http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/22/after-ripping-clinton-and_n_401270.html
The Huffington Post December 23, 2009
After Ripping Clinton And McCain, Obama Embraces Their Policies
by Ryan Grim
In an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, President
Barack Obama challenged his critics to identify any "gap" between
what he campaigned on last year and the health care legislation
Congress is on the verge of passing.
Critics, however, do have a few of his campaign pledges to point
to. Most notably, Obama launched high-profile attacks against two
of his campaign opponents for taking policy positions that are now
reflected in the final Senate bill.
Obama made health care in general a major part of his campaign so
that when he won, he could claim a mandate and push for reform
during his first year.
In doing so, Obama savaged his primary opponent, Hillary Clinton,
for arguing that people should be mandated to buy health insurance.
"If a mandate was the solution, we could try that to solve
homelessness by mandating everybody buy a house," he said on a CNN
morning show on Super Tuesday during the election. "The reason
they don't have a house is they don't have the money. So our focus
has been on reducing costs, making it available. I am confident
that if people have a chance to buy high quality health care that
is affordable, they will do so. And that's what our plan does, and
nobody disputes that."
Obama ripped into his general election opponent, John McCain, for
supporting a tax on private insurance, blanketing swing states
with mailers and ads saying that McCain was raising taxes and that
his plan would lead employers to drop coverage.
"He gives you a tax credit with one hand -- but he raises your
taxes with the other," Obama said at the time. "Many employers
will drop their healthcare plans altogether."
The mandate and the tax are now major portions of the Senate bill.
Indeed, within months of inauguration, Obama was opening up to a
tax on benefits. And while McCain's tax would have immediately
captured more plans, Obama's tax on insurance -- aimed at
so-called "Cadillac plans" -- will capture more and more as costs
rise.
Obama also pledged to go after the anti-trust exemptions that drug
makers and insurers enjoy: "When I'm President," he said in Iowa
in early 2007, "we're going to make drug and insurance companies
compete for their customers just like every other business in
America. We'll investigate and prosecute the monopolization of the
insurance industry."
The antitrust exemption is not revoked in the current Senate bill.
Obama also pledged to take on drug makers. "Congress specifically
exempted Medicare from being able to negotiate for the cheapest
available price. And that was a profound mistake," he said in 2007.
"We will break the stranglehold that a few big drug and insurance
companies have on the health care market....It's become clear that
some of these companies are dramatically overcharging Americans
for what they offer.... We're not going to get change unless we
can overcome the resistance the drug companies, the insurance
companies, the HMOs, those who are making a major profit from the
system currently."
But the Senate bill does not allow Medicare to negotiate with
drugmakers thanks to a deal the White House cut with Big Pharma.
"And then we'll tell the pharmaceutical companies, 'Thanks, but no
thanks, for overpriced drugs.' Drugs that cost twice as much here
as they do in Europe and Canada and Mexico. We'll let Medicare
negotiate for lower prices....We'll allow the safe reimportation
of low-cost drugs from countries like Canada," he said.
The bill does not allow reimportation. The White House worked
against it, citing that same Pharma deal.
"The pharmaceutical industry wrote into the prescription drug plan
that Medicare could not negotiate with drug companies. And you
know what? The chairman of the committee, who pushed the law
through went to work for the pharmaceutical industry making two
million dollars a year," Obama said. "That's an example of the
same old game playing in Washington. You know I don't want to
learn how to play the game better, I want to put an end to the
game playing."
Obama was referring to Billy Tauzin, the head of the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the
group the White House is now playing games with.
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