Nancy goes head to head with Megyn Kelly discussing the move by Missouri and other states to try to block health care reform. Nancy talks about how the commerce clause will prevent this move from being successful.
Archive for ‘healthcare’
Nancy goes on Fox News on 8-20-10 to talk about Democratic messaging on health care
Nancy Skinner goes on “America Live” on Fox News on August 20, 2010, to discuss Democratic messaging around health care reform. She talks about how Democrats need to talk about the benefits of reform, not just costs. She also mentions the fact that over time the polls are showing an increase in support for reform. Specifically, a poll that asks: “Would you be more likely to vote for a Democratic candidate for Congress who says we should give the new health care law a chance to work and then make changes to it as needed, or a Republican candidate for Congress who says we should repeal the new health care law entirely and then start over?
The results?
Democratic candidate who says give it a chance/make changes ………….. 51
Republican candidate who says repeal entirely/start over ……………………. 44
Nancy on MSNBC talking toxic tea parties
Nancy joins David Schuster on MSNBC and debates Armstrong Williams on the question of whether tea parties are toxic to the Republican party. Skinner says that people resent the tea party folks constantly saying that they alone represent the “will of the people”. The real measure of political will is at the election polls and not shifting public opinion polls.
A Brave New World
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Do you feel different this morning? You should. Something special happened yesterday. I’m not just talking about the historic vote on healthcare reform. I spent the entire weekend watching the debate on all the cable channels.
I watched as the tea partiers got nasty. I’m not just referring to the racist and homophobic slurs, but the majority of the crowds with signs talking about communism, socialism and-the-end-of-freedom-as-we-know-it types. I saw Dems on TV trying to answer why they were proceeding in the face of poll numbers that showed the American public opposed the bill by a small margin, whilst John Boehner and the gang insisted that it was in violation of the consent of the governed. Nevermind that the GOP wasn’t too concerned about consent of the governed when they impeached Clinton. All polls showed only between 17% and 25% support for that option, yet they persisted.
Nevermind that the bill has been demonized for months on end and every scare tactic in the book was used to alter the polls from the widespread support for the plan in June 2009, even among Republicans and especially Independents. Never mind that the GOP has used a big scary boogeyman called November 2010 elections to frighten Democratic lawmakers in swing districts.
Something strange happened. The Dems came together and pulled the trigger regardless, and today, not only are they OK, they are stronger than they have ever been.
Republican calls for repeal are tantamount to a football team who just got scored on trying to take 7 points off the board instead of scoring their own touchdown. It ain’t gonna happen!
Guess what else ain’t gonna happen? Losing control of Congress. The American public, who has been confused by the debate and the deliberate mischaracterization of it, will now get to choose between the “problem solvers” and the “ranters and ravers.” The list of immediate benefits will be the referee in the rhetorical battle. The death panels will be revealed as fable.
But most importantly, I feel that the Democrats have finally developed the confidence they need to act on even more pressing issues. To take on huge special interests and their proxies in congress who have up to this point been so successful in scaring Democrats and stopping action on healthcare, climate change, financial reform, deficit reduction, trade policy reform, immigration reform, etc.
Doing the right thing is good politics. Time reveals that. Just take the war in Iraq and the flip in the polls. The same is happening with the stimulus bill and the automaker bailouts. We took hard political steps, but they are working.
They were hard votes because the GOP could scare people or divide them into them and us camps. Democrats showed last night that American is not a zero sum game. The whole of this country is greater than its parts, its factions. Our founding fathers actually feared factions more than anything else. So despite their best shot at Obama’s Waterloo, manipulating the words of the founding fathers, those who sought to divide this country are all the weaker for it.
It’s a brave new world for progressives. I certainly hope we all feel it as move on to tackle climate change. The planet itself is certainly not a zero sum game. There are no winners and losers if we fail to act, we will all be losers. I hope that Democrats carry with them the moral of this story. Do the right thing, and you’ll be okay. More importantly, history will smile on your bravery.
Nancy vs. Laura Ingraham on O’Reilly Factor 3-19-10
On the eve of historic healthcare reform, conservative radio host Laura Ingraham fills in for Bill O’Reilly and tries to scare the American people about the bill and paint a picture of doom for Democrats in November. Nancy sets the facts straight and takes Laura up on a bet for the fallout in November.
Partisan Politics is the Real Pre-Existing Condition
I’ve been watching the autopsy reporting on the Massachusetts Senate race. It’s simply mind boggling. I was on CNBC and Fox Business Network the day of the election trying to predict “what a Brown win means” like everyone else. The next day, we heard it all. The right says it’s a revolt against Obama’s “big government” or his “government takeover of healthcare.” The left says that people were mad that the healthcare bill did not go far enough and should have included a public option or that Martha Coakley blew it by sunbathing in the Bahamas instead of shaking hands in Beantown.
Let’s fly above the whole situation at 40,000 feet and see what we learn.
