TCTI: Too Crazy Too Ignore
 Dave Ross

The curse of the pre-sponse

BY Dave Ross  on February 13, 2013 @ 6:08 am (Updated: 6:21 am - 2/13/13 )

There is a danger in having to write a response to the State of the Union address before you've heard the speech you're responding to.

Senator Marco Rubio discovered that last night.

His speech was not really a RE-sponse. It's a PRE-sponse. You could tell, because he said stuff like, "Instead of playing politics with Medicare, when is the president going to offer his detailed plan to save it? Tonight would have been a good time to do it."

But wait - the President just finished agreeing with you!

"On Medicare, I'm prepared to enact reforms that will achieve the same amount of healthcare savings by the beginning of the next decade, as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson Bowles commision," Obama said during the State of the Union.

The Simpson Bowles report is the budget deal considered the holy grail by many Republicans including Lindsey Graham.

And then Obama said, "We'll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for medicare because our medical bills shouldn't be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital. It should be based on the quality of care our seniors receive."

For a guy who has no plan, that sounds like a pretty serious plan.

So - may I offer a suggestion?

If you have to write your response before the speech you're responding to, you should also be allowed to deliver it before the speech you're responding to. Like during those tedious 15 minutes when everybody is meandering around - and the anchors are yammering about Michelle's arms - I would much rather have watched Senator Rubio's pre-sponse.

Then, when it turned out the President actually agreed with many of his points, the Senator could have said see? I changed his mind.

Dave Ross, KIRO Radio Talk Show Host
Dave Ross is co-host of The Ross & Burbank Show on KIRO Radio (weekdays 9-Noon) and never too far from the spotlight.
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Comments (100)


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  • CH wrote...
    another fast day at the fire house?
    February 13, 2013 8:48 am
    remember today is your day to clean the Commode. You should be glad King Obama is trying to keep you job for you. Republicans are trying to do away with your job. What was it you do at the fire house?
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  • CH wrote...
    you want to handle my willy
    February 13, 2013 8:52 am
    willy? This could be a problem. This is xkoppers job!!
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  • R L M 456 wrote...
    Did everyone MISS this? Earlier today I signed another EXECUTIVE ORDER
    February 13, 2013 9:05 am
    once again- Bypassing all the check and balance

    that the US Consitution has provided

    once again, says The President

    I am going to do whatever the "bleep" I want to

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  • Pete in Seattle wrote...
    Why bother?
    February 13, 2013 9:07 am
    This business of having the opposition offer a response is hogwash, and has no constitutional basis. Yes, the Democrats decided that the Reagan weekly speeches were political and therefore entitled them to respond, but even that was stretching things a bit. There is no constitutional requirement that the president ever address a joint session of Congress. There IS a requirement that he file a report on the "state of the union" once a year. With TV this has become a huge event with great pomp and circumstance, and an expectation that a president will outline an agenda rather than merely present his take on the actual state of affairs. With all the instant analysis and knee-jerk reaction interviews there is no need for a scripted response to the speech, and as I have said many times there is no need to air it; the right to speak freely does not guarantee an audience nor does it carry any right to be heard, much less listened to.
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  • HLC wrote...
    Dave you need to up your ability to understand the spoken word.
    February 13, 2013 9:08 am
    Obozo said nothing about enacting Simpson Bowles, he said his plan would save as much. I'll bet not or he would have done it. He also said he was going to change how the government pays it's medical bills so it sounds like a lot more out of pocket to me. He also said he was going to spend 70 billion on bridges and a whole lot more without adding one dime to our debt. HaHa. The fool has lost it.
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  • Whidbeyboy wrote...
    The problem
    February 13, 2013 9:24 am
    The average medicare patient takes 11 medications, and 90% of opiates made are taken in the US. With all the great medical care we get in this country why are we rated 72nd in overall health? Obviously, we are doing something wrong. Japan spend a third of what we do and they are number 1. Our problem is our approach to health. A pill for every ill, and a pill to remedy the effects of all he pills. As long as we have 4 drug company lobbiest for every politician ($$), and as long as we let the insurance companies influence (pay off) the politicians, we will never see any positive change. We are a sick nation who spends too much because they want to keep us sick. It is more profitable. And why does Canada drugs cost so much less? Because the politicians up there care about their people and don't let drug company money influence votes and policy. THINK ABOUT IT, WE ARE 72ND IN OVER ALL HEALTH, AND 36TH IN HEALTH CARE DELIVERY. THE ONLY THING THE US IS NUMBER ONE IN IS OBESITY AND BOMBS.
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  • sportsguru wrote...
    Whidbeyboy
    February 13, 2013 9:26 am
    It's called big pharma, your doctors get kickbacks for making sure that you take and spend your money for these pills. It's all a game that both the dems and jackbooted republicans are aware of but choose to do nothing about.
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  • Tyrone DeVille wrote...
    I Demand to See !
    February 13, 2013 9:37 am
    Rubio's birth certificate, citizenship papers and anything and everything else to prove that he is an American!
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  • Cbrew wrote...
    The Hard Truth about Healthcare....
    February 13, 2013 9:40 am
    Is that Health insurance companies are in business to make profits... they care more about profits than patients. A study was conducted a couple years ago to see how much the average American spent on health care (not health insurance, actual health costs)and it averaged to approximately 1100 dollars a year... the average health insurance premium to insure 1 person is over 2k a year... couple that with the fact that your insurance company does not pay for everything, makes you pay out of pocket for the first... 1k or more... and when they do have to pay for a claim, they generally pay for a specific % of it, not always 100%. Insurance companies on average do not spend hardly anything to cover the average American. In 2011 Insurance companies announced Record profits.. An Average family pays upwards of 4-5 thousand dollars a year on Health insurance... and ever since the recession, health care claims have dropped dramatically as many people are simply unable to afford to see a doctor... I'm sorry but the truth is Health insurance is a scam 90% of the time... if you do end up needing it for a big issue, they set limits to how much they will ever pay out on you... so bottom line is, if you have a chronic disease or disorder, you may be covered for a while, but when you hit their limit of coverage, you're on your own, and up until recently you couldn't get new insurance, because they could deny you for having a pre-existing condition... I don't know how so many defend the current system, obviously something has to be done... The Health Care industry is a rip off, an obvious rip off, and the money isn't going to the providers, it's going to the insurance companies, so don't believe the BS about how the money has to go to these doctors who have to go through medical training and blah blah blah.. it's not about that... it's about insurance providers padding their bank accounts and trying to achieve record profits... that's it... believe me, they don't care if you live or die, they're only looking out for the money involved.
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  • flipper wrote...
    Dave-
    February 13, 2013 9:45 am
    Your response is one of many in the start of the Rubio bashing in the runup to the 2016 Presidential election. You are utterly transparent.
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  • fartforce1 wrote...
    Rubio is just another Republican with the same old tired complaints.
    February 13, 2013 9:51 am
    When was the last time you heard a GOP member who actualyl offered a plan instead of an argument? Years?
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