Reich: Obama "Over-Learned" From Clinton (VIDEO)

In crafting health care legislation, the Obama White House may have "over-learned the lesson of the Clinton years," giving too much deference to Congress when presidential leadership is needed, Robert Reich said on Sunday.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," the former Clinton administration labor secretary and his co-panelists acknowledged that the past week of news on the health care reform front was not a good one for progressive activists. CBO reports showed plans in the Senate costing scads of taxpayer funds with moderate returns in coverage, while Republican opposition to a public plan crystallized. In light of it all, Reich said it was time to revisit the chief component of Obama's legislative strategy: allowing a health care bill to originate in Congress so as to keep the process open and accessible to its 535 members.

"The worry here is that the President may have, and the White House staff may have, over-learned the lesson of the Clinton health care plan, 'fiasco,' which was don't deliver a package to the Hill, let the Hill take ownership," said Reich. "That was true up to a point... Right now the president has got to get involved, twist arms and say if I don't have A, B, and C I'm not going to sign this bill."

"We have reached a tipping point," Reich went on. "And I think the problem is there are so many different bills and so many different conceptions of where the money is going to come from, whether there is going to be a mandate, whether there is going to be a public option, what the public option will look like, that there is no coherence. The president has got to go in there and give it coherence."

Watch:

The remarks were met with agreement from host George Stephanopoulos, who, like Reich, was in the Clinton White House during the last major, failed push for reform.

Saying that Reich was "right in part about 1993-94," Stephanopoulos noted that when the Clintons started crafting health care reform there were Republicans willing to compromise. But as the process proceeded, those amenable GOPers walked away.

"The politics changed and it wouldn't matter what was in the bill at the end, the Republican Party decided they weren't going to go along with this," he said. "It appears to me this week, you started to see that developing now... It seems to me that the last Republican negotiating right now is [Iowa Sen.] Chuck Grassley."

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Comments

[SCG]

"The object of government is the welfare of the people. The liberty of the people to carry on their business should not be abridged unless the larger interests of the many are concerned. When the interests of the many are concerned the interests of the few must yield. It is the purpose of the government to see not only that the legitimate interests of the few are protected but that the welfare and the rights of the many are conserved.

These are the principles which we must remember in any consideration of the question. This, I take it, is sound government--not politics. Those are the essential basic conditions under which government can be of service."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt 9/21/32

[Tulka2]

There was a man. There was a stand-up man. Oh the upper classes hated him. They called him a "class traitor". Both my grandfathers loved FDR till the day they died. My grade school nuns did too. All working class people and farmers loved FDR.

If Obama plays his cards right, there might even be a third term in it for him. Remember when the Republicans were all about amending the amendemt so Reagan could serve a third term? LOL

[smiththomas]

ive been reading a little about the recent proposals. I'll bet the only ones to benifit are the 16 million of those people without insurance. there will be a business mandate. Problem there is in small businesses the money is not there . This will end up being like the minimum wage increases. Did you ever noticed what happens with those. prices up at once to adjust. Makes the employees feel better but do they really benifit. Im afraid everyone is going to be disappointed. As for the cost to insure the uninsured, this will not be free either.

[Marcospinelli]

If you have an emergency medical condition, whether or not you're insured, a hospital must treat you. So, in a very real sense, we already have universal coverage; it's just that it's poorly planned and very inefficient.

[Tulka2]

The current system for the jobless and uninsured....? Break your leg, lose your house. See? The system works.

[vanmungo]

Here's a summary of the top 20 recipients of legalized bribes from the HMOs and Big Pharma for the 2008 election cycle (notice that Obama leaves McCain in the dust!)--read it and weep if you've been gulled into believing that ANY Democrat is proposing ANY real reform--including this "public option" sham that will apply a thin cosmetic veneer to a broken system and leave the HMO greedheads in charge:

