Below is the rough draft of the invitation for the open door meeting between Democrats and Republicans for Health Care Reform on February 25th 2010 as drawn up by Rahm Emanuel for President Obama.
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid, and you vile Republicans.
We are writing to ask that you join President Obama for a bipartisan meeting at the Blair House on February 25 to discuss health reform legislation.
We have seen again in recent days that when it comes to health care, nobody wants it from us. The status quo much like the national debt is unsustainable and unacceptable. This attitude of the American people is going to change if I have to ram this reform bill down their throat and my shoe up their, well, you know where. Enough is enough!
The proof is right in front of us: just last week, a major insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, announced plans to increase premiums for many of its policyholders in California by as much as 39 percent on March 1. This is unacceptable. We believe with this reform bill we can keep the increase to 35 percent.
There will be those (damn American people again) who argue that the President should not increase the national debt by 40% the first 2 years he and the Democrats are in office, but hey – it is what it is! We won, get over it.
As we noted this week, if we don’t act on comprehensive health insurance reform, then there will be a great number of working Americans who will be very happy, and we can’t have that if those who choose not to work are not happy also.
Premiums will continue to rise for folks with insurance, especially government insurance ; millions more will lose their coverage altogether just so they can get “free” insurance from the government; our deficits will continue to grow larger, but with our insidious tax increases, we will prove the debt can be managed.
If we, and I mean the government, can get involved with insurance coverage right now and push the insurance companies to the sidelines and ultimately out of business, we can hold down premiums with our “sky high tax reform” that will be imposed on every working American in this country.
We believe that working people will love their lower health insurance premiums even if they have excellent coverage that their employers pay now as part of their benefit package. That in itself is unfair to those who do not work and presently get free health care in hospitals around the country.
Small businesses who are counting on trying to keep more of what they earn and give less to us. This is only a dream – and it is time to wake them up to the reality that liberalism rules the day.
In the last year, there has been an extraordinary effort to craft deceitful legislation that will be undetectable in 2-3ooo page health bill.
There have been hundreds of hours of lobbyists and special interest meetings, and ”extra special” meetings for the big donors who have given generously to Democrat coffers this past year and who expect a huge return on their investment like the AFL-CIO, SEIU, NEA, Black Panthers, etc…
The Senate, with nearly all of their sessions televised on C-SPAN could not help the lobbyists and special interests like the House did behind closed doors, without even a Republican in attendance. The Senate spent over 160o hours flying to secretive meetings around the country hoping not to be found out by Fox News and what they were up to.
The Blair House meeting is the next step in this process. The session will begin at 10:00 a.m. on February 25th, and be broadcast live in its entirety.
We would like all invited Republicans to please get there 2 hours early to help set up chairs and tables and set out the ice water pitchers and fine crystal glasses along with floral arrangements. There may have to be some dusting and vacuuming to put the final touches on this backdrop for TV cameras. You said you wanted to get involved and have a part, well, here is your chance.
The President is inviting the most senior House/Senate partisan leadership he can find who happen to have gerrymandered districts that would never be voted out of office regardless of any crime or treason they may commit.
The President would like the Republicans to designate an additional four Members who will behave themselves and say yes to everything we Democrats suggest or just keep their mouths shut. If you can’t find any members who will do this then just stay the hell home. We don’t need your kind!
We will have a representative from the Office of Management and Budget to provide technical assistance such as, telling us that regardless of what we decide on health care reform, it will be possible to fund this monstrosity without incurring deficits as big as, well, as big as big can be.
The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation will also be in attendance and make suggestions on how much we can tax Americans and get away with it for this health reform bill, lovingly called by voters a”house of cards.” Silly voters, what do they know?
In addition to the President, attending and participating on behalf of the Administration will be the Vice President-Joe Biden who we promise to gag and tie down to a chair in another room so as not to embarrass our beloved President with stupid and off the cuff remarks,
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director of the Office of Health Reform will be there to overrule and shoot down any suggestions of austerity that Republicans may come up with.
The President will offer opening remarks that will last about an hour and a half at the beginning of the meeting, followed by remarks from a Republican minority leader with a 1 minute time limit.
The President will then open and moderate discussion on four critical topics: insurance reforms, cost containment, expanding coverage, and the impact health reform legislation will have on deficit reduction.
During this time, all 3 cameras will be focused on him and no one else. He will be using teleprompters the entire meeting so please do not distract him or break his concentration as he reads his opening remarks (written by Axelrod).
For Democrat eyes only. Since this meeting will be most productive if information is widely available before the meeting, we will post online the text of a proposed health insurance reform package with no input from Republicans or any special interests that did not donate to the DNC.
It is the President’s hope that the Republican congressional leadership will also put forward their own comprehensive bill to achieve those goals and make it available online as well. As the majority party, we will redact and exclude any reforms or ideas we do not agree with.
As the President said earlier this week:
I’m looking forward to a constructive debate with members of my party only. We want to make sure that a welfare program this large is carefully guarded against abuse and fraud unlike Medicare which was already being abused by Bush’s administration before we got here.
For every dollar we collect we believe that we can apply .18 cents to health care reform. .82 cents of every dollar will be effectively used in the administration and miscellaneous expenses we may incur while facilitating this program. Out of the .82 cents we hope to keep fraud and abuse down to .38 cents out of the .82 cents collected.
We are looking for fiscal sustainability that will help drive the national debt down over the next 10 years by $150 million- $300 million. We will have collected an estimated 1.2 trillion dollars for health care reform alone.
Does it bring down costs for all Americans as well as for the Federal Government? In reality no but most Americans will be asleep at the wheel and will never notice it. Does it provide adequate protection against abuses by the insurance industry? Hell yeah, They will be out of business anyway so how could they play a role in abusing their position.
Does it make coverage affordable and available to the tens of millions of non-working Americans who don’t have it right now? Yes it does. What this means is that those who don’t have it presently, will have it, and all those who pay taxes will start paying higher payroll taxes in order for tens of millions of people to have “free” health care like the President has dreamed of all his adult life.
Does it help us get on a path of fiscal sustainability? Only on paper, but that is what matters most. Stupid and ignorant, undereducated American people will never know the difference because they are not elitists like we are.
These are priorities that we all share, and the President is looking forward to examining with you and your colleagues how we can best screw the American people without them even knowing we were there.
Sincerely,
Rahm Emanuel
Pit Viper (chief of staff) to the President
Related posts:
- CNN captures Obama’s facial expressions at Health care summit (video)
- Who needs a Health Summit…?
- Pelosi’s Trojan Health Horse, The Affordable Health Care for America Act, will not Run
- Obama, Muslims, Summit, what is the point? (satire) for those who don’t know the difference
- Obama’s New Health Care System Flow Chart [left wing lunacy]