Comments about ‘Robert Bennett: I've seen this movie before’

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I remember it being a little different. I remember a President that refused to talk or compromise with a Republican House and Senate. I remember it ending in a shutdown, that ended when both sides agreed to compromise.

It was worth getting both sides talking in my opinion. A lot of bills were passed out of Congress, with both sides having a voice. Let's hope this happens again.

Ogden, UT

Well Sen. Bennett with all due respect. That is why you are no longer a Senator!

Twin Lights
Louisville, KY

I fully agree. Unfortunately so many of those in the Republican Party who remember this are either out of office or have been marginalized by the new Tea Party oriented young guns. Their mantra seems to be "my way or the highway" and "consequences be darned". Compromise has become a dirty word.

Of course the patron saint of the modern party is Ronald Reagan. He could be tough when he wanted to be. But he also knew how to fashion a deal and get at least part of what he wanted. He believed in a party with a "big tent" - meaning he invited independents and moderate Democrats to join in. He understood that big ideas and efforts needed wide support - not simply a committed minority.

In a democratic republic such as ours you need votes. We were not built to be ruled by a minority group no matter how high-minded they might be.

salt lake city, utah

Why would this President blink? Despite the "polls" concerning the popularity of the law, he won and Republicans lost when the law was passed. He won and the Republicans lost at the Supreme court. He won and Republicans lost when he was re-elected and the law was front and center in the election. He won and Republicans lost when Republicans lost seats in congress last election.

Why would he blink when the last minute gestures by the Republicans include things like, employers being allowed to opt out of contraception coverage?

T. Party
Pleasant Grove, UT

The government is funded by the House bill. It is only Obamacare that is defunded. If the government shuts down, it will be because Obama and the Senate refuse to compromise.

Obamacare is already a job killer. It has already raised the cost of health care. It will be worse when it fully materializes. We have a chance now to minimize the damage.

But Obama says, "I will not negotiate."

Tyler D
Meridian, ID

@T. Party – “If the government shuts down, it will be because Obama and the Senate refuse to compromise.”

We’ve been hearing this quite a bit from the Right as of late. It reminds me of that Al Franken character on Saturday Night Live who used to look in the mirror and say, “I’m smart enough, I’m good enough, and gosh darnit, people like me.” Somehow we knew that all his hours of positive reinforcement would crumble in the face of reality.


Thanks for articulating the facts and… reality.

LDS Liberal
Farmington, UT

Elder Dallin H. Oaks.
Oct. 2007

Good, Better, Best.

ACA is Good, but far from perfect.
The Republicans say repeal and replace -- OK, with WHAT?
Suggest something Better.

IMHO- a Single Payer system is Best.

Murray, UT

Go along to get along, and to save face. That's the Bennett plan? That is why we have Lee instead of Bennett. We made a good trade!!!

99% of the government is funded in the original bill offered by the House. The democrats in the Senate said no. They want 100% or nothing. How is that the republicans fault? It isn't, unless you believe in Santa Claus, Cinderella's fairy godmother, and the lies MSNBC and the rest of the democrats are telling you.

The president said he didn't want any drama, but then he and his senate henchmen created drama. I guess he really did want drama. Too bad he can't just tell the truth.

Christian 24-7
Murray, UT

In the Bible, the people wanted a king, like other nations, but Samuel warned against it. Kings would take their wealth, and their freedom, and even their children. So they got a king, and he did all that was told them

In our day there is a voice of many that want socialized medicine, like other nations. We have been warned that is will not work, that it will eat up all our wealth, and place it in the hands of the few in power. Freedom will be lost. Children will be denied treatments, and will be lost. The elderly also. But there are those who won't listen.

But like the kings of old, when health care is in power, it won't listen to the needs of the people, and the people will suffer and perish.

Anti Bush-Obama
Washington, DC

A government shutdown wont really shut down the government.


- The TSA will still be screening passengers in US airports;



- The mail will continue to be delivered;

- Federal courts will continue to operate;


- Taxes will continue to be collected;

- Sales taxes will continue to be collected

- Garbage will continue to be collected;


- US passport applications will continue to be processed normally;

- Green card applications will continue to be processed normally;

- Social Security and Medicare benefits will continue to operate normally;




Burke, VA

"That is why we have Lee instead of Bennett. We made a good trade!!!"

Please ask yourself this. - Which one of these men enjous the reputation as a pragmatic statesman who worked for decades with those across the aisle to produce good legislation that helped everyone in the nation? And which one looks like a baffoon espousing strategies that almost no one thinks will work as he stands in the shadow of his new big brother, Ted Cruz?

