This was when President Obama met with the GOP Conference in January 2010 after his State of the Union. The GOP were still in the minority and he took questions. Note how though partially respectful, they still refer to “Democrat Proposals” instead of “Democratic” and near the end he discusses with Paul Ryan his Medicare Voucher Proposal. Boehner thought this exercise would embarrassed the President instead Obama turned the tables on him and the conference. The president was focusing on working in a bipartisan manner while behind closed doors they were already working on not giving him any accomplishments going into 2010 and later 2012. This is an hour and a half video, but well worth viewing for perspective of today and what we face.
AZModerate Rants 
Good flashback. I like Obama’s non-answer to Hensarling’s BS gotcha question at the 1:19:00 mark. Obama calls him out for forgetting that the spending increases began under Bush. Obama successfully dodges the question of whether he’s going to reduce the spending…because the the answer is “no.” Spending cannot be decreased without a bipartisan plan to reform the big entitlements, and any reform will be unpopular and inadequate without some tax increases as well.
Ryan’s plan, addressed at that same time period on the video, doesn’t do anything for 10 years when the current 55 y/o’s reach age 65. If the problem is so dire then why wait? And the whole idea that seniors will get anything akin to the Congressional healthcare plan is complete BS. Since 5% of Medicare recipients account for 50% of the costs, we know what will happen: the insuracne companies will gladly take the vouchers of the healthy seniors but leave the sickest of the seniors to stay in traditional Medicare– exactly how Medicare Advantage skims the profits and leaves the chaff to the taxpayers.
I fault the Democrats on this. They sat back and watched our safety nets get gutted by these jackals who passed Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage. These safety nets needed constant vigilance and it was my Democratic representatives who let me down. The Democrats voted for the war funding that bankrupted our Treasury; many voted for the tax cuts, too.
We get what we deserve.