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"I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. . . A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House."
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Wait for it . . . wait for it . . .
Well, why don't we just watch the clip, from June 30, 2003.
Hat tip to drewfromct for inspiring me to re-post this and for reminding me that -- as I've said many times before -- it's a damn shame that Obama didn't get out and practice law for a year or two before going into politics. Had he done so he would have learned that one never starts out at their "end game" when negotiating a settlement, in this case a bill.
Back in May or so, President Obama started with the Public Option (and was always luke warm about it: something he "liked" or "preferred" but never something worth fighting for) and then allowed that to get bargained away.
Now we are where we are, with some people in a Joyful Frenzy over the Genius that is Barack Obama, and some of us saying, "Meh. Even a best case scenario is going to be a watered-down shadow of what this nation so desperately needs."
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