Healthcare Reform: A Terrible GOP PR Play
Even if you’re like me and you don’t believe government is the right engine to run anything let alone everything, you can’t help but think that the conservative pundits missed a golden opportunity with the latest healthcare reform bill. That is to say that instead of coming off as total losers (which seems to be what stings them the most), they could have easily put together a strategy weeks ago that would have enabled them to declare victory with the current bill or even dare Pelosi to ask for more that would have not gotten through both houses of Congress.
Why do I say the Republicans could have declared a win?
1. There is no public option.
2. The executive order for no public funding for abortion is in.
3. As much as we don’t have it to spend, $1 trillion over 10 years (yes, let’s forget this deficit reducing stuff) is a rather small addition to the budget and this money could be found by cutting many other things.
4. A case could easily be made that much of the reform could spur small business and entrepreneurship. (I shutter to think Pelosi had to tell us that.)
5. They still had the “dirty pool” argument about how this the whole bill was rammed through the back door of Congress.
There are lots of unanswered questions and flaws in the bill (just as there are in our current Medicare/Medicaid programs), but in short, this was a terrible PR play by elephant. The pending state AG cases will continue to contribute to the PR woes as well. It’s probably time to move on and figure out how to get the best out of what we have.
- BIA Agent #1
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