Hey Bill Clinton-I'm With Howard On The Public Option!

[ProSense]

Hey Bill Clinton-I'm With Howard On The Public Option!

by slinkerwink

Last night, I was at the Netroots Nation '09 keynote speech by President Bill Clinton, and one of the topics that came up was health care reform. Here's what he said on health care reform below:

“We have entered a new era of progressive politics which, if we do it right, can last 30 or 40 years,” Clinton said. “America has rapidly moved to another place on a lot of these issues.”

“The president needs your help,” he said, “and the cause needs your help.”

Clinton warned against the dangers of failing to compromise on some elements of health care reform, calling for agreement on a plan that includes a handful of elements that have widespread public support and perhaps conceding on those that have little support among voters.

“I want us to be mindful we may need to take less than a full loaf,” he said. “We can’t be in the peanut gallery. We have to be actors. We can’t ask the President to go it alone. We can’t ask Congress to go it alone."

The public option for me is already half a loaf. Asking to compromise on the public option is asking for breadcrumbs, rather than half a loaf. The public option IS the centrist position, and it is not a liberal or a conservative position--it is what the majority of Americans want!

So when you come to Netroots Nation, Mr. President, asking us to compromise on what is already a compromise, you're not doing yourself or President Obama any favors. You can't just pass a health care bill that's basically a mandated bailout of the private insurance industry, and call it "real health care reform." I know that Presidents like to think about the photo opportunity of signing legislation at the desk, but this photo op will just be a photo op if it's signing so-called health insurance reform, rather than health care reform.

"I'm pleading with you," he said, "try to keep this thing in the lane of getting something done. We need to pass a bill."

More than anything else, it was the memories of past failures that should compel current action, Clinton added. Unlike 17 years ago, he explained, the stars were now aligned to get legislation passed; whether it be the temperament of the American public, the genuine need for a systematic overhaul, or simple voting calculus in the United States Senate.

"Right now the Republicans are sitting around rooting for the President to fail," Clinton said. "And one of the reasons people are so hysterical at all these health care town-hall meetings... is they know they have no chance to beat health care this time, unless they can mortify with rigid fears some moderate conservative Democrats. Why do I know? Because they don't have the filibuster this time."

Here's the problem. In order to ensure a lasting Democratic majority, we have to pass GOOD health care legislation. I strongly believe that if the bill is sufficiently weakened without the public option as an important means of cost containment, that we will NOT get that lasting Democratic majority that Bill Clinton talked about last night.

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[ProSense]

1. No comment? n/t

[ProSense]

2. From NYT: "he said he still favored a public option but that there were many options"

The past work of Hillary Rodham Clinton hung in the air, too, as opposition to the current health care bills has reached such a loud pitch that the echoes were all too noisy for the former president. He urged the audience to debate the major points – he said he still favored a public option but that there were many options; but he cautioned them not to lose sight of the opportunity they have now with a Democratically controlled Congress.

link

No public option is not an option.

[niceypoo]

3. keep kicking your own thread

Perhaps if you toss in a 'Billary' some freeper will come along and give you a high five.

[ProSense]

4. On edit:

Wouldn't it be great if Obama took Clinton's advice and went with a bill that included something other than a public option?

[NYC_SKP]

5. I agree, it's a pretty vague and flaccid expression of support.

IMO, typical Bill Clinton.

Ambiguity on an important issue in the span of a single sentence.

[ProSense]

6. The D-Kos diary was spot on.

The groups who can't accept that Clinton's opinions are often wishy washy, which includes some of the very people slamming Obama at any hint (spin) that he might veer from a public option, will want this thread to disappear.






edited extra word

[NYC_SKP]

8. For anyone who watched Obama on Tuesday at the Town Hall....

The difference between the two men is remarkable.

I'll preface this with the comment that Bill is the rule, Obama is the exception.

Politicians seem to have a real problem speaking clearly and making declarative statements on their positions, especially when asked simple yes or no questions.

Obama was so clear the other day that even I, a card carrying cheerleader, was impressed.

:patriot:

[Cha]

16. And, so clear today that

I, a strong supporter of Pres Obama was once more awesomely impressed.

[OHdem10]

7. Are the Democrats and Bill Clinton ready to say the GOP are

correct on Health Care.

