Bill Frist Would Vote for Health Care Reform Bill? Hire Him Mr. President
Perhaps Bill Frist is ready to run for major office again? Keep in
mind that this man is also a famous surgeon. The man said he would run
for only two terms and he did just that.
He's right, the Obama administration had best be looking at the exit strategy of actually creating the new health care reform and handling the emergencies it will cause many Americans.Former Senate leader Bill Frist would vote for the bill....
Or so the former Senate Republican Leader, a surgeon who has written a new book on health care, told me a few minutes ago in an interview.
Were he still in the Senate, "I would end up voting for it," he said. "As leader, I would take heat for it. ... That's what leadership is all about."
This is not to say that Frist is entirely happy with everything that is in the bill...
Frist also faults some in his own party for injecting alarmism into the debate. "Clearly, the death panels and public plan arguments have been overblown," he says. Frist noted that Republicans themselves voted for a Medicare prescription drug bill that would have established a version of a public plan--with the government negotiating directly with drug companies--if private-sector competition had failed to materialize...
For those keeping a tally, that's three former Republican Senate Majority Leaders who have endorsed the sorts of reforms President Obama and his allies are pushing. Previously, Howard Baker and Bob Dole signed on to a plan they negotiated with Tom Daschle and George Mitchell, former Democratic counterparts, through the auspices of the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Perhaps several groups (transition team) should be created to manage the the implementation of the bill?
Perhaps President Barack Obama should lash onto this doctor and former Senate majority leader as head of this new Health Care Reform transition team?
















Nice catch, coonsey. Frist left much to be desired when he was actually in office, but he certainly makes a lot of sense on this issue. Maybe we will see a push of sorts from moderate republicans to influence their more combustible brethren.
October 4, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Its an impressive story, but given Frist's track record as Majority Leader, I'm somewhat inclined to take his words with a grain of salt. Him saying this now is certainly significant, but I struggle to believe he would vote for it were he still in office. Retirement gives the man a lot of flexibility.
That said, I do appreciate that he has come forward and said this, regardless of whether his words are hollow or not, if for no other reason than it provides additional 'cover' for the more moderate and conservative Democrats in Congress (although I do not think they should feel the need for such cover, and that their waffling- especially Lincoln- is a major cause for any electoral trouble they may face in the coming year).
October 4, 2009 7:54 PM | Reply | Permalink