The Health Care Summit: Paul Ryan and the GOP steal the stage from Obama

For those who thought today's Health Care Summit at the Blair House would be Obama, Reid, and Pelosi's show you were proven wrong. Today belonged to the GOP proving that we are not the party of "no" but a party with solutions. Specifically Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin took the day in what could be remembered as the day he really and truly became on of the GOP's brightest young stars.

From Erick Erickson at Red State:

Many Republicans thought that after the President overshadowed the GOP at their Baltimore retreat last month, going to Blair House yesterday would just be another PR disaster.
It was anything but.
The GOP won the day so convincingly that even the traditional media had to praise the party for talking issues.

For those who didn't see this portion, which came in the afternoon session, Ryan launched a full on assult on the bill more or less talking about how the bill will greatly increase the deficit which is something the Dems have lied about time and time again. Additionally he hits on the fact that medicare is broke, how this bill will hurt seniors as well as future generations, and quoting a budget chairman who said this bill was a "ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud".



In regards to what Ryan had to say there the Weekly Standard had this to say:

Obama didn't even bother questioning Ryan's presentation. He changed the subject to Medicare Advantage. The expression on the president's face as Ryan made his case was absolutely priceless. Simply put, he looked like someone who realizes he's met his match.

Here's Ryan from earlier in the day where he talks about the essential difference in philosophy between the Dems and Republicans as they go about trying to achieve health care reform. 





John McCain also had a great day today really getting into it with Obama. McCain wanted to address issues in regards to the process and what went wrong there but Obama wasn't having it telling him "the election is over".


A.B. Stoddard from The Hill sums up the GOP's preformance pretty well:

“I think we need to start out by acknowledging Republicans brought their ‘A Team.’ They had doctors knowledgeable about the system, they brought substance to the table, and they, I thought, expressed interest in the reform.  I thought in the lecture from Senator John McCain and on the issue of transparency, I thought today the Democrats were pretty much on their knees.”

All in all it was a great day exposure wise for Republicans. Was a lot accomplished? No, not at all. But we have to ask ourselves: Would the GOP have been able to put forth their proposals and let the American people hear them if we hadn't done this? No not at all. If this had been done on the House or Senate floor or in some closed door meeting on Capitol Hill the GOP would not have recived much media coverage at all. It also proved to the American people the the GOP is not just the party of "NO". Sometimes it is good to say no, especially at times like these we need to be saying no on things like spending etc., but in order to regain the trust of the American people we needed to show them our solutions which is what we did today. Today was a step abet a small one, but a step none this less and that is what we needed.

Cross-posted @ Roanoke On the Right  
Cross-posted @ RedState