Barney Frank Makes a Misdiagnosis on Obamacare

[babylonsister]

Last edited Thu Apr 26, 2012, 08:56 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/04/26/barney_frank_makes_a_misdiagnosis_on_obamacare_113962.html

Barney Frank Makes a Misdiagnosis on Obamacare
By Joe Conason


Representative Barney Frank, who is not seeking re-election, gave a memorable exit interview this week to New York magazine suggesting that President Barack Obama "underestimated, as did Clinton, the sensitivity of people to what they see as an effort to make them share the health care with poor people."

The Democratic Party "paid a terrible price for health care," Frank said. "I would not have pushed it as hard."

snip//

Frank is mistaken that the White House underestimated the political price. At various points, Vice President Joe Biden, senior advisor David Axelrod and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel advised the president to focus entirely on the economy and leave comprehensive health care for another day. "I begged him not to do this," Emanuel told me when I was researching my book about Obama's first year in office.

I asked the president in late 2009 why he overruled his team. He answered: "I remember telling Nancy Pelosi that moving forward on this could end up being so costly for me politically that it would affect my chances" in 2012. But he and Pelosi agreed that if they didn't move at the outset of the Obama presidency, "it was not going to get done."

snip//

But let's not pretend health care reform was a fatal Iraq-style distraction from the main event. Instead of costing thousands of lives, it will potentially save many more with its incentives for preventive care, among other historic provisions.

The public might not appreciate it yet, but Obamacare took leadership and guts from the president whose name it bears.

[Scuba]

1. Love ya Barney, but you got this on wrong.

Medicare for All, please.

[babylonsister]

2. He got it wrong, but I don't think it has anything to do w/Medicare.

It's taking the first step in healthcare for all; we should have put that off until when?

[Scuba]

3. No, that was me running slightly off topic for my second-favorite cause...

... fair elections being first.