Obama, Barack (D) $19,578,158
McCain, John (R) $7,418,423
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) $6,630,985
McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) $1,354,535
Baucus, Max (D-MT) $1,161,175
Cornyn, John (R-TX) $961,719
Coleman, Norm (R-MN) $898,328
Paul, Ron (R-TX) $874,444
Pallone, Frank Jr (D-NJ) $845,445
Rangel, Charles B (D-NY) $827,549
Specter, Arlen (R-PA) $718,398
Chambliss, Saxby (R-GA) $713,709
Smith, Gordon H (R-OR) $713,013
Roberts, Pat (R-KS) $676,949
Harkin, Tom (D-IA) $673,048
Collins, Susan M (R-ME) $659,019
Dingell, John D (D-MI) $573,736
Udall, Mark (D-CO) $560,115
Landrieu, Mary L (D-LA) $556,918
Price, Tom (R-GA) $529,851

ONLY single-payer Medicare is REAL reform. For more information, go to

www.singlepayeraction.org
http://www.healthcare-now.org
www.pnhp.org
http://www.1payer.net/
http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/

[jmpurser]

Well said and excellent resources.

[Chopin]

http://www.1payer.net/
.

[Nonpartay]

As I recall, President Obama managed to raise about 3/4 of a BILLION DOLLARS for his campaign. Do you think $19 million would influence him all that much? That's about 2.5% of the total he received, if I'm figuring it correctly. The reason they gave him the money was because they probably thought he was going to win and wanted influence, which is why companies and industries give to politicians, but it doesn't mean everything will go their way. I think Obama knows that if he doesn't deliver on health care, he's pretty much toast. I give him credit for being way smarter than to let that happen. Remember, no one thought he would win at first and he fooled them all. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he fools 'em again.

[StopSexismNow]

Yeah, the problem I have with this is that Obama did not allow Single Payer/Medicare for All advocates to even join the discussion. They were completely shut out while the red carpet was rolled out for Insurance, Big Pharma and the Medical INDUSTRY folks....those same folks who contributed the paltry $19 million to his campaign.

[dwright]

Then are we going to e-mail them? Vote them out the next go around? Call them? Mail then a letter? Send them copies of our medical bills?

Hey I really think that is something we should do - make copies of all of your medical bills and send them to your representatives!!

[Tulka2]

Please ask every clergy person you know if he thinks access to health care in a human right. Please ask them to say so from the pulpit.

[StopSexismNow]

CALL THEM! Congress and the White House have a weighting system for contact they receive from the public. A phone call is weighted much more heavily than an email...I don't know the exact numbers, but it is in the thousands. Plus, when the switchboards get jammed, it tends to get their attention real quick.

PICK UP THE PHONE PEOPLE and demand SINGLE PAYER!

Dept of HHS phone is 1-877-696-6775
Max Baucus is 202-224-2651
Finance committee is [phone]
White House is 202-456-1414
Other committee member contacts can be found here:

http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/committee.htm

[Tulka2]

I called everyone. Had to wait ten minutes to talk to someone at HHS. Maybe the government should get a lot deeper in phone operators. Cushy job and bet they have great benefits.

[FGDinVA]

I think if anything is going to get done in an orderly fashion, Pres. Obama is going to have to step in. Otherwise, this healthcare reform bill is liable to end up like a platypus - a duck designed by committee.

Remember, it is in the Republican's best interest for the mid-term elections that healthcare reform fails to be meaningful, efficient, or effective. If Republicans (and the Blue dogs) were really interested in fiscal conservatism, they wouldn't continue to support a system where people are having to go to the emergency room for strep throat. If they truly wanted fiscal conservatism, they would support single payer or a public option. Their concerns are only for getting re-elected, and humoring the corporations that fund them, not for their constituents.

[dwright]

I believe he has been stepping in and pretty forcefully lately - he held 3 town halls etc. It is our turn to do something.

[FGDinVA]

I think the town hall meetings have more to do with getting his message out to the people and answering questions to allay their fears about "socialized medicine" taking over. Which is great. But that isn't quite the same as talking to Congress. I am appreciative of Rep. Waxman and the others who have come up with a plan - it sounds like it is a lot better than our senators have been able to do.

