Marsha Blackburn Questions Obama at Baltimore Conference

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) questioned President Obama today at the GOP's Issues Conference in Balitmore.

Blackburn got right to it: Republican's have ideas. Here's how that conversation went:

Mr. President.
And thank you for acknowledging that we have ideas on health care. Because, indeed, we do have ideas. We have plans. We have over 50 bills. We have lots of amendments that would bring health care ideas to the forefront.

We would -- we've got plans to lower cost, to change purchasing models, address medical liability, insurance accountability, chronic and preexisting conditions, and access to affordable care for those with those conditions, insurance portability, expanded access, but not doing it with creating more government, more bureaucracy and more cost for the American taxpayer.

And we look forward to sharing those ideas with you. We want to work with you on health reform and making certain that we do it in an affordable, cost-effective way that is going to reduce bureaucracy, reduce government interference and reduce costs to individuals and to taxpayers.

And if those good ideas aren't making it to you, maybe it's the House Democrat leadership that is an impediment instead of a conduit.

OBAMA: Well, no . . .

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKBURN: But we're concerned also that there are lessons learned from public option health care plans that maybe are not being heeded. And certainly in my state of Tennessee, we were the test case for public option health care in 1994. And our Democrat government has even cautioned that maybe our experiences there would provide some lessons learned that should be heeded and would provide guidance for us to go forward.

And as you said, what we should be doing is tossing old ideas out, bad ideas out, and moving forward and refining good ideas. And certainly we would welcome that opportunity.

So my question to you is, when will we look forward to starting anew and sitting down with you to put all of these ideas on the table, to look at these lessons learned, to benefit from that experience, and to produce a product that is going to reduce government interference, reduce cost and be fair to the American taxpayer?

Obama says he has gotten "many" of the Republican ideas, looked at them, considered some of them. He said the idea of selling health insurance across state lines is complicated, and some minimum standards have to be instituted. As an example, he mentioned women must be able to get mammograms - that's after his panel of experts said they are NOT needed annually.

The man wants to control everything. He has no experience in the health care field, yet...I thought this amazing:

If you can show me and if I get confirmation from health care experts, people who know the system and how it works, including doctors and nurses, ways of reducing people's premiums, covering those who do not have insurance, making it more affordable for small businesses, having insurance reforms that ensure people have insurance even when they've got preexisting conditions, that their coverage is not dropped just because they're sick, that young people right out of college or as they're entering in the workforce can still get health insurance -- if those component parts are things that you care about and want to do, I'm game. 

He mentions that there are some "stray cats" in the health care bill that Democrats are working to eliminate - "scrubbing" it, he said. He fails to mention that he pushed for the finished bill on his desk by Christmas. Guess it wasn't necessary for those "stray cats" to be eliminated, if they just could have gotten the darned bill signed.

It was during Blackburn's question that Obama says:

You've given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan ashion because what you've been telling your constituents, "This guy's doing all kinds of crazy stuff that's going to destroy America."

And I -- I would just say that we have to think about tone.

See that video here.

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