Anti Bush-Obama
Washington, DC


Bennett a statesman? Hillarious. All he did was loathe people with hollow promises and then sat on his duff and became a total yes man when he wasn't in campaign mode.

Twin Lights
Louisville, KY

Christian 24-7,

I understand and love the Biblical story you cite. But those of us who are LDS believe we have a Samuel in our day - Thomas S. Monson.

Has he warned against the ACA?

Please, no vague references by others long ago. But the living prophet today?

If not, your analogy may be misplaced.

LDS Liberal
Farmington, UT

Senator Bennett is right, again.

Now we have a loose cannon - Green Eggs and Ham, obstructionist - willing to sink the entire ship rather than fix a small hole, representing the State of Utah.

Mike Richards
South Jordan, Utah

If people in America could read and would read, they would see that it is Obama who is threatening to shut down the government. The Republicans have passed a budget bill. Reid abused his authority and striped that bill. (Maybe he can't read either. All budget bills originate in the House. The Senate is trying to "originate" a bill different than the one passed in the House).

Obama wants to delay implementation of his ObamaCare. He does not want us to see it for what it is - a boondoogle that will cripple business and send many Americans into the "poor house". It is not a "health-care" bill, no matter what lies Obama and his followers tell us. It is a revenue bill that will let Obama and his fellow liberals grab 18% to 25% of our income to fund their "pork".

If Obama wants to shut down the government, then so be it. He cares nothing at all about you and me and the rest of America. He'll throw all of us under the bus to get what he wants. Reid and Pelosi will do the same.

In the absence of leadership, we have them.

Craig Clark
Boulder, CO

Intractable ideology tends to blind one to common sense. I see that in the combative tone of the right wing stance. It’s not the entire Republican Party that’s spoiling for a confrontation with the White House. But it is the entire Republican Party that might be tarnished when the dust settles. For Obama, it will be his duty to stand firm as a firewall against the right wing extremism that’s outside the mainstream in America. That’s called being Presidential.

LDS Liberal
Farmington, UT

The Republicans shutting down the Government reminds me of an old strategy in the game of Tub-o-War.

If you're going to loose anyway, let go of the rope and let America fall.


Mike Richards,
Self educated Constitutional Scholar that you claim to be...

How can Obama be responsible?, He only has a pen.
How can this be ALL about him and only him, when the Congress hasn't even given him anything to Sign, Veto or even line item Veto?

IMO - your accusations are off-base.

For someone who keeps telling us over and over again that Obama is a not a King, you are the one giving him more than enough credit for being one.

Craig Clark
Boulder, CO

Mike Richards,

"If people in America could read and would read, they would see that it is Obama who is threatening to shut down the government...."

Let's see if I understand you correctly. A group of determined Republican Congressmen want to defund the ACA using the budget process to prevent the Government from doing its job. But because the Democrats refuse to passively go along with that, they are the ones who want to shut down the Government.

Sorry, but you'll have to do better than that to persuade me.

Tyler D
Meridian, ID

@Mike Richards – “All budget bills originate in the House.”

Show of hands – how many think that if the situation were reserved – a Democrat controlled House were passing a funding bill that stripped out a fully passed and SC approved law the Republicans favored (say, the “Crony Capitalism and Nepotism Investment Act”) – Mike “Mr. Constitution” Richards would be lecturing all of us on the Constitutional role of the Senate and the Executive and their equal roles in passing legislation.

My hand is up… in case you couldn’t see it.

And if the ACA is such a “boondoogle” and doomed to fail – as the Right has been telling us for years – why all the fuss in trying to kill it before it goes into effect? Surely in the years ahead the country will grow to hate it too and then everyone will vote R and killing it will be as easy as (apple) pie.

Salt Lake City, UT

I think it's important to name the truly radical nature of the goals of the House of Representatives - I'm not talking about their grab-bag of rejected policies. House Republicans are behaving as if the results of the last election are null and void and the policy implications of 2012 should be ignored. They are demanding that the House be treated as the superior part of government, not as a coequal with the Senate and half of a Congress that is coequal with the White House.

Since January 2011, when the Republican majority was seated in the House, they have engaged in a series of unprecedented actions, including threatening the credit worthiness of the nation. They are engaging in government by emergency - creating a series of crises and then using those invented crises to demand concessions. In other words, they've abandoned the normal process of negotiation, discussion and compromise required by the basic structure of our constitutional republic.

The nature of the tactics themselves is the problem - threatening the normal functioning of government as well as extraordinary consequences to implement a policy agenda that did not win the last election.

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