Congress already knows that the majority of Americans want single payer, yet it's off the table. They are constantly pelted with tweets, emails, petitions, and letters telling them the people want single payer (count me among them). I still think Pres. Obama needs to go in, kick b#tt and take names. It's also time for someone to cut the umbilical cord between Congress and the healthcare industry.

And while I'm at it - "heathcare industry" signifies EXACTLY what's wrong with our system. As long as that is an acceptable term for it, then it will always be acceptable for it to be profitable at any cost and heedless of the suffering of those who are not in the right income bracket or who aren't healthy enough.

[SCG]

"There is nothing I love as much as a good fight."

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

[SCG]

"Put two or three men in positions of conflicting authority. This will force them to work at loggerheads, allowing you to be the ultimate arbiter."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

[TLV]

Thanks to a friend who just emailed me this -
Here are a few facts gathered by the National Coalition on Health Care and Physicians for National Health Care:
1. We are spending 2 ½ trillion dollars for health care, or about $8,000 per year per person, which is 17% of our GNP!
2. Many believe we spend too much on the military but we spend 4.3 times as much on health care!
3. Although we have nearly 50 million citizens without HC insurance, we spend twice the amount per capita on health care than other industrial countries and they all provide universal health care!
4. The US spends 6 times more per capita than these other countries on the administration of health care.
5. Our health care, except for Medicare for those over 65 years, is administered largely by private insurance. Medicare incurs an administrative cost of less than 3% of the money they receive. Private insurance absorbs about 30%, ten times as much. This amounts to $400 billion per year.

[Bushwillresign]

Lindsay Graham was saying today that we don't want a bureaucrat between us and our doctor. No, we like it like it is now, an insurance call center between us and our doctor.
Hello, do you speak-a-da-English.

[FGDinVA]

Exactly.

[ariveria]

that is the height of hypocrisy the republican party platform calls for putting the a government bureaucrat between us and our doctor. what to they think outlawing abortion does

the republican/conservatives are the biggest opponents of medical marijuana. that is putting a government bureaucrat between us and our doctors.

the republican/conservatives are the ONLY ones advocating putting a government bureaucrat between us and our doctor.

WITHOUT THE RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE

THERE IS NO RIGHT TO LIFE

[aofh]

I think what Graham meant to say was that we don't want a "public" bureaucrat between us and our doctor. Obviously we are quite happy to have a "private" bureaucrat between us and our doctor mediating between our health and company profits.

[Nonpartay]

And yet the government option is also supposed to be so fabulous that it will put the insurance companies out of business. Excuse me?

[OutsourcedAgain]

How much of that two trillion is going directly into the hands of the big insurance companies? NOT to your doctor, NOT to the hospital and NOT toward your personal care. The insurance industry doesn't give a rats @ss about your care. If they can save a buck (so they can go on some junket at a spa) then they are more than happy to deny your claim.

I would much rather have a government bureaucrat making the decision than some pencil pusher from the insurance industry. At least the government bureaucrat would be answerable to the voters. Or their boss would be.

[vanmungo]

But government bureaucrats would NOT be making medical decisions under a single-payer Medicare for all system--on the models of U.S. Medicare and the Canadian system, it would be privately administered--the hospitals, labs, and medical practices that are private would remain private.

Only the funding would be public to eliminate the estimated annual $400 billion in HMO waste: redundant bureaucracies that track billing in hospitals, doctor's offfices, and labs; shareholder profit distribution and exorbitant CEO compensation (averaging $14 million per year in 2008), and price gouging on premiums. As Paul Krugman once said, what other countries call health-care expenditures, the HMOs call income.

This is the farce of the "public option"--an enfeebled public-sector HMO that would replicate all the ills of the private ones: no government funding (after an initial infusion of public cash); would have to be self-sustaining by charging premiums and imposing deductibles; would have to offer fees that are higher than Medicare.

Most people will still not be able to afford it: hence no universal coverage and none of the cost controls of a single nonprofit risk pool--everybody in, nobody out--that enables every other industrialized country to achieve HALF our per capita health-care costs with BETTER heatlh outcomes.

