Oops. Republican John Shadegg appeared on MSNBC just after Dennis Kucinich made his statement saying that he was going to vote for the health care bill. While arguing against the mandate to buy insurance Shadegg let's one slip and basically made the argument for having single payer health insurance. As The Hill noted, he quickly switched gears. Shadegg (R): 'I would support single payer' over individual mandate:
Shadegg blasted the for-profit health insurance industry during an appearance on MSNBC today, finally declaring, "I would support single payer."
He quickly clarified his comment, saying he would simply like to see health insurance companies have more competition.
"I would support forcing American healthcare companies to compete right," he said "Now they have a monopoly."
That's similar to the argument Democrats have made for the public option, and in a statement to The Hill, Shadegg's office said a public option would be better than requiring individuals to buy insurance from the for-profit sector.
David Shuster did a pretty good job here. It is humorous to watch these Republicans spinning so badly in an attempt to attack the Democrats that they're going from repeating Dennis Kucinich's point about why we should have single payer in one breath and then talking about high risk pools in the next. I don't recall any support for single payer coming from Shadegg on the House floor over the last year. Instead he was busy using a baby as a prop while he talked about the "dangers" of government run health care. These Republicans never seem to run out of goal posts to move.
I know a lot of people are mad at Kucinich for changing his vote. I'm not happy with this whole deal but I say cut him some slack. He didn't have any good options to deal with and not passing this bill is political suicide for the Democrats right now and he knows it. There's no reason we can't keep pushing these guys for a Medicare buy in as Grayson is proposing and for single payer after this passes. This fight isn't over if the bill does pass and I know Dennis will be one of the ones continuing to push the party to do the right thing. I'm not ready to throw him or Bernie Sanders or any of the other progressive Democrats who vote for this bill under the bus. They're not what's wrong with our Congress. The problem is there aren't enough of them.
We can keep pushing the Democrats to do the right thing and supporting primary challengers against the ones who won't or we can throw our hands up and let the party that has "moved into a mental hospital" back in power. We're stuck with a two party system right now so I'll take the former. I shudder at the thought of a President Romney or Palin, a Leader McConnell, a Speaker Boehner and a Michele Bachmann chairing some committee in the House. I had enough of the wingnuts running the show under Bush to last me for the rest of my life and that was before they started ratcheting up the crazy the way they are now.
