Republicans Don't Have A Chance

Bill Clinton is offering Mr. Obama some advice on health care reform.

Former President Bill Clinton says those in his party should ignore any grief from Republicans on health care reform, because the GOP is just waiting for Democrats to "mess up."

Clinton told Esquire magazine that lawmakers should put together the best health care measure for President Barack Obama, even if it must be fixed later.

"All we have to worry about is getting things done and doing them as well as we can," Clinton said. "Don't even worry about the Republicans. Let them figure out what they're going to stand for. 'Cause as long as they're sitting around waiting for us to mess up, they don't have a chance."

I wonder if Mr. Clinton has forgotten the 1994 mid-term elections that gave Republicans control of the House.
Skocpol undertook the study just after President Clinton's failed health care reform effort of 1993-94, when Clinton and his fellow Democrats fared poorly in the 1994 elections and conservative Republicans won many seats in Congress. Taking advantage of a timely opportunity, Skocpol decided to examine this very specific case: how the 1993-94 conflicts over health care reform contributed to the larger political turnaround.

Skocpol's work resulted in Boomerang: Health Care Reform and the Turn against Government, published by W. W. Norton & Co. in 1996. Using the failed health care reform effort of 1993-94 as a case study, Skocpol gives an overview and an explanation of what happened -- or failed to happen -- during those policy debates about the role of the federal government in health care.

And what was the key to Clinton's failure?
Privileged middle-class Americans who already had some kind of health coverage began to fear that Clinton's Health Security plan might make their health care more costly and cumbersome. Skocpol says President Clinton assiduously avoided the tax-and-spend modalities of traditional New Deal liberalism -- only to fall victim instead to the political pitfalls of substituting regulations for spending.
And the Obama Plan? Massive regulation AND massive spending. It is no wonder that people like this lady are up in arms.

Cross Posted at Power and Control

posted by Simon on 09.08.09 at 08:45 PM





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Comments

Government health care as in Europe and Canada for the middle incomes has been a reduction in service, increase in cost and ceding of control to bureaucracy.
Everyone has equal access to wait lists.
The wealthy still go where they pay the bill and call the tune,
but now they are taxed to subsidize everyones bill.


Hugh   ·  September 8, 2009 10:15 PM

I spent several hours on the phone today trying to get an address straightened out with Social Security, so that Medicare will OK enrollment in an HMO. The person eligible for benefits lives in a different state than I, his payee, do.

A few more hours was spent trying to find a doctor to go to myself that Tricare would pay, would accept new patients, and could see me before December. No luck. I called all the doctors in that specialty on the list within a 50 mile radius.

Just so you know how government paid health care works...

Donna B.   ·  September 8, 2009 10:30 PM

Is there any particular reason we should believe Clinton has Mr. Obama's best interests at heart in giving this advice?

Watchman   ·  September 9, 2009 12:26 AM

'Cause as long as they're sitting around waiting for us to mess up, they don't have a chance."

Van Jones could not be reached for comment.

TallDave   ·  September 9, 2009 02:45 AM

I catch hell every time I say this but Bill knew how to run an administration and he made accurate judgments of what policies would work in America and what the people would reject.

I doubt he really gave a fig about HillaryCare going down in flames. He proposed it to placate the left. Didn't get it. So what?

Now I suspect he realizes O's economics are a disaster. And he isn't the sort to want a disaster for the country. But what can he do? Not much really.

I am not sure we can avoid a horrible economic retreat now. But I often make mistakes about the future so I can at least hope we do.

Here is where I do disagree with Bill. The GOP should do exactly what he says will ruin them. It will not.

The GOP should face facts and make sure the voters see they cannot stop the Democrats before the next election. They should make it plain that the GOP will not help ObamaNomics pile up debt.

Nor help ObamaStocracy put his thuggish Czars into every nook and cranny of our lives.

Let the country see that what is done in the next 14 months was done by Democrats. And by the Democrats alone.

K   ·  September 9, 2009 07:29 AM

K,

The Rs are doing a fair job of opposing Obanomics. Are they doing a good job publicizing that? TBD. It may not matter with blogs and the rest of the Inet. Palin released her "Death Panels" remark on Facebook.

M. Simon   ·  September 9, 2009 12:19 PM

I think Bill Clinton hates Barack Obama with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. Obama was the one who truly ended Clinton's reign as God Of All Proper-Thinking People and turned him into just another tawdry ex-pol with a shrill wife and rich party friends.

Bill expected to spend the rest of his days basking in adulation, dispensing wisdom and goodness on his own schedule, and collecting $100k for talking to groups of people who wanted to sit at his feet and listen to him and gaze up at him adoringly.

Instead, Obama trashed him in public, made him look small and venal, and showed him at his angry, bitter worst, which finally broke the hold he had over so many.

So, advice from Clinton? I'd maybe check things out before using them.

bobby b   ·  September 9, 2009 04:58 PM

Hi,
Everything dynamic and very positively! :)

AlexAxe   ·  September 12, 2009 02:47 PM

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