Don't settle for this public option scam. Insist on the only REAL reform: nonprofit single-payer Medicare for all!

www.singlepayeraction.org
http://www.healthcare-now.org
www.pnhp.org
http://www.1payer.net/
http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/

[biabouman41]

Once again, the Republicans are playing the game of "bipartisanship". But what that means to them is let us put into this bill stuff that will generate opposition and then we will attack it and walk away from it. The President needs to lead this process, and NOT trust the Republicans. The Democratic Congress is wandering left and right, They will fumble the ball. He needs to take it to the end zone.
When does football begin anyway?

[Kassandra]

If they can't even give US a public choice; don't do anything at all and see what happens to this country. The insurance giants will finish off the job Bush started and Obama is seamlessly continuing.
If they "mandate" insurance from the insurance corporations and don't give US a choice...well. it's not going to work. and people will finally wake up to who they "elected"

Can you BELIEVE I still get request for donations from the president of the United States? Use the bully pulpit, sir, and stop asking me for $$$ that I don't have because you decided to save the banks instead of our jobs.

[gouda123]

Obama promised universal coverage. Forcing everyone to buy from insurance companies is technically universal!!!

[jmpurser]

Yes, "technically" he didn't sell us down the river. "Technically".

[LeftCoastLarry]

Do you get paid to inject these little snippets that are totally untrue?

[teron678]

"Forcing everyone to buy from insurance companies is technically universal!!!" .......... Obama or Congress is advocating this???

[TLV]

The requests for donations are fraudulent. My mother sent the Obama/Biden campaign a check right before they won and they returned it, thanking her nicely but saying they had quite enough. Thoroughly check where the requests are coming from.

[jonbw]

Dear Moveon.org, HCAN, DFA, OFA,

I want you to make it clear you going to put money behind a no public plan no deal campaign. Anyone who votes for a bill without a public option DOES NOT support the public option. Anyone who votes for a bill without it should be attacked, should be primaried, should be cut off for good from the help of the progressive community. It is the side which is more firm on the issue who will win.

[biabouman41]

agree

[vanmungo]

Pushing for the public option is a diversion--a dead end.

Until now the term "public option" has been an empty signifier onto which people have projected their ardent wishes and good intentions. Now, with the Waxman-Rangel plan, we begin to see the ugly details.

Unlike the nonprofit, single-payer plans in place in the rest of the industrialized world, this "public option" would charge premiums and impose deductibles; unlike them, it could not accept government funding, and so would have to be self-sustaining. Moreover, it would likely be saddled with the oldest, sickest, and thus most expensive cohort, and would have to offer higher fees than Medicare--so no cost savings, none of the cost efficiencies of a single risk pool; it would be competing with 1,300 private HMO risk pools, which would aggressively market the youngest, healthiest, and thus cheapest and most profitable cohort.

This is a designed-to-fail fraud intended to keep the HMOs firmly in control of this increasingly dysfunctional system.

Public-option plans have been tried in several states, and in every case they have failed to reduce costs or increase coverage.

The only PROVEN way of accomplishing both of those goals--based on a half-century's track record in Europe and Canada--is a nonprofit, single-payer approach.

For a detailed analysis of the pitfalls of the public options, please see the following:

http://www.commondreams.org/print/43440

http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php#public-option

[mountclemens]

Well said, vanmungo. I hope our majority reads and learns so that we don't have people pushing for something that's a trap.

[Peabodies]

Thank you, vanmungo. This needed to be clarified. Not-for-Profit, single payer, not attached to employment, is what we demand.

No gimmicks -- no so-called "triggers", "co-ops", "taxation of health benefits", no "deductibles, no mandatory "insurance".

[Marcospinelli]

If we learned nothing else from the Bush-Cheney administration, it's that you can sell anything to the American people with the right sales pitch.

The only reason that single payer universal health care wouldn't become law is if Obama and Democrats either don't want it to pass or aren't adept at creating a sales pitch.

So which is it? Because if it's that they don't know how to sell it, it's time to get new people into office who do know how.

[Tulka2]

Oh, they know how to sell it. It's like selling ice cream on a hot day. They don't know how to pitch it to their shadowy overlords, is the problem. We want a fight. We want a bloody fight. We want to know who our enemies are.

