Is Obama secretly the greatest Republican ever?

[kpete]

Posted at 06:50 AM ET, 06/20/2011
Wonkbook: Is Obama secretly the greatest Republican ever?
By Ezra Klein

.......................

If Republicans can make their peace with the Affordable Care Act and help figure out how to make the Affordable Care Act's exchanges work to control costs and improve quality, it'd be natural to eventually migrate Medicaid and Medicare into the system. Liberals would like that because it'd mean better care for Medicaid beneficiaries and less fragmentation in the health-care system. Conservatives would like it because it'd break the two largest single-payer health-care systems in America and turn their beneficiaries into consumers. But the implementation and success of the Affordable Care Act is a necessary precondition to any compromise of this sort. You can't transform Medicaid and Medicare until you've proven that what you're transforming them into is better. Only the Affordable Care Act has the potential to do that.

So Bachmann is perhaps right to say that the president is moving us towards a day when ObamaCare -- or, to put it more neutrally, "premium support" -- might come to Medicare. He's seeing whether it works in the private health-care market first and, if it does, there's little doubt that the political pressure to extend it to other groups will be intense. The question is why Bachmann and her party are doing so much to stand in his way? The corollary to Bachmann's accusation that the president has a realistic plan to privatize Medicare is that the Republicans, for all their sound and fury over the Ryan budget, don't.

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MORE:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/wonkbook-is-obama-secretly-the-greatest-republican-ever/2011/06/20/AGxM1ecH_blog.html
One thing's for sure. Bachman's on to something. I knew her comments had a perverse sort of logic, but it never occurred to me that she was right on the merits. Live and learn.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/bachmans-right-about-obama-wanting-to.html

[Vanje]

1. Someone said it.

I've been quietly wondering it for some time.
(Someone unrecc'd it)

[Walk away]

2. No. ...nt

[nichomachus]

18. I agree. It's no secret.

[onehandle]

3. Well, he's seemingly more conservative than Bill Clinton ever was painted as.

Probably not by choice, but the same could be said about President Clinton.

Let's see what happens if a Democratic Congress is re-elected along with him.

[bobburgster]

4. Not even close......

if you honestly look at the political realities of our day.

[Dragonfli]

5. Without Question /nt

[Stinky The Clown]

6. No. There were lots of better repubicans

[Name removed]

7. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[white_wolf]

8. No, not even close.

Lincoln was better than him as was Theodore Roosevelt.

[n2doc]

12. Yep. Might even include Eisenhower n/t

[hulka38]

29. I would include Ike as well.

[TriMera]

9. No, but he's working on it. n/t

[somone]

10. Not quite

[left is right]

11. a decade or so ago

the common wisdom suggested that the first woman or black president would have to be republican because they would be too scary if they were thought of as liberal

[Electric Monk]

13. Nah, I still say Eisenhower was

[TBF]

23. Yes, high tax rates on the rich folk and expanded Social Security -

Eisenhower has my vote as one of the best presidents given those two facts, particularly as I'm watching a democrat give rich people tax breaks while trying to cut social security. I think I'd re-phrase the OP and say Mr. Obama is one of the worst democrats ever. And that's saying a lot when you consider Mr. Wilson purged all the communists he could find. As a leftist myself it is mind-boggling to watch this administration cowtow to the rich and put anti-war activists in jail. Shameful.

[upi402]

14. Clinton was, he chipped around.. n/t rec

[TicketyBoo]

15. Lincoln,

without a doubt.

[inna]

16. Remarkable given the most vapidly mainstream, "centrist" source (Ezra Klein of WP).

KR

[emilyg]

17. Almost there.

knr

[Raine]

19. No cause it's no secret nt

[stevenleser]

20. Again with this garbage?

:eyes:

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Telly Savalas]

21. Has anybody read the damn article?

It's only three paragraphs long and its point has absolutely nothing to do with that stupid fucking Obama = Bush meme that permeates this place.

[OKNancy]

26. Yeah!!! I was too exasperated with posters earlier to even take the time

to post the same thing. "Did people actually read and understand the article (opinion)? Not just read the subject line...

[Autumn]

24. Not secretly and by no means the greatest.

The truth of the matter is, the 2 words, greatest and republican can never be used in the same sentence unless you put asshole at the end.:shrug:

[inna]

25. +

[TNLib]

27. Nah Clinton Holds that title still

;-)

[SidDithers]

28. pfffffffffttttttttt....

What a joke of a post.

Sid