Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot
Rush has picked up on a comment by pollster, Frank Luntz, about healthcare and run it into the theater of the absurd.
Luntz apparently told Republicans that if they don't say that there's a healthcare crisis, they risk further marginalization.
That incensed Limbaugh, and thus he risks marginalization.
He took the Luntz comment and did exactly what liberals do - he took it to mean something that was never said. In this case that Republicans had to agree that there was a crisis that only government could solve.
But the original Luntz statement apparently said nothing of the kind. He only said one very narrow thing: Republicans must acknowledge there's a healthcare crisis.
For the record, I've been saying there's a crisis for over a decade, and I said back then that if Republicans failed to act in increasing competition and incentives among companies involved in healthcare, they would bring about the very system they, and I, feared most - government run, single payer healthcare.
And Republicans did exactly that - they failed to act. And all of that time, Limbaugh denied there was a crisis. Now, anyone who doesn't think there is a crisis deserves to be marginalized - and that's just for starters. The worst part is that it might now be too late to avoid the horrors of a government run system, and yet Limbaugh's tune remains the same.
But even if Republicans do finally acknowledge the crisis, they are now powerless to act, and so they will likely try to get the best deal they can in a government controlled system. That's one great job they've done, and a great reason why they are where they are, not to mention where they are going.
And if Limbaugh is the best leader conservatives have... and he absolutely is, it's going to be an ugly rest of your lives!
Comments
I disagree that Rush is an idiot. Luntz may have meant in the <i>narrowest possible sense</i>, but going around telling people, "there is a crisis" will ensure they cry louder for government to intervene.
Maybe I am an idiot too, but the only crisis I see is that we provide healthcare to people who should not be here to begin with and that rates go up [never down] when the Feds butt in.
Mass (not to be repetitive) was "fine" up to 2 yrs ago, but since government (state) meddled in healthcare we have a crisis of mastodontic proportions. the "FORCED" healthcaer program is bankrupting the state and our pocketbooks, the quality has gone down, doctors are dropping patients or not accepting new ones [even if you pay out-of-pocket].
Sooo....Republicans don't neet to acknowledge the "crisis." They should be working on a counterattack.
I agree that they don't need a declaration of crisis, but you missed the point. I don't know where you were at fifteen years ago, but that was when Republicans needed to be working on the healthcare solution. They literally did nothing. Zak mentioned Forbes, but he didn't get the nomination, and Bush did nothing to solve the problem. he talked about it every once in a while, but failed miserably in doing anything.
Now all Republicans can hope for is to thwart Democrat ambitions, and if they succeed, they will still do nothing and the crisis, which is already enormous, will worsen. Your assertion that it's all due to illegals is preposterous to be kind, and it is indicative of the denial that has made the crisis not only what it is, but it has precluded any private sector solutions from being proposed.
I've had a change of opinion since I wrote that Limbaugh is a bug fat idiot. I now hold him equally responsible, along with George Bush, for the situation conservatives find themselves in. Because it was Limbaugh who gave cover to Bush and the Republicans for all those years. When he was criticizing Republicans later in that same program, I found myself saying,
Man, what an enormous hypocrite." Where was he to excoriate Bush over campaign finance? Spending, Katrina, and yes, healthcare?" NOW he wants to hold Republicans to a higher standard when he never demanded it when it mattered?
You may disagree, but that would may you worse than Limbaugh
I can't speak for when the time to begin handling this crisis was squandered. Agree that Republicans should have worked on a plan, but I think it's ludicrous to keep blaming Bush for everything under the sun, including some appointments he made.
What you're seeing is me on the verge of giving up trying. There's no denying that Limbaugh is the most articulate voice of conservatism, but I have had major disagreements with him through the years, and when I do, I say so.
And the fact is, he's a hypocrite now. He facilitated Bush and the Republicans, and now that they are in complete disarray, he's holding Republicans (but not Bush) accountable? Gimme a break!
But do YOU hold Bush accountable? Republicans were doing badly enough on their own, but instead of setting them straight as President, Bush actually endorsed all their wrong moves and made plenty of them on his own.
So now, everything that happens that's bad has it's roots in the Bush Presidency, and Obama will rightly be able to point to it.
I hate to do this to you, but I just don't care anymore...
"Ted, let me correct or add on to some I said. illegals may not shoulder all the blame, but they are a portion of it."
Then why didn't you take more time to frame your first reply because had you said what you did in your correction, you wouldn't have needed to say anything at all about illegals. No one disputes they are part of the problem. But they have nothing to do with the bigger problem of people being unable to afford healthcare.
"A disproportionate amount of healthcare cost is due precisely because illegals are a "protected" group."
I have no idea what that means, though I do understand that any of costs associated with illegals would be 'disproportionate." The question is whether or not it has any effect on the actual problem, and if you can document that it does, I'd be very interested.
"I can't speak for when the time to begin handling this crisis was squandered"
I was screaming in 1994. Republicans got control of the House in 1994
"Agree that Republicans should have worked on a plan,"
Then you should have stopped there, because they did NOTHING! For a dozen years! While people were suffering! And going bankrupt!
"but I think it's ludicrous to keep blaming Bush for everything under the sun, including some appointments he made"
Then you are in denial.Bush was the only person who could have made a difference... and BOY, did he!
Here's the problem as I see it. Nothing will change until people like you look in the mirror and become brutally honest. THEY failed you, and Bush is, by far, the biggest THEY. And until you're brutal in your assessment and stop defending people like the Scumbag-in-Chief, lots more bad things are going to happen and the right will become weaker. You're not doing anyone but Bush any favors in defending him and THEM.
And conversely, you're doing no one any harm by admitting what a failure Bush was as a President and a human being.