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

[TJCole]

Professor Uwe Reinhardt of Princeton University, an expert on Health Care Economics..

Discovered by Philip Taylor...here..

Professor Reinhardt...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxkiWh600tw

This is very new..I hope you watch very educational on this huge topic

He is someone our Media is making sure you never hear of or from...

[ossilot]

I think President Obama needs to stick with what he wants, tell the Congress what he wants, get these spineless Democrats behind him and pass a bill with or without Repuclican backing. I have had it with Republicans acting like they are a superior species and know it all. If they knew anything at all, we would not be in the positions we are in now. If we need more money for a public plan, let everyone in Congress pay for their own cars, travel and expensive meals. Americans can't put food on the table and they live the high life on our dime.

PLEASE..........PRESIDENT OBAMA, just do what the country needs and tell the nay-sayers to get lost.

[Kassandra]

but does he really want it? So, far, the only whipping we've seen from this guy was for the Afghan War supplemental and the gift to the IMF. THEN, he sent his attack dawg Rahm over to the House.
I'd like to see him put his (our) money where his mouth is for once.

[maggienash65]

Wonder if this guy will ever get over the fact this administration didn't pick him for a position?

[JZ735]

Yes, Reich is right...as with Iran, Obama is playing it safe, taking the path of least resistance...he needs to stop playing softball and start playing hardball with Congress...no time for any kind of deference...he should tell them I want a plan that I can sign on my desk by such and such date...I will not listen to any distractions, any dilly dallying, any lobbyists or naysayers...get it done and get it done right and fast...no games, no bologna, no bull...

[Trittydi]

What makes Congress thinks they know our best interests better than we do?

Silly me!! Of course it's a rhetorical question - they don't give a god dam about us. I'll bet the lot of them have "I've Got Mine!" tattooed on each and every one of their privileged a$$es
*

[Tulka2]

Obama has got to lead. He has got to tell us what to do. We have to not only call our Senators and Congressional Reps, but we also need to ask our own clergy and ministers if they think health care is a human right. We must ask them to say so from the pulpit as they have felt so free to promote other litmus tests.

Jesus talked about serving the poor more than he talked about any other issue. Over and over again.

[dwright]

Why does Obama have to tell you what to do - we know what to do. Threaten to throw the bums out that didn't vote for health care.

Also send e-mails, call and letters to the representatives in surrounding states and tell them you will travel to their state and help unseat them in their next election.

[NWNHNM]

1. Large corporations own congress. We spend money with large corporations. (So they're buying Congress with our money.) If we boycott large corporations (stop shopping, stop eating out, cancel cable, etc. - everything but basic needs or local purchases), then they will make congress pass meaningful health care reform. It will take 1 to 2 weeks. They only understand money; it is our money they use to bribe congress. At least we should get something for our money.

2. Single payer plan only. We need to cut private insurance out. They are insurance in name only. Let's face the fact that the emperor is wearing no clothes. Obama says "if we were starting from scratch, we would have a single payer plan." Then start from scratch; get your precious self at your desk and start working on this. It would only take 2 tweaks to Medicare for this: add obstetrical services and pediatric services. End of task.

3. Until there is a single payer plan, no federal employee, including the President, gets taxpayer-funded health insurance. Let them take their salaries (and their bribes) and buy their own private insurance. They can see how good it is. Even John and Cindy McCain will be bankrupt if they have to cover his cancer treatment out of their own pockets.

It's that simple. Obama wants to "keep what works" with the current system. What works is Medicare and the VA. Private insurance is just chewing gum and paper clips.

[gouda123]

Yeah, it's that simple, and I bet you get 3 people who follow you!!

[SCG]

"It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

[Trittydi]

Obama is not on the side of the American People. Period.

Public Option is Crap.

Why does the congress get single-payer and we get nothing? Not even the inferior Public Option?

Why are we paying for free health care for these genuine American Traitors?

That's all we're good for - we pay for their marvelous health care - SO MARVELOUS - that it's too good for the likes of us.

The Insurance Companies lines their pocketses with gold - yes they do. The Insurance Companies LOVES them - Insurance Companies won't hurt them.

Why do Re-Thugs and DLC Democrats Hate America?

Why do they Hate Americans?

Why?
*

[Tulka2]

Why do they hate Americans?

These talk show panels no more hate us than lords and ladies hated their serfs. This is class war and the underclass did not start it. We could watch the dominoes fall from going on the gold standard, but most people don't read ancient history so let's start with Eisenhower warning us about the Military Industrial Complex. It really picked up steam with the Ronald Reagan puppet. Ever since it's been an ever widening gap between rich and poor with the great middle class desperately pretending they won't be next. If they just play along maybe they will get to keep their jobs and health "insurance". Not health care, health insurance.

[GrainOSand]

You do not need to enjoy history, read history, understand history, or otherwise be informed of anything beyond this...everyone knew that the bully on the playground, in the sandlot, or at the beach was wrong. FInd the bully in politics, in the market, in the judicial system, in the military, in the State Department...in general society, and you find all that is wrong. You are right, bullies do not think of those they bully. The very state of being is an advanced stage of selfishness.

