Kathleen Sebelius - "We Can't Let the Details Distract Us"
 

An unbelievable statement by President Obama's point woman on the health care "overhaul" from an editorial in today's Washington Post:

"President Obama and I are working closely with Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate and health-care experts to make sure we get the details of health reform right. But we can't let the details distract us from the huge benefits that reform will bring."

We can't let the details distract us? Oh, those pesky details - like cost, and who gets heart surgery, and who gets to pay for all this. Until these fools in the administration and in congress can explain those pesky details, we should all be badgering our elected representatives to explain themselves on this issue. When they pass it, it will be too late.

The next time she goes to her physician with an ailment and starts to give her history the doc should say, "be quiet, i don't want the details to distract us from the huge benefits that my care will bring to you"

Chomp!
 

You guys bite on things so easily that if you were a fish, you'd be looking down at folks thru glass eyes.

Cripes! If your quote was accurate, the woman didn't suggest that details weren't unimportant! The media are all over these people in droves, yelling questions, demanding answers, changing the subject, trying to "get" a soundbite that will "sell".

Remember what happened to Sarah Palin? She had the added disadvantage of never facing anywhere near that kind of media attention in Alaska. Add in a campaign staff that didn't prepare her well enough, and Katie Couric made her look like a world's leading dum-dum.

Palin is a bright woman who was made to appear really, really dumb and inexperienced. Secretary Sebelius has somewhat more experience with the press as a Governor of another small state, but the press got what they were after--a salable soundbite.

And you guys bit!

I guess I bit the last time the Congress came up with a 1,000 page bill that nobody read before voting for it - let's not sweat the details, huh?

Wrong
 

No, the details will take a lot of sweat. But it won't happen with Congress diddling with the words in the bill. The bill will contain some clear direction, but the details on how to get there are going to have to be developed by government bureaucrats who will turn the law into organizations, policies, procedures and work flows. Guess who most of those bureaucrats will work for? Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary of Health & Human Services.

Sibelius wasn't appointed for her ability to maneuver thru press gauntlets. She was hired because of her ability to "sweat the details".

Having been one of those "government bureaucrats" who wrote, revised, interpreted, critiqued and swore at regulations which had the purpose of placing Congressional "intent" language into operational specifics, there can be a world of difference between the lofty verbiage in statutes and the supposedly "clear and detailed" operational language within regulations.

The fun occurs when the regulations and the administrative agency actions have to defend themselves before Congressional committees and various staffers months and years after the Statute was enacted, with Congressfolk now whining that the agency (and the regulations) are not mirroring what Congress wanted. That, coupled with having to deal with "Congressional inquiries" supporting constituents who are running afoul of the agency for violating regulations, all relate to "vague statutes" devoid of those nasty details which give the statute the necessary clarity for the Executive branch to do the right thing.

So, the situation is like the old Fram Oil Filter Commercial, where the mechanic looks down at an engine being overhauled due to oil changes not being done, and says "You can pay me now [for the oil change and new filter] or you can pay me later [for the engine overhaul.]"

Do we really want to pay and pay and pay later for Congressional laziness now? They will praise themselves for a job well done, but when the Pachyderms and Jackasses have left the circus ring, the bureaucrats will follow with many brooms and shovels to clean up the mess. However, no matter how much sweeping and shoveling is done, there will be plenty of stains and stink left that will be expensive problems for a long time, unless........

I agree with SteveZ
 

:agree: I agree totally with SteveZ's position. Tis far, far better to do the job and verbiage correctly the first time than to rush the job through and have thousands of Americans suffer the consequences later.

I certainly am not in any hurry to institute socialized medicine, which has already been perfected in Canada, England and Australia as a total failure and certainly not in the best interest of "legal" Americans.barf

Incidentally, I learned of www.gradegov.com, a web site where you can grade your federal representatives A, B, C, D, F, and send them a letter explaining why you graded them as you did.....and you can urge them to use their votes and influence for:pepper2: or against:cus: certain issues.

The only grade that matters is the one every two years - the vote. They all get an "F" and should be expelled.

I think it is unbelievable how rowdy and nasty the town hall meetings have become. It seems that all political discourse has to be a shouting match and nobody can hear anything.

And, we should call their mothers.

Yoda

A member of the loyal opposition

I think it's unbelievable how nasty our government has become.

Yoda

A member of the loyal opposition

Shame On Us
 

Geez, it's like the 2008 Presidential campaign re-visited. If you don't have a better idea, I suppose they think it's more effective to simply "engage and enrage" the public with emotional rhetoric. What's amazing is that the public is dumb enough to permit it to work.

Do you think that maybe both sides use Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals? Does this conduct from the town meetings that have been covered by the media sound familiar?

• RULE 3: Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.
• RULE 5: Ridicule is the most potent weapon. There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating. It also works. Create anger and fear.

And the public is dumb enough to buy it. Shame on us.

