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GOP Senator Irked At Obama Over Heath Care



Jun 7, 2009 6 Comments ›› Erik Wong

grassley2007

Breitbart

By ERICA WERNER

WASHINGTON (AP) – A Republican Senate chairman whose involvement is key if there’s going to be a bipartisan health care deal is responding angrily to President Barack Obama’s latest comments on the issue.

Obama, after months of standing back and leaving the details of health care legislation to Congress, inserted himself firmly into the debate in recent days, including using his weekly radio address Saturday to declare “it’s time to deliver” on health reform.

That didn’t sit well with the Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, which has been laboring to come up with a health care bill that Democrats and Republicans can support.

Grassley is a frequent user of Twitter—the Internet-based social connection service allows users to send mass text messages called “tweets”—and he directed two angry “tweets” Sunday morning at Obama. The president was wrapping up an overseas trip with some time in Paris with his family.

Grassley’s first tweet: “Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us ‘time to deliver’ on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND.”

A short time later: “Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said ‘time to delivr on healthcare’ When you are a ‘hammer’ u think evrything is NAIL I’m no NAIL.”

A Grassley spokeswoman verified that Grassley was the author of the messages. A White House spokesman had no immediate response Sunday to Grassley’s twitter commentary.

Grassley’s attitude is significant because any hope for bipartisan consensus on health care rests on an alliance between Grassley and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.

Despite strong opposition from most Republicans to one of Obama’s key goals for a health care bill—the inclusion of a new government insurance plan to compete with private insurers—Baucus and Grassley have continued to hold out hope that they can find a solution that could garner bipartisan support.

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod cited Grassley in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday morning as a reason there’s hope for a health overhaul deal. Obama wants to sign legislation in the fall that would hold down costs and extend coverage to 50 million uninsured Americans.

“I would hope people of both parties would get together. I was encouraged by Sen. Grassley’s comments in the last few days suggesting that he thought we could get there,” Axelrod said. “So I think we’ll be able to build a bipartisan support for it. But we have to move forward with it, I think it is a critical situation for the country and our economy and our future.”

Obama has said repeatedly he wants a bipartisan bill. Although the Democratic-controlled Congress might be able to pass health care legislation with little or no Republican support, such a measure would be less widely accepted and less sustainable over time, Baucus and others have said.

But Obama’s increased involvement appears to be diminishing chances for bipartisanship, not improving them. Grassley and other Republicans were also angered when Obama released a letter last week coming down strongly in favor of a new public insurance plan.

The next few weeks will be critical to the health care debate, with the Finance Committee to finalize legislation and begin voting in late June. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has circulated draft legislation that is unlikely to garner GOP support because of the greatly expanded role it gives to government. The Finance Committee has been expected to produce a bill with a narrower role for government.


  • David

    “That didn’t sit well with the Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, which has been laboring to come up with a health care bill that Democrats and Republicans can support.”
    That’s the problem with Republicans. They lack the balls to say that our present system is the best around and any attempts to change it will result in socialized medicine. We do not want the government telling us what kind of cars to buy and we sure as hell don’t want them telling us which doctor to use, what treatment to prescribe and when we can see him/her.

  • Sully

    Grassley tweeting?? ? And bitching??
    Gimme a fucking break.
    LMFAO

  • John

    Obama is the devil

  • http://WorldsBestResumes.com Judith, typical White Ohioan

    Let’s have a drive to send every Republican congressman/congresswoman a pair of brass ones. Does no one understand the strength of many? United we stand, divided (or silent) we fail. Sheesh.

  • NMMI 83

    You can bet your last dime that there will be at least 4 or 5 cowardly Republicans that will sign on to socializing our health care. They have no balls or spine. Why are Republicans even working towards such a “bipartisan solution”? If the Socialist Democrats want socialized medicine then let their names be all over it. Let them own it without Republican support.

  • William Sieger

    Both David Axelrod and Austan Goolsbee disingenuously slipped around the question of whether Obama will support taxing health benefits of
    workers who receive them as part of their employment compensation package. When confronted with the question of whether this might conflict with Obama’s strong opposition to this approach when it was suggested by John McCain during the campaign, they both said while he didn’t propose it, it was “on the table”. More doublespeak. The chutzpah of these people is boundless. They apparently think the American people have a combined IQ hovering around room temperature. It’s about time so-called reporters ask hard questions and demand straight answers without the usual obfuscation regularly displayed by the politicians in charge of the future of our children and grandchildren. How long are the media going to let the Administration and the democrat leaders of Congress get away with blaming it all on the previous occupants of the elected branches of the government? The Constitution provides that the Congress shall have the power to tax and spend. The democrats have been in control of the Congress since January of 2007. What have they been doing besides teeing up the crisis they have brought upon the Country with their harebrained schemes of sub-prime mortgages and Union-dictated fiscal policies?

    It might also serve the public interest if the dollar value of the health care plan the government, i.e., the Congress, provides for elected officials
    policymakers and Federal employees was published. This should obviously include all members of the three branches of government including President, members of Congress, both Senate and House, and the Judiciary. The question should then be posed and an answer should be demanded, “Do these officials intend to impose the same tax on their benefits as they intend to levy on the American wage earner?