both ponder this often.

to answer your question, no. no capacity for shame whatsoever.

[Rincewind]

10. It's easy,

they live in a different world than the one we live in. In their world, people are poor because they want to be poor, or, they are too lazy to work. In G.O.P. world, there are unlimited numbers of jobs,, jobs that have fully paid health insurance, and other great benefits, people just refuse to take these jobs. In their world every problem other people have is due to personal failure, and every problem a G.O.P.er has is due to other people, and ,or, the government.

[Journeyman]

11. Here's an interesting article from today's LA Times on just that question. . .

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-meyerson18-2010mar18,0,2229463.story

From the article:

In 2008, Republican Mary Bono Mack's Riverside County district ranked 54th among the nation's 435 districts in its rate of uninsured, with an un-insurance rate of 24.1% (and it has surely risen considerably since then, as unemployment has skyrocketed in the Inland Empire). Republican Devin Nunes' Fresno-area district had an un-insurance rate of 23.8%, which ranked it 59th. Six of the state's 19 Republican congressional representatives represent districts in which the percentage of uninsured ranks in the top 30% nationally.

The Energy and Commerce Committee's report found that the Democrats' bill would extend coverage to 113,500 currently uninsured residents in Nunes' district, and 126,500 in Bono Mack's.

So why would a representative whose constituents have so much to gain oppose the reform package? On her website, Bono Mack says she is "against putting the government in charge of medical decisions that should be made by patients and their doctors." Putting aside the fact that the Democrats' plan doesn't put the government in charge of these decisions, what's glaring in Bono Mack's boilerplate is that she fails to understand that thousands upon thousands of her constituents don't even have doctors and couldn't afford to see them if they did.

Like her fellow congressional Republicans, Bono Mack supports an alternative GOP proposal, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says would extend coverage to a paltry 3 million uninsured Americans. To say that Bono Mack is unresponsive to some of the most basic needs of her constituents is to understate.

[RKP5637]

14. But will they vote her in again as many do. I have never understood in

this country why so many vote in those that clearly do not represent their best interests. And why the poorest of the poor sometimes vote republican.

[Journeyman]

16. There's a very good chance she'll be voted in again - she's an incumbent . . .

[RKP5637]

18. Banging my head against the wall (yet again)!

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[gratuitous]

13. The GOP doesn't represent people with no health insurance

As far as they're concerned, folks without health insurance don't exist or are just leeches on the system. No, the GOP represents only the most well-heeled portion of the electorate. That is, people who benefit immensely from the system as it is, or who can be made to fear an alternative that probably doesn't exist. After all, if you're just barely hanging on, it can be a very scary thing to contemplate any changes that could stomp your fingertips as you hang above the imagined abyss.

[ThomWV]

25. I agree with your answer completely, and in fact I thought it was sort of obvious

There is no Republican Representative in the Congress nor any Republican Senator who sees those who can not afford health insurance or are to immature to buy it as their constituents. Its really that simple. They have neither sympathy nor empathy.

[spanone]

17. total obstructionists...they don't give a flying fuck about 'the people' it's all about winning

and making Obama fail....this is what their leader, rush limpballs, told them

[progressoid]

20. How can they be against a plan that they supported 17 years ago?

Of course, one could also ask why Democrats are supporting a plan they opposed 17 years ago.



The proposal President Barack Obama unveiled on Monday is based largely on the bill passed by the Democratic Senate on Dec. 24, 2009, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It has some similarities to a GOP proposal sponsored by Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., during the Clinton presidency, the Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993.

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Graphics/2010/022310-Bill-comparison.aspx

[SPedigrees]

21. I'm just hoping the repubs have sufficiently marginalized themselves

to lose to dems in 2012. They wanted HCR to be defeated because they believed it would be Obama's waterloo and they'd get back in power. And that's their bottom line: power and money.

[slipslidingaway]

22. This was said by a Republican and I happen to agree with his statement...

'The insurance companies ARE the problem and the Democrats with these bills will mandate you purchase a product from the private insurance industry.

Making the IRS the bill collector for Aetna and the rest of the insurance companies is not the way to solve this problem.'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=423155&mesg_id=423155

[EFerrari]

23. Rebublicans also believe Bush was elected twice. You can't go by them.

[deaniac21]

24. But, like all politicians, you can buy them.