Senator Specter, the wishy-washy guy from Pennsylvania, was surprised the other day when he was booed at a town meeting when he expressed his opinion that the details of the health system "improvements" were unimportant. I agree that the discourse in this country has become too unruly, but then again, if anyone deserves to be booed, it's Specter. More people need to stand up to their "representatives" and tell them in no uncertain terms where they stand.

:agree::agree::agree:

Some could say the public has already bought into a whole load of dumb, and the sales force is trying to peddle more of the same while the mark(et) is still vulnerable.

When you tell everybody that....
- the government is broke,
- the economy has tanked,
- retirement funds have evaporated, and everything of what folk thought had decent value (like houses) are now worth 2/3rds of their value of three years ago,
- the last remaining major manufacturing industry is crashing, and the government has to go deeper into debt to keep them afloat, and
- to save us we need to double the debt and spend even more money that we don't have,
.......is it any wonder folk are now getting scared when the government says its going even deeper in debt with more new programs which will take more money out of peoples' pockets (higher taxes) at a time when every dime the average family has is going to pay existing bills and feeding families.

Our multi-millionaire First Family, VP, Speaker of the House, Senate Majority Leader and others DON'T FEEL THE PAIN, so they don't understand. To them it's just words on the teleprompter, as they aren't being mortgage-strapped, going crazy trying to balance family budgets day-by-day or worrying about whether their job is next to go. And the folks who are hurting are beginning to realize that they are just the pawns on the chessboard. Yeah, they are mad, upset, and are going to be heard!

Darn right pilgrim!!!! Their lucky their not being strung up on the gallows.(Just kidding...it is an expression) You really think yelling is that bad????
At least they should be put on the front lawn in one of those devices and we should be able to throw rotten tomatoes at them.:crap2:

Nasty indeed. And deep in debt.

Actually it is much worse than that...perhaps you missed the Delaware Congressman being attacked by some of the birther movement. Did you also miss the talking points developed by Dick Armey's lobbing firm on how to disrupt these town hall meetings?

And it wasn't Spector that was booed it was the former Governor of Kansas, I can't spell her name, when she said she a member of Congress. Check the tape.

Their lucky their not being strung up on the gallows. So you support lynching? I might have known!!!!!!

This kind of rhetoric is totally uncalled for. The Obama administration is getting a 400% increase in death threats since taking office. 400% more than George W Bush....

At the risk of having you answer What did they do that qualifies them for the death penalty?

I believe that an administration that advocated torture and illegally spied on its own citizens is exponentially nastier than this one.

Surely you jest. You knew it was a harmless expression. Tomatoes don't kill. It is funny how the left didn't object to all the Kill Bush posters that were everywhere. Or maybe the movie about the president assassination? Besides, nobody was talking about Hussein Obama, were they?
As far as shouting down politicians...apparently they are borrowing the methods from the left who like to yell down conservative speakers when they try to talk at almost all the Universities. I guess free speech is selective, huh?

Hey Keedy: Isn't it just funny how community leaders are now responsible for questioning OB the great community leader. :a20::a20::a20:

I believe in personal responsibility....you said they should be put on the gallows...you said they should be killed. That verbiage is YOUR responsibility.

Now if you can find one post that I put on this forum which condoned the killing of any public official then that will be my personal responsibility.

Free Speech is one thing ....civility is quite another.

It was only gallows humor and you know it. It is the same satire as when someone says, "they hang horse thieves don't they?"
Me thinks you like to find something and take it out of content...Just like you do to Bucco. There has not been any death threats on this forum since I have been here....But you knew that.

You must be talking about when speakers go to talk at Universities.

BE A MAN KEEDY ....you said what you said. And while some people might see it as humor others will not.

They hang horse thieves is NOT what you said. You said that public officials should be killed by hanging.

Not when I went to college.....

A polite message to cologal: In response to my post, and I quote, you said:

"And it wasn't Spector that was booed it was the former Governor of Kansas, I can't spell her name, when she said she a member of Congress. Check the tape."

On the contrary, it was, in fact, Spector who was booed. Apparently YOU didn't check the tape. In fact, the You Tube video title is: "Crowd Explodes When Arlen Spector Urges That We "Do This Fast". Also, the person whose name you couldn't spell is, in fact, the same Kathleen Sebelius who I was criticizing for her editorial in the Washington Post. She didn't say she was a member of Congress - quite the opposite - she said she was never a member of Congress! I suggest you do some homework before you take a leap into the fray.

I should sue you for slander. Show me where I said that. I said they were lucky they didn't go to the gallows. Of course you left out the part where I said they should have tomatoes thrown at them.

What form of torture did the administration advocate? I never heard of an administration advocating torture. And please tell me what citizens were spied on. Do you know of many people in Leisureville that were spied upon? Were you spied Upon?

Ok kids!
 

Lets tone it down a bit so that the plug doesn't get pulled on Political. Getting TOO personal with the back and forth upsets the more intellectual participants of this forum. We can fight, but not below the belt. CLASS DISMISSED! Go play!

Was not Kathleen Sebelius booed when she made that statement?

Edit...you are right I misquoted what she said.

Been there done that.....waterboarding for one....

