The Wonk Room: A HANDY guide to debunking Republican talking points at the health care summit.

[kpete]

A guide to debunking Republican talking points at the health care summit.

Today, the White House kicks off the Bipartisan Health Care Summit, which “may be the end of the beginning for health care reform.” Republicans have already declared that they would not bring new ideas to the table. They plan to reiterate their criticism of the existing Democratic legislation and speak in generalities about how the private market can lower health care costs and achieve “universal access.” Today, former Bush strategist Karl Rove instructs Republicans that it is “necessary” for them to criticize the president, because they have “facts, ideas, and most of the American people on their side.” While their poll-tested talking points may sound convincing, the ideas the Republicans are proposing actually shift the costs and risks of insurance onto individuals and divide the market into low-cost plans for the healthy and high-cost insurance for the sick. In response to these talking points, the Wonk Room’s Igor Volsky has published a Viewers Guide to the Bipartisan Health Care Summit. Here is what the GOP will say and why they’re wrong.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VYsDeslNFIs/R50Zcc7WIMI/AAAAAAAABJc/mkUH5VVSCds/s320/US+HAND+PRINT.jpg

Viewer's Guide To Republican Ideas At The Health Summit

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2010/02/disputes_underway_at_blair_house.php

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/25/guide-debunking-gop-points/#comments

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ViewersGuide3.pdf

[Warpy]

1. All they have is the same old elitist crap that already isn't working

along with the utterly idiotic idea to raise the Medicare age instead of lowering it, anything to cheat people out of their retirement by bankrupting them at just about the time they can no longer work.

Even the people over at Twitter are catching on, posting that the "old Republicans" seem incapable of grasping anything new.