[phasor]

Perceptive. Nice!

[gouda123]

This is for all the weak minded who post over and over "Fine unless we get healthcare we will take your healthcare"

I know that you can not comprehend basic government. So I will try not to use any big words.

They would have to vote on themselves not getting healthcare. That means the same republicans and democrats that are against this, would have to give up thier healthcare. There is no way for us to take it from them.

[Tulka2]

FDR pulled out some pretty fancy footwork to get some things passed that felt like kidney stones to the Republicans. That's what we expect. The Republicans and the upper class they represent then and now called him a "class traitor". That's what we expect. We expect blood in the water. We expect a fight.

It's easy to tell who has a job and health care.

[gouda123]

The republicans?

The republicans are not the issue, we hold a super majority. The enemy is democrats.

[SCG]

He went before the people and sold them on his plans, woe to any politician which wished to oppose him, they feared to keep their seats. By the last term, Republicans were trying to sound like democrats, read FDR's "Fala" speech from 1944, it's on google in text and audio.

[SCG]

Who will pay for those million dollar speeches if they burn the hands that feed them?

[Kassandra]

Same with all the useless bloviating about campaign fiance reform. They don't want it, they LIKE billion dollar campaigns. so, they would NEVER vote for it.

Democracy anyone???

PS: you don't have to be so condescending about this, ya know? It's just people's frustration with their lot under the police/corporate state they are finally coming to understand we have in the "Land of the Free"

Now, let's all go watch the exciting developments from Iran's fight for "Democracy". It's all that's on the TEEVEE right now anyways

[Tulka2]

Unless it hundreds of thousands, if not millions in our streets are protesting an up- coming American war in Iraq. Then it wasn't the least bit newsworthy. Just a bunch of hippies in the street.

[gouda123]

I could have framed it nicer, yes.

It's just frustrating to see people who have not gotten out of the second grade demanding this or that, with absolutely no clue as to how our government works. No wonder we can't get anything done. We can't even educate the people on our side.

[Billy Hell]

Yeah it concerns me deeply that once Senators are elected there's no accountability to voters and no way I'm aware of to remove them from office till the next elections, unless they screw up real bad and break the law.

[Kassandra]

Medicare and Medicaid were fine programs under Clinton. I could just walk in with my Medicaid card to any doctor in the country ( with approval from my state, of course) and get excellent care.

Then, Bush turned them both over to the HMOs and now, they're crap, with drug formularies that require the patient to get the generics which don't always work as well as the name brands no matter what you've heard from the hypsters.

Medicare Part D was confusing to older folks and they actually lost their doctors they'd been seeing for years if they picked the wrong plan. I saw many older people in the pharmacy line ahead of me get sticker shock when they tried to get their medicine, which had been paid for before Part D. It was extortion, plain and simple.

And now, Congress doesn't even want to give US THAT crappy program. I think that this will be an end to the Democrats short rule if they don't get it together.

They've spent trillions of OUR $$$$$$$ bailing out the banks in a failed attempt to get the economy moving again. THIS will get the economy moving again by taking the health load off business. It makes sense in more ways than one, but all they can think about is their insurance friends and the $$$ they're getting to screw US once again.
What a bunch of demagogues we have up there, president included.

[gouda123]

Uh generics not working as well?

It's the same chemical formula which is very heavily regulated. The only difference is brand name.

[Kassandra]

Not for the orphan drugs esp. they want you to THINK they are the same but many are not. Talk to an epileptic who's been taken off the name brand and see what they say works best.

[Tulka2]

Made in China. "Heavily regulated"??? Wanna bet?

[Kassandra]

I find it interesting that out of my whole post you chose to make a big deal out of tha ton sentence.
Here: http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2008/06/fear_factor_accompanies_generi.html

[traveler501]

let's remember that what made life so hard for Clinton was lack of support from the Dems...who didn't want to share power. that's happening again to some extent and needs to be brought up short. as for the Repugs pretending to go along and then backing off...nothing new there...moving on.