Barney Frank: Public Option is Best Way to Reach Single Payer (Video)
Morgen on July 27, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Last we checked in with Barney Frank, he was embarrassingly trying to re-write the history of the financial crisis. Well, apparently he is feeling a little left out of the spotlight on healthcare reform, because he gave a doozy of an interview today with the advocacy group Single Payer Action. Watch:
Partial transcript (slightly edited for continuity):
Interviewer: Don’t you think we should scratch everything and start anew with single payer? Why not?
Frank: No…because we don’t have the votes for it. I wish we did. I think if we get a good public option it could lead to single payer, and that’s the best way to reach single payer. Saying you’ll do nothing until you get single payer is a sure way never to get it.
Interviewer: Right now, it’s not a strong public option, is it?
Frank: Well, we don’t know what the plan is. I’m for a strong public option. I think your strategy is suicidal for trying to get single payer. I think the best way we’re going to get single payer – the only way – is to have a public option demonstrate its strength and power.
I’m sure none of this comes as any surprise to our readers. The public plan “option” was specifically designed as a more politically viable strategy for moving the country to a single payer model. This is fact, not opinion – in spite of the President’s ongoing accusations that we and others are lying about this. And while the President’s healthcare initiative is currently faltering in Congress due to its astronomical costs, opposition to the public plan continues to grow. For example, this Ramussen poll of likely voters from earlier this month pegs support for the public plan at only 35%, with 50% firmly in opposition.
Which makes this a good time to point out something else that is not drawing much attention in the media. Not only is the President’s healthcare plan garnering opposition from conservatives, and increasingly from moderate voters, but many liberal single payer advocates are opposed to ObamaCare as well. Single Payer Action is only one of many organized groups, including some which seem to be very well funded including PNHP and 1 Payer.Net. Keep this in mind as the President’s polling numbers continue to drop: many on the Left are not happy with him either. Because they don’t believe the public plan will lead to single payer quickly enough, if at all. And many of them also don’t like the disingenuous nature of the strategy, especially coming out of an election which Democrats handily won.
While we may not agree with the ideology underlying a single payer system, I think these groups should be commended for advocating openly and honestly for the principles that they believe in. This is more than can be said for most Democratic members of Congress, as we’ve seen. There are many Americans who support the single payer model, and their voices deserve to be heard too. In fact, given the disastrous legislation that the Administration is trying to force through Congress, it appears that we are actually united with single payer advocates at the moment. It truly is time to scrap the whole process and start over.
Update: Considering his comments in this video, it’s no surprise that Barney Frank signed a letter last week pledging that he would not vote for any bill that does not include the public option.
Category: Health & Education, Politics |
[...] Stephan Tawney A somewhat surprising confession from a prominent voice on the issue. Just in case there was any question as to the hidden agenda [...]
July 27, 2009 @ 6:15 pmGoor articles, blurbs. You might want to do a short Parens on Single Payer System(Government Managed) so those who do not understand it immediately will get it.
In fact, I think we need a new dictionary of terms for the Orwellian Usages of english language by the Left.
I’m an Independent and hope Conservative Republicans pull it together. But do you know if they have a solution.
Problem is the Democrats were/are more successful in the media at pushing there agendas out to the American masses. Largely it is directed towards a mass of poorly informed Americans who see a Frontpage news item or a Media flash by ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Times Mag, NewsWeek, LATimes, NYTimes, even Comedy Central.
This mass of people – about 60 million – do not think for themselves. Well, wait, lets break that out. Maybe it is 30 million hard left socialist now and about 30 million Moderates, Independents and lifelong party Democrats.
But all of these buy into the Hard Sell politics and Propaganda product that is the Obama and Democrat Party today.
1) You deserve free healthcare
2) Republicans are nothing but evil white men that keep you from a good lifestyle and utopia
3) We are the only ones that care about you and will take care of you by playing the part of Robin Hood against the evil villains.
Repeat ad nasuem until people choke it up like robotic birds to their young. Repeat it in University, High School, en masse on Media Shows, through Hollywood Movies.
I appreciate what you do here. I appreciate Hot Air that linked to your post of the GatesGate video. And I appreciate Michelle tremendously for her efforts.
But we need to reach the to busy to dig, overwhelmed, under informed crowd of millions. We need to do it through new Broadcast networks or maybe future Net TV.
Fox News is not enough and to often does not give us the Sunday 60 minute crowd, The View crowd or even Comedy Central blindies. Until someone competes against this matrix of propaganda by the left, we will continue to suffer losses politically to crooked, perverse and corrupt leaders in our society.
I hope and pray new leaders can step up into these positions to compete against the massive broadcast machines that have turned into nothing more than Propaganda outlets for Obama and the Far Left positions.
All the best, thanks,
July 28, 2009 @ 5:20 amHave you seen this?:
July 28, 2009 @ 10:06 pmhttp://www.stumblingontruth.com/main.aspx
That’s a great article. I think I may have seen some snippets of it posted elsewhere – the author’s company sounded familiar. Of course his article also illustrates the primary challenge of informing the public on health reform. It can be a complicated subject!
Thankfully the proponents of the public plan keep admitting what their ultimate objective is. And these little snippets have filtered into the public dialogue. It’s great!
July 28, 2009 @ 10:27 pmHow on earth does this man keep his job?
July 30, 2009 @ 10:22 pmHow does he continue to get re-elected?
Who is voting for this guy and why?
He is atrocious.
What am I missing here?
[...] private insurers will, gradually, close their doors. And it should be pointed out that for many advocates of ObamaCare, likely including Mr. Obama himself, that’s exactly the point: a [...]
August 7, 2009 @ 1:43 pmPENNYLESS,
August 10, 2009 @ 6:19 pmYou’re missing absolutely nothing…Barney is just another corrupt product of the system…Apparently those in Mass don’t mind having this dillhole speak for them…I don’t have very many nice things to say about our reps in Wisconsin but I am happy this guy is in Mass….
[...] biggest refutation of that come from the public option proponents themselves. Rep. Barney Frank told liberal advocacy group Single Payer Action that a public option “was the best way to reach single payer,” and the President [...]
September 13, 2009 @ 8:16 pm