Asked today if health care was on the back burner, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "The president believes it is the exact right thing to do by giving this some time, by letting the dust settle, if you will, and looking for the best path forward."
He said the administration wants to give Congress time to figure out their next move.
"The President thinks the speaker and the majority leader are doing the right thing in giving this some time and figuring out the best way forward," he said.
He also noted that President Obama "has a very full plate" with financial reform, the economy, the wars and other matters.
And it would be very, very wrong to use the can't-walk-and-chew-gum analogy.
I don't know. Perhaps somewhere down the road, we will come to see that Obama's decision to wash his hands of health care reform at this point was a wise move, but I can't see how.
From TPM.
PS: Picture Lyndon Johnson washing his hands of the matter.
LBJ would have had the bill passed by August so the ridiculous town hall/tea party garbage wouldn't have gotten a foothold.
ReplyDeleteHe also wouldn't have turned it over to Max Baucus and crew, and would have arm-twisted Lieberman, Nelson, and probably even Snowe and Collins.
Politics has become a game our current Democratic leaders don't have the stomach for.
didn't the Clintons plan to have a crack at health care reform and give up as well?? ... Is it just all too difficult and complicated, or is that that idiot Republicans put up too much resistance?
ReplyDeleteCathy, the Clintons' bill went down to a devastating defeat.
ReplyDeleteMy way would have been quite simple. Medicare for all who want it, with the president and the Democrats in Congress fighting tooth and nail and putting all their resources into passing the bill. Those who are happy with their present health insurance would be able to keep what they have.
... but I have the feeling there was a heck of a lot of compromise with their bill anyway, even before it was defeated? ... Hillary started having a go and then it was all too difficult so they ended up with something quite different from what was intended anyway. Or have I got that completely wrong? Sorry, this is the sort of thing I should really just know.
ReplyDeleteCathy, the Clinton bill was highly controversial, and received criticism from all sides. Bill Clinton set up a task force headed by Hillary Clinton which worked in secrecy behind closed doors on the planning of the bill. The Republicans were against the health care bill, and the Democrats did not get together behind the bill, but rather offered several different health care bills, thus it failed.
ReplyDeletethanks, Grandmere Mimi. This really is the sort of thing I should know anyway, of course, but keeping up with British politics can be a job and a half, so I don't pay nearly as much close attention to the ins and outs of US politics as I should.
ReplyDeleteCathy, don't feel bad. There are great gaps in my knowledge of the politics of Merrie Olde England.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do know is that Tony Blair was an enabler in Bush's cockamamie scheme to go to war in Iraq.
Yes, it's very dismaying that the politician in most recent memory in the UK who was loudest about his faith was also the one who went hand-in-hand with Bush into that war.
ReplyDeleteOf course the current PM is also a Christian, as is his Tory opponent. In fact if you want to vote atheist in the UK you have to vote for the Lib Dems, but they like to sit on the fence about everything so even they probably haven't really made up their minds. I find that vaguely heartening, for some reason.