Advice from a leading Obamacrat

(Note: this entry was drafted on 1-23. It subsequently emerged that Plouffe was not writing as an individual urging a course of action on his fellow Obamacrats, but rather reflecting the course of action the Obamacrats had already decided on—to keep trying to pass health care reform.)

Writing in the Washington Post about how to respond to the Massachusetts Event, David Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, urged the Democrats to keep fighting. His first recommendation was:

—Pass a meaningful health insurance reform package without delay. Americans’ health and our nation’s long-term fiscal health depend on it. I know that the short-term politics are bad. It’s a good plan that’s become a demonized caricature. But politically speaking, if we do not pass it, the GOP will continue attacking the plan as if we did anyway, and voters will have no ability to measure its upside. If we do pass it, dozens of protections and benefits take effect this year. Parents won’t have to worry their children will be denied coverage just because they have a preexisting condition. Workers won’t have to worry that their coverage will be dropped because they get sick. Seniors will feel relief from prescription costs. Only if the plan becomes law will the American people see that all the scary things Sarah Palin and others have predicted—such as the so-called death panels—were baseless. We own the bill and the health-care votes. We need to get some of the upside. (P.S.: Health care is a jobs creator.)

“Pass a meaningful health insurance reform package without delay.” And how does he propose doing this? Is he not aware that the Democrats have looked at every option, and can find no way of doing it? Yet Plouffe thinks that it can be done “without delay.” It’s another sign that Obama people are in a full blown escape from reality.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 26, 2010 05:57 PM | Send