Notable Quotes on Health Care Reform

Robert Reich opined today about the need to pass health care reform:

Health care reform is necessary, and House Democrats should vote for it because it's best for the nation.

Having set off with that topic sentence Reich meandered off into the history of health care reform circa 1994, concluding that Democrats need to pass it in order to be victorious over Republicans.  No mention anywhere of why this particular health care reform might be "best for the nation."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently made this stunning assertion in speech at the 2010 Legislative Conference for National Association of Counties.

But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.

That's positively mind boggling.  Does she think this is a game show?  Not only do proponents not want to discuss the bill on its merits, they don't want anybody to know what's actually in it.  At least, not until it's too late to do anything about it.

Matthew Yglesias urges Democrats to vote for ObamaCare to secure a place in history.  He says it will be a much revered place in history.

If it passes, Obama will go down in history along with Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson as the key architects of the American welfare state. Those members of Congress who back him will be a part of that history, and those who vote no will be left behind.

There's a sales pitch for you.  You too can be an architect of the American welfare state!  Just vote yes!  But in saying that, Yglesias put his finger squarely on the problem with this bill.  Americans don't want America to become a welfare state.

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[Tom Beebe]

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