Old Wars

by digby

Representative Clyburn says he remembers 1994, so there will be no comprehensive health care reform. (The headline says “in 2009,” but the body of the article says that he’s for some kind of incremental reform:

While noting he does not know exactly when President Obama want to
move forward with a universal healthcare measure, Clyburn said, “If
you take what we’ve done with [the State Children’s Health Insurance
Program bill] and then you follow with [more spending] on community
health centers, you would have gone a long way to building a
foundation upon which to build a universal access healthcare program.

“I would much rather see it done that way, incrementally, than to go
out and just bite something you can’t chew. We’ve been down that road.
I still remember 1994.”

And I remember 2002 when Democrats insisted on fighting the last war and helped the Republicans destroy the country with a misbegotten second round in Iraq. In fact, they are always fighting the last war instead of learning the proper lessons from them.

This isn’t 1994. The country is very possibly going into a fucking depression. The Republicans are on the decline not the ascent. Democrats were just given the task of saving the country. The health care crisis, which was already awful, is getting worse with every lay-off and every job lost — and the state governments are going broke and can’t take up the slack. How many uninsured to we have to have before they realize that this crisis can’t just be kicked down the road until they get over their trauma of 1994? 75 million? 100?

If these people do not recognize that they have to really do something at a time like this, it’s possible that a wingnut on a white horse might just come riding in with some very unpleasant ideas.

Update: Dday reminded me that Clyburn has been saying this for quite some time, which is a relief. It appears he is only speaking for himself.

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