Hot on Facebook

Guy Buys $123 Safe on eBay, Finds $26,000 Inside Seller tries to get half the cash back, fails »

On Health Care, Left Should Cut Deals

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 13, 2009 7:43 AM CDT

(Newser) – Presidents from FDR to Nixon to Clinton tried and failed to reform the health care system, but with Barack Obama closer than ever before, the left is already blasting him for compromising too much. That's a shame, writes Clinton strategist Paul Begala, who regrets "setting the bar at 100%" in 1994 and dooming health reform for 15 years. Universal coverage may be "a moral imperative," but sticking to principles is pointless if the legislation won't pass.

Take Social Security, which originally excluded mostly Latino agricultural workers and black and immigrant domestic workers—it may have been "mean-spirited and even racist," but 74 years later it's been built into a major progressive institution. Health care might have to follow the same long-term trajectory. The left should hold its representatives to a high standard, Begala writes, but "we cannot achieve perfection in this life, and if that is our goal we will always be frustrated."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

A woman in the crowd shouts out pro-Obama slogan during a town hall-style meeting on health care reform at the Northeast Multi-Service Center in Houston on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Billy Smith II)

President Barack Obama listens to a question during a town hall meeting on health care reform, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, at Portsmouth High School in Portsmouth, NH. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A man holds a sign as President Barack Obama's motorcade heads to a town hall on health care reform, Wednesday, July 29, 2009, near a supermarket in Bristol, Va. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

I've never seen the Republican right oppose a tax cut for the rich because it wasn't generous enough. The left, on the other hand, too often prefers a glorious defeat to an incremental victory. - Paul Begala, Democratic strategist

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

To report an error on this story, notify our editors.

More Newser Stories

Obama Rejects Critics on Health Care Bill

President rejects notion that legislation has been neutered

(NEWSER) - President Obama hit back today at critics who say he's compromised too much on health care legislation, charging that "every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill." In an interview with the Washington Post , he bemoaned how much the public option in particular had become such a "source of ideological contention," but added, "I didn't campaign on the public option." More»

Health Debate Now Hinges on Public Option

Obama, Reid warm to Snowe 'trigger' plan phased in state by state

(NEWSER) - The White House and Congress are now wrangling to reconcile the five health care bills on the floors of the House and Senate, and no issue is causing greater headaches than the so-called public option. The Senate Finance Committee's bill, which has the support of Republican Olympia Snowe, doesn't have one, but the Maine senator says she favors a "trigger" that would establish a public plan on a state-by-state basis if private plans aren't affordable enough. The White House likes the idea, but liberal Dems worry about Snowe's growing clout. More»

On Health Reform, Obama Should Heed His Doc, Not AMA

Medical association is wrong yet again: Kristof

(NEWSER) - Its membership may abide by the Hippocratic Oath, but the American Medical Association is definitely doing the public harm in its opposition to meaningful health care reform, writes Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. The AMA has become infamous for its lousy political stands: it supported segregation, backed tobacco, denounced Medicare, and opposed health reform from both Truman and Clinton. Now, it’s trying to kill the public option. “They’ve always been on the wrong side of things,” says Dr. David Scheiner—Barack Obama’s longtime personal physician. More»

Book Scuttles Obama's Health Care Story

His mother had health insurance when she died, and it paid up

(NEWSER) - A recent book on President Obama’s mother undermines his oft-told story that his mother spent the final years of her life battling insurance companies over her medical bills. The book, by New York Times reporter Janny Scott, reveals that Ann Dunham actually had health insurance that readily paid her claims. She did have a dispute, but it was with her disability insurance, the Times reports. And Obama must have known that, because in one letter she turns the case over to “my son and attorney, Barack Obama.” More»

Obama Unveils $950B Health Care Bill

Merged proposal mostly follows Senate outline

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama today revealed the health care proposal he’ll be taking into bipartisan meetings this week, a $950 billion bill that hews closer to the Senate’s model than the House’s. The plan seeks to resolve some of the contentious issues between the two bills, cutting, for example, the special Medicaid deal Ben Nelson negotiated for Nebraska. The White House is signaling its readiness to incorporate Republican proposals, but made clear their demand to start from scratch was off the table. More»

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS

What is Newser?

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser, we choose the most thought-provoking and entertaining stories from hundreds of US and international sources and reduce them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.

Learn more »

Partnering with: Slate

View Newser on the mobile website