Whatever happened to the "Health Care Debate"?

[Cerridwen]

Much of the rw (and lw) spin currently floating about our heads came from this debate. Many of the phrases and attacks we hear (and innocently repeat) come from this time. Since many on DU have said 2000 was the year they began to pay attention to politics, I thought some of those same people might want to read about where some of the "common knowledge" which is wafting about in political debate, discourse and attack had its origins. This is a 3 pager, but I believe it is well worth the time to it takes to read it to have a more comprehensive understanding of the political process; and perhaps a scorecard of some of the players.

I've added emphasis for the parts that jumped out at me and also at the beginning of paragraphs for 'readability.' The four paragraph rule made this less impressive than if I'd been able to emphasize more, so please, take the time to read as I had to leave out some excruciatingly amazing information.

Enjoy. (how Freudian of me, I accidentally typed 'endjoy' instead of 'enjoy' before correcting it)

A Detailed Timeline of the Healthcare Debate portrayed in "The System" (From PBS, May, 1996)

Spring 1991 - Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, in a private discussion about long-term Republican political strategy, predicts that the "next great offensive of the Left," as he puts it, will be "socializing health care." Gingrich declares the need for hardline Republicans to begin positioning themselves now to keep Democrats from winning in the future.

<snip>

August 30, 1992 - Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller gets wind of Clinton's waning support for "pay-or-play" and fires off a memo arguing against any change of direction. He also tells Clinton that his statement that "Americans deserve or have a right to health care" might present problems for the candidate in the future. "Although many Americans may initially react positively to this statement," he writes, “over time it can make them uneasy. Before long they will be asking: How would we pay for all that care for all those people? Won't it require a huge new government bureaucracy?"

<snip>

<Page 2>

<snip>

November 1, 1993 - Hillary Clinton launches a scathing attack against the insurance industry to counter the highly damaging "Harry and Louise" ads. She accuses the industry of greed and deliberately lying about the reform plan in order to protect its profits. She specifically denounces the ads' claim that the Clinton plan "limits choice." Rarely, if ever, has a First Lady publicly attacked any American industry or industry group -- and certainly never in such strong language and in such a furious manner. Her assault makes front-page newspaper stories, network TV news shows, and calls more attention to HIAA's role and message.

<snip>

December 2, 1993 - Leading conservative operative William Kristol privately circulates a strategy document to Republicans in Congress. Kristol writes that congressional Republicans should work to "kill" -- not amend -- the Clinton plan because it presents a real danger to the Republican future: Its passage will give the Democrats a lock on the crucial middle-class vote and revive the reputation of the party. Nearly a full year before Republicans will unite behind the "Contract With America," Kristol has provided the rationale and the steel for them to achieve their aims of winning control of Congress and becoming America's majority party. Killing health care will serve both ends. The timing of the memo dovetails with a growing private consensus among Republicans that all-out opposition to the Clinton plan is in their best political interest. Until the memo surfaces, most opponents prefer behind-the-scenes warfare largely shielded from public view. The boldness of Kristol's strategy signals a new turn in the battle. Not only is it politically acceptable to criticize the Clinton plan on policy grounds, it is also politically advantageous. By the end of 1993, blocking reform poses little risk as the public becomes increasingly fearful of what it has heard about the Clinton plan.

<snip>

edit: typo

[Blue Fire]

1. In the world's wealthiest, most high-tech nation,

health care should be a right. But first, the obscene profiteering must be eliminated!

[Cerridwen]

2. Precisely - which was, I believe, part of the debate

which was derailed.

[Blue Fire]

3. Exactly.

Money talks. And influences where it shouldn't.

[Cerridwen]

4. And sixteen years later (in this timeline) and

40,000,000 uninsured Americans later - we still have nothing except one state in which it is now law that those who do not have health insurance, perhaps because they can't afford health insurance, are now required to buy the health insurance they couldn't afford in the first place.

The business industries, the insurance industries, and the 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' gang must be crowing!

[Cerridwen]

5. I'm gonna kick this back up in the hope that people are reading

at the link rather than posting to this thread.

These will also be the attacks used in any and all future debates about Health Care. It will, in many cases, be the same people attacking the ideas for the same reasons.

"Forewarned is forearmed."

[Greyhound]

6. Great find! I didn't know much of this at all, very enlightening.

:kick: & R#1 (This really should be on the Greatest Page)

Some of the most surprising items: (Comments in parentheses are mine)

(The first revealing tidbit)
January 25, 1993 - ...Ira Magaziner will be named its day-to-day operating head. A blanket of secrecy is imposed on task force operations. Magaziner objects but is overruled by George Stephanopoulos (His sudden rise in the world of corporate infotainment becomes clearer) and others on the White House communications team

(Didn't know this and I found it pretty shocking)
September 19, 1993 - Pat Moynihan, speaking on Meet the Press, dismisses the economic calculations in the Clinton plan -- which has not even been formally launched -- as "fantasy numbers." He also joins with Republican critics and strikes at the very heart of reform by saying there is "no health care crisis."

December 2, 1993 - Leading conservative operative William Kristol privately circulates a strategy document to Republicans in Congress. Kristol writes that congressional Republicans should work to "kill" -- not amend -- the Clinton plan because it presents a real danger to the Republican future: Its passage will give the Democrats a lock on the crucial middle-class vote and revive the reputation of the party. Nearly a full year before Republicans will unite behind the "Contract With America," Kristol has provided the rationale and the steel for them to achieve their aims of winning control of Congress and becoming America's majority party. Killing health care will serve both ends. The timing of the memo dovetails with a growing private consensus among Republicans that all-out opposition to the Clinton plan is in their best political interest. Until the memo surfaces, most opponents prefer behind-the-scenes warfare largely shielded from public view. The boldness of Kristol's strategy signals a new turn in the battle. Not only is it politically acceptable to criticize the Clinton plan on policy grounds, it is also politically advantageous. By the end of 1993, blocking reform poses little risk as the public becomes increasingly fearful of what it has heard about the Clinton plan.

January 3, 1995 - Newt Gingrich receives the Speaker's gavel from Dick Gephardt and becomes the fiftieth Speaker of the House. Fourteen hours and fifteen roll calls later, the Gingrich-led House has rammed through every bill they introduced. Not a single Republican votes against any of them. Eventually house Republicans pass every bill incorporated into the Contract With America -- except for a term-limits constitutional amendment -- within their first 100 days. Nothing more dramatically signals how great a change has occurred than the boldness with which special-interes(t) lobbyists openly work with Republicans to pass their bills. So confident of their new position of power and influence are the lobbyists that they even permit reporters and photographers to attend what previously would have been highly private sessions.

It sounds to me like the vast corporate conspiracy, combined with administration naivete, and blatent political ambition combined to, not only deny the public of desperately needed health care, but greatly accelerated our decent into a corporate nightmare that is only becoming worse.

ETA: I just noticed that I duped a section that Cerridwen also tagged, LOL!