[aprilshowers]

For all our Congressmen and naysayers out there that decry a public government plan on Healthcare to compete with private plans, I say "Give up your Medicare benefits for yourself, your spouse and aging parents. Otherwise, quit being hypocrites."
Ask any American 65 years of age or older, especially those in their 80's or with parents in their 80's, what they think about a government run healthcare plan. Ask the millions of Americans, without lower cost group plans like the Congressmen have, what they pay for healthcare. Ask the millions of Americans laid off due to the economy how they are affording healthcare.
It is time our Congressmen listen to the American people affected by rising costs in healthcare instead of those powerful Insurance and Health Care Providers that make huge profits and donate lavishly to these Congressmen's campaigns.

[SonofLiberty1]

I stopped listening to him when he claimed that outsourcing wasn't a big deal.

[Lilith33]

Its not if you take away the tax breaks to do it.We pay our companies to leave the country.Maybe if we stopped doing that.....
P.S. clinton signed NAFTA.
Gore was against it.

[SCG]

I recall Gore strongly selling it, he debated Perot on the subject on CNN's Larry King. In fact I believe he referred to the president of Mexico at that time as their "Thomas Jefferson"

Later events would put the Mexican President in far less than a Jeffersonian light.

[TLV]

But Bush One drafted every bit of NAFTA and the Republican Congress loved it.

[PhilipTaylor]

Public Option Needed:

1. Insurance Providers refuses to cover you if you get really S1CK!
2. Insurance Companies charge 1,500% administrative FEES over Medicare! $Trillion right there!
3. Insurance Companies refuse to cover preexisting conditions!
4. Capitalist Sw!tzerland has it and they live LONGER and Healthier Lives!
5. Insurance Companies say they can NOT Compete! Incomes high as $343 Million over five years!
6. Insurance Companies should have a MASSIVE NEST-EGG after all these years!
7. American REBELLION if NOT included this FALL!
8. Americans' coverage must be as good as CONGRESS Gets!

Plus it was OBAMA's Promise recorded for re-broadcast in the NEXT ELECTION(S)!

[jmpurser]

Public option, in an ideal world, MIGHT give us a system we can survive. But I wouldn't bet on it.

We NEED single payer.

[PhilipTaylor]

Excellent POINT!

We have to be careful of these TRICKSTERS in Congress and the lobbyists who often get final approval of the BILL! They will dump all the "low-profit coverage" that Insurance Companies do not want on the Public Plan and all the "HIGH-PROFIT coverage" will be covered by the Insurance Profiteers!

[Realization]

They keep talking about health care reform costing money. Right now we pay about 16 percent ( a bit more, maybe) for lousy and confusing health insurance that doesn't cover everyone. Good reform should focus on cutting that to covering everyone at 10 or 11% of GDP like other countries that are less controlled by vested interests. That's a lot less than continuing what we are doing now.

And there are hidden costs - people not getting care, huge amounts of time spent trying to deal with private bureaucracies (doctors and patients have to do this), time and money spent trying to figure out if people are qualified, and the drag on the rel economy.

Quick and thorough reform is cheaper.

[jmpurser]

Amen. We need single payer to start saving money on the front end of reform.

[aofh]

I disagree with Mr. Reich. I think the best thing the President did was to make Congress responsible for the health care plan. That there is contention and competing plans and offerings is the democratic process at work. The truth of the matter is that we have not had the political will to fix the health care system, and a lot of that had to do with the behind closed doors nature of the debate. This time the debate is public. It has been going on long enough to allow people to get past their reflex reactions to certain charges and reassess what they really want. The longer this goes on, the more the general population will warm to the need for change and the harder it will be for the forces of the status quo to control the outcome. That may not happen by the end of summer, but it is far more important that we have a genuine consensus than a "bill." Once a consensus is reached, the opposition won't be as likely to tear it down.

[HappyMarsden]

One thing is clear: ANY kind of health care system where profit is involved on the backs of citizens, is going to continue to be poison for America. You simply can't have money and human lives in the same equasion; money will always win. Because greed is stronger than caring for your fellow American, in America. So if Obama opts for a for-profit system, he's a traitor.

[unionave]

We have known a health care program was needed since before FDR and have debated it since then . We also know we have three (3) Equal branches of government with one controling the money and making the laws . That branch has all the company lobbyist because companies know making law is more effective . Being Equal in power if the branch that controls the money and makes the laws decides they want to NOT change conditions that help their friends the company lobbyist there is nothing the other branches can do about it except complain . Each time this subject has come up the media becomes filled with a long list of reasons why it wiil not be good for the American citizen and by the time the smoke clears we still do not have what we want thanks to writers like Reich that have a bone to pick and his bone picking is more important than the reason why we do not have an affordable health care program . Team work is what we need but bone picking , mud slinging , and opposition is why we do not have what we want . Suppose we all took a month off on all our insurance bills ? We are the boss you know .