For all the ink spilled over Thursday’s health care summit, it really boils down to one question: Who is listening to the American people?
Americans want Washington to scrap this job-killing government takeover of health care and start over with a step-by-step approach that will lower health care costs. |
That’s not the “Republican” view. It’s is the view of the American people. They know the bill that is set to be rammed through Congress will cause their health care premiums to go up and the quality of their health care to go down. They’re asking their elected leaders in Washington to stop and start over on reforms that reflect the realities families and small businesses face today.
Republicans have offered a commonsense plan squarely focused on lowering costs. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that it will lower premiums for families and small businesses by as much as 10 percent. All the details are available at HealthCare.GOP.gov.
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| In a federal budget filled with mind-boggling statistics, two numbers stand out as particularly stunning, for the way they may change American politics and American power. |
| The first is the projected deficit in the coming year, nearly 11 percent of the country’s entire economic output. That is not unprecedented: During the Civil War, World War I and World War II, the United States ran soaring deficits, but usually with the expectation that they would come back down once peace was restored and war spending abated. |
| is the one that really commands attention: By President Obama’s own optimistic projections, American deficits will not return to what are widely considered sustainable levels over the next 10 years. |
| the effect of those projections is clear |
| creates some unforeseen change over the next decade, there is virtually no room for new domestic initiatives for Mr. Obama or his successors.Read more at www.nytimes.com |
| The American people were the real winners in President Obama’s exchange with Republicans. |
| But while Mr. Obama won the photo-op aspects of the meeting and the tactical victory of the day, Republicans wrung some soundbites out of him they can use in the future. Mr. Obama was forced to accept and hold up for the cameras a 30-page Republican booklet entitled “BETTER SOLUTIONS: a Compilation of GOP Alternatives.” He acknowledged that he had read their bills on health care and complimented Rep. Paul Ryan, ranking Republican on the budget committee, for having a realistic solution to the growth of Medicare. All of that will make it harder for Mr. Obama and his surrogates to paint the GOP as “the party of ‘No’” in the future. |
| But the real winners from the exchange were the American people, who got to see a spontaneous version of the “Question Time” that British members of Parliament have long used to demand accountability from their Prime Ministers.Read more at online.wsj.com |
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