Matthews grills Hatch: "If no Republicans will join, why should [Democrats] compromise with nobody?"

Mathews, a legend in his own mind.

Work with YOU, Senator Hatch? But, you are the minority party. America voted you completely out of power at the federal level, sir. It is up to YOU to work with the Party that currently has control. You've decided not to do that, but rather to obstruct and lie all summer long. You've offered no policy, no debate, no rebuttal. You've brought exactly one idea: No!

Democrats are not taking money from Medicare. This is just further lying, sir. As a Senator, you should be ashamed of this. So, let the states figure it out, huh? More research, more committees, more talking about it? No action, though, right?

When it comes to the money, sir, the insurance companies are already bankrupting the country. This whole reform would not be necessary had they been happy with 20% profits. Up 428%? I know whose money you are protecting, Senator Hatch, and it is not the taxpayers' money, it is the profits of the insurance companies that hold your leash.

"Government option"; Frank Luntz would be proud.

Uh, sorry MMFA. That wasn't extacly what I would term a grilling by any stretch of the imagination.

What is happening now is that the Republicans have vacated the playing field. They've discredited themselves by giving in to their own fringe. And no amount of negotiation is going to bring them to the table, since they're intransigents and want to discredit Obama and his admin. in any way possible.

And Orin Hatch or any Republican saying the Dems are too far left is just the stupidest talking point ever. I wish!

Oh orin b00bie hatch>>>>>>>>>>>> went will you ever figure out that your party is over! and its time for some humility.

and you one called your self a close friend of Kennedy`s, hell you could not even carry that persons dirty laundry bag.

you should be ashame of yourself as you are like the rest of the white wing wrong side party and have become useless as a teat on a bore hog.

Exactly. Why aren't the DEMS asking themselves this? Every once in a while Tweety gets something right.

Compromise? I'll tell you what bipartisanship is. that's when the Stupid party gets together with the Dumb party to do something really moronic.
I want to get government completely out of healthcare. How about you lefties compromise with me and cut government's involvement by half. Nope, huh. Somehow I didn't think that you olefties would compromise with me. The " compromises" in Washington seem to go one way: the direction of expanding the state. The "compromises" are never in the direction of shrinking the Leviathan in D.C.

I just love how these Orwellian's in the Obama administration say they want to create competiton in healthcare. Really now! There end goal is a so called single-payer system. That's a government monopoly. Just imagine how much competiton we'll have in 5 or 10 years when our glorious central planners in D.C. have a monopoly. Can't wait!
Anyone with 2 active brain cells to rub together knows that this "competition" argument is garbage. No where in any of these healthcare deform packages is the reform of the (near) state insurance monopolies addressed. These state insurance monopolies are creations of government. The states don't allow individuals to purchase insurance across state lines.
This only increases costs and is the oppposite of competition. That this isn't addressed at all speaks volumes in regard to what the left thinks about promoting competition. Wolf Blitzer called Axelrod on this when he went on the Situation Room. Axelrod sidestepped it, of course.

Before government got so heavily involved in healthcare a couple of generation ago, healthcare costs weren't out of control realtive to people's wages. Through perverse incentives in the tax code, socialist programs(medicare,medicaid), corporatism(state insurance monopolies created by state governments that don't allow individuals to purchase insurance across state lines), and endless mandates and regulations our central planners have created this.
The only costs that have been going down in healthcare are the few areas where the government's managed care system is absent. Lasik eye surgery and cosmetic surgery prices have been going down only because there is stil a free market there. Does anyone thing that eye surgeons and the cosmetic surgery industry are any less driven by profit that any other sector of healthcare? Of course they are just as greedy; it is just that they are disciplined by a still existent free market in these niche areas.
Not so the rest of healthcare. And now we've reached the point where you socialists unbelievably want more(that is too say state interference) of the poison that has been suffocating us.

A big part of the problem with heathcare costs is the third party payer system. This is a creation of the tax code that encourages people to rely on their employer for healthcare coverage. You don't rely on your employer to pay for auto, life or homeowner's insurance do you? It's become enshrined as an entitlement because of perverse incentives in the tax code. As a consequence, people are completley removed from the costs of their own healthcare. What do they care about deductibles or costs when a third party is footing all or most of the bill? The Dr.'s know this and this is why they frequently ignore costs as well. Real insurance is designed to measure risks. It's purpose is to be there for something catastrophic, not to pay for routine checkups and things of this nature.
Imagine if we did car insurance this way. Gas, new wipers, upholstery stains, new tires, etc. were all covered by insurance. You wouldn't want to pay for that kind of coverage and nor would anyone else. But if the federal govt or your employer(third parties)were paying for it, you wouldn't mind at all. Imagine how many times you'd get your car washed, upholstery cleaned or tires rotated if someone else were footing the bill. You can imagine what all that new demand for previously less demanded services would do to prices. This is exactly the problem we have with healthcare. The government has created the problem with their interference.

Before the government got so heavily involved in healthcare, the costs weren't out of control and insurance was affordable. We used to have a free market in healthcare and it served us well for a very long time. We've had a half socialized, part corporatist-part free market system for many decades now with the predictable result. Each new interference and program by the state bottles and congests to the point that you need further state interference to rectify their previous errors(witness the HMO'S created by congress in the early 70's to deal with previous interferences). The problems created by our central planners are then blamed on the still barely existent free market.
Our poor used to rely on a moral civil society made up of local communities, fraternal organizations, private charities and caring Dr.'s who frequently administered care for free or greatly reduced costs. This is what real communties are all about. Private charity and civil society bring people together.
We've largely replaced private charity admistered by an efficient, moral civil society with a cold, inefficient,immoral bureaucracy that is going to inevitably lead to class and generational warfare. The welfare state is government force and it atomizes us. It doesn't bring us together. Now people think that by filling out a couple of lines on a tax form that they've done their part for their fellow man. You don't think this atomizes society and breeds resentment?

Where was the huge upheaval over spending when Bush was holding the pocketbook?
You republicans have lost all, that's ALL credibility with the American people. You have done exactly nothing except whine and lie about every bill the majority mentions.
You are the minority and will be for a very long time to come.
Get with the program or you will find yourself in a much smaller minority that you are now!

If I was President, I would give Utah to Iran. And then nuke the ever living hell out of them.

Matthews,

You should really ask the Democrats that question, and make them reflect on it.