Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Dear Dr. John: Thanks but no thanks

Sen./Dr./media star John Barrasso, Republican from Casper, is telling Pres. Obama that it's not too late to sit down and talk -- really talk -- about health care reform.

When you stop laughing, we can proceed.

Andrew Schenkel, Cowboy State Free Press Washington Correspondent, reported this on Tuesday:

“We need health care reform and to get costs down. I am willing to work with President Obama to improve health care and bring down costs,” Barrasso said.

If healthcare is to rise from the dead it will need some sort of Republican cooperation. Barrasso says its will be an incremental process. “Our goal is to get quality and affordable coverage by using a step by step process with each step accomplishing a number of things,” he said.

Barrasso said he is no fan of President Obama’s methods during healthcare debate thus far. “Americans have been locked out of the discussion and decisions,” said Barasso on what he has heard from constituents in recent meetings in Thermopolis and Sheridan.

As for Obama, Barasso says he hasn’t been willing to work across the aisle.

“His approach so far has been ‘my way or the highway.’ Senator Coburn and I have offered to go to the White House and go over the bill page-by-page and offer our perspective as doctors,” Barasso said. “He has refused to take us up on the offer.”



Barrasso and Coburn, a wacko right-wing Oklahoma Republican and member of the C Street Family, are the only doctors in the U.S. Senate.

That's scary enough. After all the Republican obstruction on health care, it's also laughable.

Now here's a quote that I can sink my teeth into:

“I like preventative care, there’s a little in the current bill but not enough. I like addressing mental health issues but there’s only a little in the bill. And none of it takes affect until 2018,” he said. “To me that’s too little too late. That bill is for totally government-centered healthcare not patient-centered.”


What we have now is insurance company-centered healthcare. Patient-centered? In a pig's eye.

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