President Obama Extends Hand To Mark Kirk and Kirk Bites It

President Obama extended his hand to republican on Wednesday and much to my chagrin, he appeard to extend his hand out just a little further to Mark Kirk by offering Kirk's pet tort reform along with his general reform plan. Obama referred to some plan that was talked about by the Bush administration. This despite the fact that there is no hard evidence whatsoever that malpractice awards affect malpractice premiums and the evidence we have indicates the opposite. This is from an AP report first appearing yesterday:

Still, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that savings achieved by limiting medical liability would amount to less than 0.5 percent of health care spending. In addition, the office studied states with their own controls on medical lawsuits. It found no proof that those limits have reduced "defensive medicine" - expensive and unnecessary tests and procedures ordered by a doctor only to reduce the risk of a lawsuit.

Be that as it may, it's not like real facts have had much effect on policy in the past couple of decades around here, so Obama decided to go for it as a bridge to republicans who call themselves moderate. For Obama's efforts, Kirk took a huge chunk out of that extended hand. His response to Obama's speech was on WLS News yesterday:

The American people in August have decided that they don't like Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi's bill, and I think we need to make some major changes. The speech I heard tonight was like the 28 other healthcare speeches that the president has given.

Apart from his incorrect assessment of what Americans think about reform, Kirk didn't even acknowledge that one of his pet goals was in the mix. Kirk's still mouthing off today. Bloomberg has this quote:

He needs to put together a blisteringly specific plan that can be analyzed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office or embrace legislation that is already being considered,” said Representative Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican and member of the House Appropriations Committee. “Otherwise, all we have is non-specific assertions with no credible support.

Apparently, Kirk's not all that keen on tort reform himself. He'd rather forgo the opportunity to work with the president on implementing a national tort reform plan so he can continue to berate President Obama. That is what this is all about.

Mark Kirk and his fellow republicans have nothing to add to the health care reform debate. They see it as just one more opportunity to see to it that Obama fails and they really don't care how it affects you. Kirk is going to continue to push against reform as his own Senate campaign issue even if that reform includes something he's said he wants. There is nothing that can be said and nothing that can be done to get his support. So, Obama should stop seeking it. There is no sense in providing the American people with empty non-reform to placate the unplacatable.

There is an old saying about "biting the hand that feeds you." It's clear that the hand Kirk seeks to feed from is not a hand at all, but the far extremist right wing whose votes he feels he needs to win his party's senate primary. You and I, the people he is supposed to represent do not enter into his equation. In the coming months, we'll see Kirk moving farther and farther to the right and that is not how he got elected in this district. The pro-health care, pro-choice, pro-GLBT communities that helped elect him are likely to be sorely disappointed. They didn't listen to me. I told them Kirk stands for nothing but his own election.