Bill Clinton: GOP 'at it again' in health care debate

It’s apparently deja vu all over again for former President Bill Clinton.

In a fundraising e-mail on behalf of congressional Democrats, Clinton is blasting Republicans for opposing President Obama’s health care push, and reminding people of his administration’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to reform the industry 16 years ago.

“It seems like the 1993 health care debate all over again,” Clinton writes in the e-mail, noting that Americans “urgently” needed health care reform as much then as they do now.

“But, just as I did in 1993, President Obama has run into a buzz saw of special interest opposition to his top domestic policy priority — health care reform,” he says in the message. “He is facing off against some of the most powerful special interests in Washington who’ve launched a furious campaign to preserve the status quo.”

“…Simply put, they’re at it again.”

Clinton accuses GOP congressmen of making a “political calculation” to misrepresent Obama’s health care plan and to “attack Congressional Democrats with sound bites” instead of making quality health care affordable and accessible.”

The former President makes no mention in the e-mail of his wife Hillary, who took charge of his administration’s ultimately doomed health care effort in 1993. During her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, both she and John Edwards criticized Obama’s health care plan for not mandating that individuals purchase insurance.

Asked for a response to the e-mail, a spokesman for congressional Republicans said Clinton is acknowleding that Democrats haven’t made much progress since the last time they tried to shake up the health care system.

“It’s nice to finally hear Democrats admitting that they are re-running the failed Hillary-Care playbook from 1993,” said Ken Spain, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Before Democrats start casting blame for their inability to govern, they might want to begin by having a conversation with the dozens of members in their own caucus who refuse to get on board with Nancy Pelosi’s government takeover because it increases costs, runs up the deficit, and is paid for with a small business tax.”
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