TaKe out the public option and you have a Republican Bill.
Passing the Republican Bill gives the GOP the next election.
The Democrats are saying we cannot come up with a plan--we
must do what the Republicans want.
If this happen I hope every Democrat is thrown out of office.
This is what they asked for.

When we developed the present plan making it only about Insurance
Reform, you cannot get more Republican. Yes, a differences in
how we reform. This is GOP reform. Health Care Reform was thrown
out. What gave it some semblance of a Democratic Bill, is the
Public Option. Take that away and yes we have a GOP Bill.

Harry Truman: Give the people a choice of a real Republican and
fake Republican and the people will choose the real thing everytime.

I hope our Dems on the Hill do not try to play fake Republicans.
If so, they deserve to loose their seats.


Companies in place.

[debbierlus]

18. Exactly.

[blm]

22. Bill has led the way for Dems - showing them how to roll over for GOP, and now he wants to do it

even when the Dems have a solid majority in both houses.

No surprise that Clintonite Lanny Davis was involved in Mackey's op ed in Wall Street Journal.

Bill is ALL show and an NO go on Dem issues - he likes to make a speech that makes Dems think he's one of us and then turns around and rolls over and wants Dem lawmakers to follow his lead.

And THAT is Dem LEADERSHIP Council for you.

[Overseas]

9. K&R. I want single payer.

We know there are hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into right wing PR firms who can drive people into frenzies that get them to shout down their own best interests hiding behind fake "grass roots" organizations that have "been there for years," just coincidentally dormant during appalling Republican administrations --

so let's just push through the best option right away-- Single Payer !


Or at least allow Medicare for All to be the public option. (And get rid of the cash-draining "Medicare Advantage" privatized plan the Bush admin shoved into the mix.)

And don't bargain away the constraints envisioned for the private medical insurance exchange-- like refusing or dropping coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Age is my pre-existing condition. Although I'm quite healthy, my employers have to pay 300% more to cover me than my younger colleagues.

[madfloridian]

10. Slinkerwink is right on this. Recommending.

We can not compromise everything away when we have such a majority.

[ProSense]

14. Exactly. n/t

[Lord Helmet]

11. k 'n r

[Hutzpa]

12. He is the master of triangulation

and he will now retreat to his Algarve.

[ProSense]

13. This debate is going to expose

those who want to embrace faulty logic and tinker with broken systems.

[Political Heretic]

15. Single payer is "full loaf" - Public Option is minimum to be called health care reform "success"

[debbierlus]

17. Mandated private insurance with no REAL goverment option is not health care reform

It is health insurance reform on the side of the insurance companies.

[IndianaGreen]

21. Mandate health insurance is a rightwing idea

that too many Dems have fallen for. Gvien the choice of food and insurance payments, people will always pay for food.

[wroberts189]

19. Single payer: simple common sense knr

[Honeycombe8]

20. I'm with you and Dean on this one, too!!!! (And I'm not even crazy about Dean!)

But he's got this one right. A public option is NECESSARY.

[blm]

23. KandR.

.

[karynnj]

24. Slinkerwink has had many really fantastic diaries on Daily Kos

containing detailed information on especially the House bills with information on the House members on the various committees making the decisions.

I would need to know what else Clinton said before criticizing this. This does seem the time that any influential Democrat or leader should, if they support it, be making the case for the public option. Given that at least one poll had 72% of the country backing it, public option is not "handful of elements that have widespread public support and perhaps conceding on those that have little support among voters." (this does seem to be partially rewriting history - the 1993 Senate and House were likely every bit as liberal as they are now. It is true that he had 57 Democratic Senators, not 60, but there were far more moderate Republicans then - including Jeffords, who caused with the Democrats through 2008 and Specter. He also had Moynihan, not Baucus as Finance committee chair.)

But, I think that there is a need to ask people to actually look at whatever bill comes out in detail - looking at what good and any bad it does - without applying simplistic slogans. I also think that arguing that we should not be attacking Senators FOR the public option, for not being for single payer, or if they agree single payer would be a good idea, for not fighting for it. This is counterproductive at this time. Those are people we need fighting people on the right wanting to destroy any reform.