So I Just Got A Call From The DNC

[toasty]

...asking me for $500 to help fund the Health Care fight. I actually feel a little bad, because this poor girl got the brunt of many months of frustration with the Dems for their complete inability to get their supermajorities in order and get some fucking legislation pushed through. If you're a moderate Dem and you have a problem with a bill and you don't want to vote for it, so be it, but joining the GOP in obstructionist tactics by grandstanding and/or joining Republican filibusters is just beyond the pale.

Some memorable quotes from the exchange:
Her: President Obama needs your help to promote his message of hope and change.
Me: What President Obama needs is to go in and start cracking some skulls to get his house in order.

Me: Will this money be used to help get Democratic members of Congress reelected?
Her: Oh yes, it is critical that we maintain our majority
Me: Why? The Democrats have completely squandered the majority they have, and I'd rather see a number of these democrats voted out in their primaries and replaced with people who get it, regardless of party.

Me: The reason I spent all of the time, effort, and money that I did in 2006 and 2008 to wrest control from the republicans was to do the very things you're asking for money to help do. This is why we elected you. Tell your people to get to work.

Her: The Republicans are engaged in all sorts of misinformation...
Me: Look, I agree that the Republican tactics are troubling, but they are doing what I would expect them to do. What is really frustrating is that the Democrats, who have a filibuster-proof majority, haven't figured out how to just put together a good bill and ram it through.

I did tone it down enough to let her know that I was 100% behind the end game and it isn't as if I just brow-beat her for 10 minutes. Long story short, though, she didn't get any money.

[/rant]

[vinnie97]

Re: So I Just Got A Call From The DNC

Sorry but without tort reform, costs don't go down. You simply have pricefixing by the govt. while actual costs keep escalating and require payment by the taxpayer. Eff that noise. LOL @ only Repubs engaging in misinfo. It's the Dems who are pushing for another jobs bill after the major success of the first one.

[toasty]

Re: So I Just Got A Call From The DNC

Fuck. That. Noise. The only thing tort reform does is ensure that people don't file med mal cases at all. They are notoriously difficult and expensive to prosecute, and with damage and fee caps, it just isn't worth it to pursue them even in cases of clear liability. I've only taken one med mal case since tort reform went into effect in MO, and that was for a buddy's dad when the hospital administered sulfa to him notwithstanding that he told them he was allergic, and he was wearing a large bracelet indicating he was allergic -- shy of cutting off the wrong limb or leaving a sponge in someone, it doesn't get much cleaner than that from a liability standpoint, but I still would have turned it down if it were just someone off the street. Not worth the hassle and risk.

[toasty]

Re: So I Just Got A Call From The DNC

Oh, and by the way, if tort reform had anything to do with health care costs, you'd expect health care costs to be lower in states that have implemented tort reform, right? Well, you'd be wrong. Doctors don't see lower med mal rates in states with tort reform, and the only real difference between the two is that insurance companies' margins are higher in states where caps have been put in place.

If you want to talk about some reforms like what they have in Illinois where you're required to certify at the outset of the case that you have an expert retained that has reviewed the records and will attest that the standard of care has been breached, that's productive and is actually helpful in weeding out bullshit cases. Caps do nothing to help, though, unless you're in the insurance biz.

[superdave]

Re: So I Just Got A Call From The DNC

I'm glad you didn't give them any money. They'd squander that as well.

The Democrats are to blame for their situation not the Republicans. The Republicans don't don't have any leadership or vision. They're just the alternative to the Democrats at this point that you can vote for and at this pace will beat the Democrats next year.

[Jenks]

Re: So I Just Got A Call From The DNC

i think what it boils down to is this: both parties are worthless pieces of crap.

[subterFUSE]

Re: So I Just Got A Call From The DNC

I'm glad you didn't give them any money. They'd squander that as well.

The Democrats are to blame for their situation not the Republicans. The Republicans don't don't have any leadership or vision. They're just the alternative to the Democrats at this point that you can vote for and at this pace will beat the Democrats next year.

Please don't take this as a partisan stab, but I would say the same was true of the Democrats during the last campaign. They simply offered themselves as an alternative to Bush. That sort of thing works well to win elections, but it doesn't help once the election is over. In modern American politics, this is all we ever get. It's a ping-pong match between the two parties, with very little substance being offered besides "Vote for us next time because We are not Them." They all focus so much into just trying to win elections that I honestly don't think most of them even understand how to do the jobs they are trying get.

Case in point, the girl on the phone who effectively says: "We need money to stay in control. Those Repubs are spreading misinformation. *implied* [They're so evil.....]" Well, that seems to follow my example in the paragraph above. "Vote for us because We are not Them." Toasty is right to ask, "What the hell are you going to do when/if you do win?" And she didn't have an answer.

Now, of course that girl is just some college kid making phone calls so I wouldn't honestly expect her to be able to keep up with Toasty in a debate. But I feel like many of our elected officials on both sides are not any better equipped than she to answer his simple question. Cynical? Yes. But true? I think it probably is.

[floridaorange]

Re: So I Just Got A Call From The DNC

(the following is not in response to any one post in particular)

Keep in mind that (some not all) new politicians have serious plans for washington, but as freshman congressman for example are rarely capable of implementing what they had thought they could due to lack of seniority and traditional Washington D.C. bureaucracy. Being new to DC politics has its pro's and con's.

And of course the dems look like idiots right now, look at the tough decisions they are having to face, of course they are loosing the popularity contest among the American people. Until the economy turns around, voters are going to stay pissed, simple. There are no easy answers, especially when it comes to making decisions big business doesn't agree with...something the Dems are always faced with...of course the Repubs have been marketed as the party that can get things done, look whose side their on, big business, not the working class...

/end rant