The last adminstration convinced some, but no all, of the telephone companies to tap our phones....I'm surprised you missed that.

Keedy...I put in bold what you said. The gallows means hanging and hanging means death.

By saying they were lucky they didn't go to the gallows means you thought they should but by a stroke of luck they didn't.

It is not worth answering you anymore.

A while back on Political, a poster said that a certain group of elected officials should "burn in hell". I don't recall what their perceived infraction was, but do agree that the rhetoric does get out of hand and over the top sometimes.

Anybody else want to pile on??????

Sometimes I wonder if that would be no great loss.

Collie1228's starting thread topic headline said:
Kathleen Sebelius - "We Can't Let the Details Distract Us"

Keedy said:
Darn right pilgrim!!!! Their lucky their not being strung up on the
gallows.(Just kidding...it is an expression) You really think yelling is that
bad????

At least they should be put on the front lawn in one of those devices and we
should be able to throw rotten tomatoes at them.

Cologal said:
Their lucky their not being strung up on the gallows. So you support
lynching? I might have known!!!!!!

This kind of rhetoric is totally uncalled for. The Obama administration is
getting a 400% increase in death threats since taking office. 400% more
than George W Bush....

At the risk of having you answer What did they do that qualifies them for the
death penalty?

Keedy said:
. . . Surely you jest. You knew it was a harmless expression. Tomatoes don't
kill. It is funny how the left didn't object to all the Kill Bush posters that
were everywhere. Or maybe the movie about the president assassination?
Besides, nobody was talking about Hussein Obama, were they?
. . .

Cologal said:
I believe in personal responsibility....you said they should be put on the
gallows...you said they should be killed. That verbiage is YOUR
responsibility.

Now if you can find one post that I put on this forum which condoned the
killing of any public official then that will be my personal responsibility.

Free Speech is one thing ....civility is quite another.

Keedy said:
It was only gallows humor and you know it. It is the same satire as when
someone says, "they hang horse thieves don't they?"

Me thinks you like to find something and take it out of content...Just like you
do to Bucco. There has not been any death threats on this forum since I
have been here....But you knew that.

Cologal said:
"BE A MAN KEEDY ....you said what you said. And while some people might
see it as humor others will not.

They hang horse thieves is NOT what you said. You said that public officials
should be killed by hanging."

Keedy said:
I should sue you for slander. Show me where I said that. I said they were
lucky they didn't go to the gallows. Of course you left out the part where I
said they should have tomatoes thrown at them.

Gnu said:
Lets tone it down a bit so that the plug doesn't get pulled on Political. Getting
TOO personal with the back and forth upsets the more intellectual
participants of this forum. We can fight, but not below the belt. CLASS
DISMISSED! Go play!

BobKat1 said:
Sometimes I wonder if that would be no great loss.

Tony said in another thread:
Because of the low quality of argument in Political, I have to level with you
all, I have strongly pushed to have one of two things happen to this section
of the forum. Either make it completely private so that posters have to join
by request. Or make it completely separate from the main Talk of The
Villages forum so that our general posters will not have to see the political
posts show up in their New Post listing. Or a combination of the two.

And my point is:
Now do you people see what I mean? This is pathetic.

I would like to see somebody start a thread to address why Talk of The
Villages should have a Political forum with diatribe like this.

Know you dont care, but from my point of view...ONLY ONE person agitated here.

The comment when said originally was CLEARLY stated as in humor "Their lucky their not being strung up on the
gallows.(Just kidding...it is an expression)" That, to me is pretty darn clear and FOR SURE tamer than some of the things said to me personally during the fall.

ONE PERSON and one person only could not let go even though it was presented as humor..ONE PERSON.

Perhaps the poster of the original comment should have just let it go, but this was agaitated by one and only one poster in my opinion !

I felt, perhaps unfairly, that your original post about the complaints you receive about the political forum was pretty aimed at one side of the political aisle, and that is fine...it is your board but this one is pretty clear Tony and I am surprised from my point of view why that poster was not warned instead of this being made public.

By its very nature politics will become heated. It may not be right or correct, but it is a fact.

Frankly, I frequent a few of these type boards and this is tame. I am sure that some come on here and see something written that is NOT what they believe and instead of posting bring it to you as somebody being mean to them. You said about people telling others to leave if they cannot stand the heat or something to that effect....I honestly have only seen that once or twice on here !

If people are complaining about the board because they dont agree with what is being posted from a political point of view.....then it is NOT AT ALL FAIR to even consider any action toward this message board.

If people are being threatened via pm or something, that is nasty and needs to be terminated and anyone who does that should be asked to leave.

If your fear is that the board is not balanced....too many rights;not enough lefts...that is not a reason to consider any action to this board.

Had my say I suppose...I dont write very well on this or ANY of the forums I frequent but I do learn a lot and would hate to see this board leave, ESPECIALLY for the reasons it is appearing to me as the reason !

I am reluctant to even post now since we seem to be on a "short lease" for what I am not sure but this particular post, at least in my opinion caught my attention enough to post !