Obama, Democrats Agree To Pull Ad Claiming Republican Support For Obamacare

So much for Obama’s consensus.

At the request of former Senator Bob Dole, Democrats are scrapping plans to broadcast a new commercial that touted Republicans like Mr. Dole speaking in support of overhauling the health-care system.
Mr. Dole lodged a complaint with the White House Saturday night, saying that the new commercial, set to run on national and Washington broadcast stations on Monday but available online on Saturday, was deceptive.
“He believes it is deceptive, it was not authorized, and he asked that it be pulled,” Michael Marshall, a spokesman for Mr. Dole, said Sunday morning. “He was told late last night by the White House that it would not run.”
On Sunday morning, the Democratic National Committee, which produced the advertisement, confirmed that it would not be broadcast.
“We have great respect for Senator Dole and his commitment to reform,” a spokesman said. “As soon as Senator Dole’s concerns were communicated to us, we immediately agreed to pull the ad.”

That’s one Republican away from Obama’s “consensus.” The others, former Senator Bill Frist and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, are hardly evocative of a consensus. Bloomberg isn’t even a Republican any more (and was hardly a conservative even when he was calling himself a Republican), and Frist has already voiced opposition to the Senate Finance Version of Obamacare.
Obama and his Democrats have been trying for some time now to convince us that change is needed in health care. And they’re right. Change is needed. The reality, though, is that what they want to do isn’t our only option. And it really isn’t even change. Exchanging a third-party health care system based on employers for a third-party health care system based on government isn’t a change and it doesn’t address the root problem with health care which is that there are no market incentives for individuals to control their own health care costs.
We need change, but not what Obama and the Democrats are offering.