Kerry on Universal Healthcare - No We Can’t!
By Pamela Hamilton • Apr 2nd, 2008 • Category: Election 2008, Politwix Blogs
A comment on ABC’s “Last Week” made by top Barack Obama supporter Senator John Kerry was reduced to the soundbite “Senator Kerry claims that Senator Clinton’s universal healthcare plan is a ”non-starter”.
We think that his actual comment warrants further examination:
“Let me just tell you that Hillary Clinton’s plan in the United States Senate is a nonstarter, because it starts with a mandate that is unachievable in the Senate in what we need to do.”
This comes from a man that backed universal healthcare by introducing a bill in 2006 that would also have mandated that everyone was covered by 2012.
Kerry is obviously admitting here that he did not have the political capital to get this major overhaul of the healthcare system through because of the influence of lobbyists and money in our political system. Why else could anyone be opposed to healthcare for all? If it is mandate through payroll deductions, then everyone that works will be paying into the system, including migrant workers and even those with illegal identification. Allowances will be made for those that are out of work or can’t work. It is win-win for the people.
Is he actually saying that there is no way to get the legislative body to do the right thing because they are in the pockets of the HMO’s and drug companies?
Is the of universal healthcare coverage really a goal of the democratic party? The official stance is “A Healthcare System that Works for Everyone”. Perhaps I am getting cynical, but those sound a bit like weasal words. If your platform is universal healthcare, come out and say it - celebrate it!
Yes, Bush vetoed the Children’s Health Bill, though not all Republicans are opposed to insurance mandates.
Senator Wyden from Oregon has submitted proposals that include individual requirements for coverage that was co-sponsored by eight republicans, and endorsed by Governor Schwarzenner of California and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.
If the democratic party does the right thing and recognizes the voters in Michigan and Florida, we should finally have a president in office that we can work with. If we don’t make universal healthcare a top priority this fall when so many people are suffering and with a majority in the legislature, we have no right to call ourselves democrats.
Mr. Kerry, your constituents didn’t elect you to say ”No, We Can’t”.
Pamela Hamilton is a freelance writer, corporate culture evacuee and vocational gypsy. She attended the school of hard knocks and graduated with a degree in satire.
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Kerry is a failure. I don’t know why that guy even still has a job in the senate.
If we don’t get universal healthcare, I am moving to Canada!