At a policy discussion Monday night, former President Bill Clinton said that he believed Democrats would pass a health care reform bill "because they have to."
Despite the "foolish hang ups" over the public option -- something Clinton supports -- he thought it was better to pass any bill that provided lower costs and increased coverage.
He noted that even his former adviser Paul Begala, who while in the White House argued Clinton should veto any health care bill that didn't provide 100% universal coverage, has also softened his view. Both men now believe getting any bill passed now meant increased pressure on Congress in the future to improve it.
However, while Clinton agreed the best approach would be to get 60 votes in the Senate to bypass a filibuster, he "would absolutely" do it through the budget reconciliation process if that's the only way.
Clinton predicted "the minute health care reform passed, President Obama's approval ratings would go up 10 points." And he said they would go up 20 points next year once Americans saw that none of the bad things Republicans said would happen came true.
6 comments: