Yesterday a bunch of us bloggers had the immense privilege of an open ended conversation, with the incomparable, Bill Clinton.
The man is a force of nature. And I'm a shameless fan. He's brilliant, if imperfect, but most important, he's focusing all his time and efforts to lend a hand to the most vulnerable and needy around the world. And God bless him for this.
Just like the last time, his staff literally had to drag him out of the room. He would have stayed with us all night if he didn't have another meeting, and it was nine PM when he finally left.
We were invited by Peter Daou, to meet the president the evening before the opening of the Fifth Clinton Global Initiative in New York. And I want to thank Peter for including me again.
Before the meeting started Peter asked us to try and focus on the work of the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative, but true to form, when the president sat down he began talking about health care, climate change and he said we were free to ask him anything.
I'd say there were about 12-15 bloggers. I didn't get the names of everyone, but these are some who attended, Chris Bowers, Marcy Wheeler, Ali Savino and others.
That's Chris Bowers up in the front and a few people up the row, is Marcy Wheeler taking some notes, and me in the red on the right.
There were no ground rules other than we were asked not to record the conversation, so what follows is from very hastily scribbled notes.
Bill Clinton is hugely supportive of the public option, as a critical way to reduce costs. But . . .he is also seems firmly in the camp of the "we must pass something" crowd.
He discussed why he thinks Obama should be willing to pass a health bill without a public option, Clinton remembered the hard-line stance he took on gun control, saying, "I don't want my party to do what they did in '94. We took on the NRA and they took 15 of our guys out."
He also said there are too many people who have "totally foolish hang-ups over the public option". I assumed this to mean, people who are opposed are holding unreasonable positions. I am making this assumption because later in the conversation he said, "I favor a public option not limited to the uninsured because this will secure more price restraint".
I thought it was very telling that over and over he said referring to healthcare reform , "this isn't rocket science". I agree. I'll take this statement to mean, and it's my own sense of what he was driving at--not what the president said. If the rest of the industrialized world doesn't have their citizens facing financial ruin and bankruptcy due to the misfortune of illness and injury, then maybe it's long overdue that we do the same thing for the American people. Like I said, he didn't say this, but I'm drawing the conclusion.
Couple of other point he made on healthcare.
- A Public Option is the gold standard (my words again, but his sentiment). But "if President Obama can't get the votes in the Senate for a public option, we still need to pass a bill which will achieve savings". We need to get "the principle of universal coverage in place, once you establish that, Republicans will have to help us. Every year, Congress will have to make it better. There will then be contervailing pressures on the special interests."
- If a healthcare bill is not a "net negative" we should pass it. But we must "fight like crazy" to make it as good as we can.
- "I would absolutely put it through reconciliation, if necessary"
And one hugely interesting point on the economy and the energy bill.
"The four European countries that have the best economies are Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom. Guess what, all four of these countries surpassed their Kyoto targets. Energy projects will create the greatest number of jobs in the United States and will reduce income inequality."
I'll bet this is something the two presidents discussed at lunch in Greenwich Village last week.
Chris Bowers asked him about the nuclear option and reconciliation, which Clinton said he had discussed "with Hillary" (he always refers to the Secretary of State as "Hillary"), very recently. As he put it, "Hillary was in the Senate, and knows how the Senate operates better than I do". I'm sure Chris will write about it before too long.
Then he said, the minute Obama signs a healthcare bill, his approval rating will skyrocket, and he should then charge head first into an energy bill. Clinton repeated several times, Obama needs a good "tailwind" to do the energy bill, which he thinks will happen from signing healthcare legislation.
He made the point, "Republicans are always for yesterday's change".
Here are links to a few other blog posts on the meeting.
Think Progress
Joshua Keating
This is nyceve being introduced to President Clinton. Very exciting and a huge honor!
[both photos are courtesy of the Clinton Global Initiative]
And to end. I've received a request from the French Magazine, Capital. They are doing a large piece on the broken American healthcare system. They want to interview several people as follows:
One person who would have been rescinded by his insurer
One person who would have been fired after becoming ill, because of his employer fearing or undergoing a premium rise.
If you fit either of these categories, and would agree to be interviewed (with possibly a photo), please send me an email with a brief outline of your story and contact information. My email address is on my profile. Just FYI, I'm going to forward them to this journalist and will not be able to personally respond.