Hewitt Blog

Colonel Allen West is running for Congress in Florida's 22nd and will be my guest today.

As will be Alex Berenson, whose new thriller The Midnight House, hit stores and Amazon.com this week. 



And I'll be playing the tape from my time on Reliable Sources yesterday as well as discussing Internet Business Reporting (IBizReporting.com).

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The president has called for a bipartisan health care summit.  I suppose I am too suspicious, but I suspect this is part of the great pivot --from blaming George W. Bush for all of the Obama Administration failures of 2009 to blaming you for all of the Obama Administration failures of 2010.  After all, David Plouffe didn't come back in to manage Congressional relations.

President Obama could be serious.  He has, after all, allocated an entire half day to the effort.

But against the possibility that he is not and that he intends this as a trampoline from which he can execute a great jump and a perfect dismount, pointing at you the entire way and leaving an adoring media to mutter about the "party of no," I suggest you respond quickly, substantively, and in writing:

Mr. President:

We accept your invitation.  In the spirit of bipartisanship we also suggest that the agenda consist of six items, of 30 minutes each, with half of the items and presentation chosen by us, and half by you, the Speaker and The Majority Leader.

We suggest that these presentations be staggered, one from one party followed by one from the other party, and have no objection to going first or second. 

Our three points will be:

1.  There can be no comprehensive health care cost control and thus no real health care reform without tort reform.  In addition to a national cap on pain and suffering damages similar to California's, we will offer some other keys to controlling the cost of defensive medicine in this country.  We urge you to ask your colleagues to refrain from immediately rushing to the defense of the plaintiffs' bar.  The only way to stop the rising cost of medicine is to stop the need for doctors to practice with a lawyer on both shoulders.

2.  There is an enormous need for an interstate market in health care policies.  We should move immediately to eliminate this artificial and extremely expensive obstacle to the lowering of the cost of health insurance.

3.  There can be no long term confidence in our health care system without confidence in a growing, vibrant and robust economy, one freed from crippling entitlement debt and massive borrowing.  Therefore we will use our last presentation to acquaint you and your colleagues with the details of Congressman Paul Ryan's "Roadmap," which we believe could be enacted in parallel with comprehensive health care reform thus setting our domestic policy house in order.

We look forward to the meeting Mr. President, and urge a similar one be scheduled on national security matters so we could persuade you to abandon the the decision to try KSM in civilian court in America and to offer Miranda rights to terrorists past and future.

Sincerely,

John Boehner and Mitch McConnell

UPDATE:  John Boehner and Eric Cantor release their own letter.  Not as good as mine, I think, because it is too long and doesn't mention tort reform --sigh-- but a good step nonetheless:

February 8, 2010

The Honorable Rahm Emanuel
Chief of Staff
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. Emanuel:

We welcome President Obama’s announcement of forthcoming bipartisan health care talks.  In fact, you may remember that last May, Republicans asked President Obama to hold bipartisan discussions on health care in an attempt to find common ground, but he declined and instead chose to work with only Democrats. 

Since then, the President has given dozens of speeches on health care reform, operating under the premise that the more the American people learn about his plan, the more they will come to like it.  Just the opposite has occurred: a majority of Americans oppose the House and Senate health care bills and want them scrapped so we can start over with a step-by-step approach focused on lowering costs for families and small businesses.  Just as important, scrapping the House and Senate health care bills would help end the uncertainty they are creating for workers and businesses and thus strengthen our shared commitment to focusing on creating jobs.

Assuming the President is sincere about moving forward on health care in a bipartisan way, does that mean he will agree to start over so that we can develop a bill that is truly worthy of the support and confidence of the American people?  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said today that the President is “absolutely not” resetting the legislative process for health care.  If the starting point for this meeting is the job-killing bills the American people have already soundly rejected, Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate.

 Read More...

My Washington Examiner today this week deals with Sunday's debate with Arianna Huffington on Reliable Sources.

Taking the early plane to Phoenix, but encourage you to check out Internet Business Reporting, (IBizReporting.com), another indication of how rapidly media is changing.  I will be discussing it on tomorrow's show as well as the exchanges with Arianna.

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I began the morning with Arianna Huffington on CNN's Reliable Sources.  Much time was spent on Arianna's favorite whipping boy, Fox News, though host Howard Kurtz was as always an excellent guarantor of equal time.  I will summarize in a column tomorrow.

The subject I most enjoyed was the MSM's continuing inability to figure out what powers the appeal of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the rest of conservative media plus the Tea Party movement.  My Washington Examiner colleague Mark Tapscott provides a lot of the answer here.

Palin is now to the right what Al Gore has become to the left, and she is going to get better and better at the role of messenger from the base.

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Mark Steyn reviews the president's spending plans.

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A great story.  And if you haven't read The Endurance, you should.

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Here's the link to the Amaze.fm song of the week.

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Jay Riemersma, former U of M Wolverine and Pittsburgh Steeler, was a guest on today's show.  First time I have ever had that combo as a guest, so you must realize what a good guy he is.  Help him out.

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General McChrystal is cautiously optimistic about recent events in Afghanistan.

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you ought to attend this seminar by my law partner Gary Wolensky.

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