McCain said he has “not seen” a “public option,” or government plan, he could support.Exactly. We all know how well Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac worked out.
“The co-ops remind us all of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” he told anchor John King. “And so I have not seen a public option that, in my view, meets the test of what would really not eventually lead to a government take over.”
McCain was also asked about Obama's promise of bipartisanship and "hope and change":
King asked McCain if Obama has “failed the test he laid out at [an inaugural] dinner, to be truly bipartisan.”I guarantee you if even one Republican, and only one Republican, votes for the health care bill it will be touted in the press as "bipartisan" in order to make it more palatable to the taxpayers. The media is desperate to portray Obama as a great national healer, even though we've probably never been so terribly divided - at least not since 1860.
“I'm afraid they have,” McCain replied. “And, look, they've got the votes. We understand that. They had the votes in the stimulus package, in the budget, in the omnibus, in the SCHIP [children’s health insurance], all this legislation. And they have picked off, sometimes, two or three Republicans.
“But that's not changing the climate in Washington. What that is, is exercising a significant majority. And so I respect their successes, but please don't call it changing the climate in Washington.”
Of course, had McCain won we probably would have a much more bipartisan government, not because of his powers of pursuasion but because of his powers of surrender. My guess is he would have signed onto a lot of this stuff just because he himself was so desperate for bipartisanship.
2008 was a bad year for presidential choices.
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Fannie Mae went belly up after eight years of Republicans kicking out the regulatory struts under it. I find it disingenuous to blame the "government" for the mischief of the "R"s"
Furthermore Fannie has nothing to do with healthcare.
Medicare has 3% overhead while private insurance has 20+% overhead. It is no wonder the private insurance people are working every angle to create doubt and obfuscate the truth. They cannot put up with a private option that would make them face competition.
Without Medicare my folks would have died 15 or more years ago. Ask any senior if they want to give up their Medicare.
You need to work on your facts a bit Dave. On at least three occasions during the Bush administration the Republicans tried to increase the oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and were stymied by Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Maxine Waters and others in the Dem caucus. They insisted that both organizations continue making loans to people with bad credit and wouldn't allow an investigation of the head of Fannie Mae - calling it racist.
You can't blame Bush for the collapse of those organizations. Look it up. Just follow the Barney Frank labels on this blog.
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