CNN interviewed me earlier this week (full CNN video at the bottom of the post) for a story they were doing on the differences between this health care fight and the last one, during the Clinton years. The story Jim Acosta did is here, but I made a couple of points to them that they didn't put in the piece that I thought were worth sharing with you, namely about bipartisanship and the insurance industry, which are highly linked topics. I also want to highlight Bob Creamer's terrific new post on the same issue.
There are some similarities and lots of big differences between this health care fight and the last one. So far, Obama has shown that he has learned the lessons of the last fight well -- he made it a top priority, he said he wanted to get it done in the first year, he put a down payment on reform into his budget. All of those are good strategic moves that Bill Clinton did not do. But the biggest difference by far is that Obama and the Democrats agreed to have the option to put health care reform into the reconciliation package, meaning we would only need 50 votes instead of 60.
So here's the point I made to CNN: Obama is doing a great job of including the insurance companies and their stalwart Republican defenders in the discussions, welcoming their ideas, etc. But this bill does not need to be bipartisan, and if the Republicans want to insist that the insurance industry gets what they want, we can do this without them. We will need 83% of the Democrats in the Senate, and 85% in the House, and an effective, popular president can get that done.
And to those who worship at the alter of bipartisanship, who say we need a bipartisan bill for something to be "sustainable," I would suggest you check your history books: many of the greatest reforms in our nation's history -- including ending slavery and most of the great New Deal reforms -- came without much or any bipartisanship. So, look, if you Republicans want to stop carrying water for an insurance industry desperate to avoid legitimate competition from a public plan, you are welcome to the table, come on aboard. But if not -- as I said to CNN -- we will just roll you and muscle this one home.