On Saturday The New York Times ran a piece on Hillary and her Ahab-like obsession with health care. It can be found here. The gist of the story is that where once she pursued her plan with suicidal gusto, now she has learned her lesson, and is implementing her plan one step at a time, or trying to at least.
While her attempt to nationalize 1/7th of our nation's GDP through a developed-in-secret 1,300+ page plan to provide universal coverage led to the Republican Revolution of 1994, Hillary still thinks the issue of health care is "worth wading into again - and we're going to have to." Only this time, she is working with the conservatives she helped put in power. She teamed up with Newt Gingrich and Bill Frist on incremental health care issues to appear more moderate, and perhaps more presidential. She cited the example of Massachusetts’ passing health coverage for all as the result of different politicians "working together," and now she has proof she can do it as well. Of course, Newt and Frist are both using Hillary for their own presidential aspirations as well, but that's a story for another blog.
The NYT story also has Hillary criticizing America's small businesses, who often beseech her for federal action on health care. But when these entrepreneurs dare to question the Queen, she shoots back, "Fine, what are you going to do to help us create the consensus that has to develop in order to move the political system?" But the consensus is already there. The House of Representatives has again and again overwhelmingly passed legislation allowing Association Health Plans, and the Senate recently had 55 votes in favor of an AHP bill - a strong majority. Naturally, Hillary and her Democratic colleagues filibustered the bill, and it could not muster the required 60 votes.
The story concluded with Sen. Clinton bragging that health care is "one of my passions, it's what I care deeply about. It would not be possible for me not to talk about it and try to help change it." Whatever, Hillary.
