Looking back at the lengthy summer impasse on passing a state budget, you have to wonder if anyone has thought about the importance of including the ideas of legislative Republicans in the policy discussions taking place on health care. For a moment, after the budget finally passed, I felt like I caught a wind of changing tactical consideration by the Governor’s office — an olive branch of diplomacy, centered around the idea of being more inclusive of Republican legislators in order to avoid this kind of stalemate.
Yet, we look at the issue of this health care, and because Republicans have made it clear that they do not support increasing taxes (or taxes called "fees"), all of the other common-sense ideas that they are putting forward to increase consumer choice and market-driven cost reductions for health care, are just being shelved. It would appear that the Governor is not willing to work with those who feel that individual responsibility, not "shared responsibility", should be an important consideration when guiding discussions on health care policy. Never mind that this is a bed-rock principle of the party of Reagan.
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September 20th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Once more, Jon, I think your analysis is wrong. The lesson learned by most of California’s voters is, the Republicans, by treating your version of “bed-rock principle” as revealed truth, you and those in the legislature who follow your thinking are making Republicans completely irrelevant. Nobody wants to parley with our Republican representatives because it is their way or the highway. No quarter given. Take no prisoners. You, Jon, and our Republican legislators seem to have forgotten that politics is the fine art of compromise. It is not baseball where you keep score; it is not war where you kill or be killed. It is not going out of your way trying to insult those with whom you disagree. It is working out the differences and coming to a reasonable compromise that helps the people. If Republicans thought about it, they would put forth reasonable ideas that assist the Governor and the people. But what do you and your friends in the legislature do? You just say no. No to helping the Governor and the people. If the Republican Party keeps this attitude it will not be long before the party is dead as the Dodo bird. If you had said the Devil is in the details and you want our Republican legislators to work with the Governor and the Democrats to make sure the details truly help people and not just line the pockets of the favored few, I would stand and applaud you. But no, instead of trying to help the Governor and the people you take the approach you advocate. And that is why the Republicans have so few legislators in office and only two of the Constitutional offices (and in 2010 will have no Constitutional offices and too few legislators to block Democrats from raising taxes and giving the money to their favored few if the party keeps this attitude).
September 21st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Bob, I like what you are saying. I don’t know who you are but if you can, contact me at KatieTeague@verizon.net. It is the mentality of “my way or the highway” that is killing the Republican party in the state. There is a reason that the DTS voting block is growing so fast.
September 21st, 2007 at 12:00 am
While chiding conservatives for “going out of [their] way trying to insult those with whom [they] disagree,” Bob Evans accuses conservatives of delusions of divinity, of being absolutists giving “no quarter” and taking “no prisoners,” of refusing to compromise, of refusing to help the people, failing to think about problems, failing to be “reasonable,” of “just” saying “no,” of refusing to help the governor, of politically suicidal tendencies, and of seeking to “line the pockets of the favored few” — all in about 300 words! This fellow should give seminars on how to win friends and influence people.
John Kurzweil