Bill Clinton: ‘I Was Wrong’ That Health Care Law Would Become Popular Quickly
Appearing on Meet The Press, former President Bill Clinton said he was wrong to have predicted that the health care reform law would be immediately popular after being signed into law: “Well, I was wrong about that for two reasons. First of all, the benefits of the bill are spread out over three or four years. It takes a long time to implement it. And secondly, there was–there’s been an enormous and highly effective attack on it. But I think it’s important. Let’s–forget about the politics. Let’s talk about the facts here. The real reason that the interest groups want to repeal, not fix health care, is that they like the way it’s going now. They’re dumping people every year and making the government pick them up. We are spending 17.2 percent of our income on health care. None of our wealthy competitors spend more than 10 1/2. Yet our infant mortality rate is higher than theirs, our overall mortal–age expectancy is lower than theirs. We don’t have a better health system than they do. What’s happened? That’s a trillion dollars we spot our competitors every year for a health system that doesn’t work as well. The people that are getting a trillion dollars have a lot of money to spread all this information–misinformation.”
Kaine: Dems ‘Proud Of The Accomplishment’ Of Health Care Legislation
Appearing on State of the Union, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine said that the new health care law would be politically beneficial to the party. “I travel all over the country. I guess I’ve been in about 42 states, and most Democrats that I see on the trail are very proud of the accomplishment and they’re talking about it,” said Kaine. In response to Democrats who have touted their votes against the bill, Kaine said: “Some, particularly House members in districts that, you know, can often get gerrymandered and become tough districts are distancing themselves from the health care bill. I don’t tell people how to run their races, but I’ve been on a ballot seven times and won seven races, and in my experience, you ought to be proud of what you’re doing and promote the accomplishments.”
Rove: O’Donnell ‘Shouldn’t Have Accepted’ Sunday Show Appearance
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Karl Rove discussed Christine O’Donnell’s canceled appearances on the Sunday shows. “She shouldn’t have accepted in the first place. But you know, she needs to talk to the people of Delaware,” said Rove, who has been critical of O’Donnell’s chances of winning the general election. Regarding O’Donnell’s newly-aired statement from 1999 on Politically Incorrect, that she had dabbled in witchcraft, Rove said: “In southern Delaware, where there are a lot of church-going people, they’re probably going to want to know what was that all about.”
Bill Clinton: GOP ‘Doing Just What They Did In ’93 and ’94’
Appearing on Face The Nation, former President Bill Clinton discussed President Obama’s handling of the Republican opposition. “I think he was shocked at the intensity of the Republican opposition,” he said of President Obama. “But they learned from my first two years that if you just say ‘No,’ even though people hate it, you get rewarded for it, because it discourages the Democrats and it inflames your base. So they’re doing just what they did in ’93 and ’94. And so far it appears that they’re being rewarded for it.”
Hillary Clinton: Iran’s Military Increasing In Political Power
Appearing on This Week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton express her concern about the increasing political power of Iran’s military: “You know, I have grave disagreements with the Iranian Revolution, but the early advocates of it said this would be a republic. It would be an Islamic republic, but it would be a republic. Then we saw a very flawed election and we’ve seen the elected officials turn for the military to enforce their power. And a lot of Iranians, even those who stayed, even those who were originally sympathetic are starting to say, ‘This is not what we signed up for.’ And I can only hope that there will be some effort inside Iran, by responsible civil and religious leaders to, take hold of the apparatus of the state.”
Ahmadinejad: U.S. Should Release Iranian Prisoners
Appearing on This Week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad implied that his country would not be releasing the two additional American hikers it took as prisoner, after the country released their female companion –Â and said that the United States should release its Iranian prisoners. “It is true that the Islamic Republic of Iran took a humanitarian measure and released one of the three individuals who entered our borders Ms. Sarah Shourd. This was a huge humanitarian gesture,” said Ahmadinejad. “Now, you may be aware that eight Iranians are illegally being detained in the United States. So I believe that it would not be misplaced to ask that the U.S. government should make a humanitarian gesture to release the Iranians who were illegally arrested and detained here in the United States.”
DeMint: GOP Has A Chance At Senate Majority — Because Of Me
Appearing on State of the Union, Sen. Jim DeMint claimed credit for the current surge in Republican fortunes, crediting it to his push for more strongly conservative candidates. “I’ll tell you this, the only – the only reason we have a chance at a majority now is in large part for the candidates I’ve been supporting,” said DeMint, also adding: “If the Republican Party in the Senate was now symbolized by [Sen.] Arlen Specter and [Florida Gov.] Charlie Crist, we would not have the energy behind our candidates anywhere in the country.”
Murkowski: Tea Party Express Ran ‘Smear’ Campaign Against Me
Appearing on State of the Union, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who is now seeking re-election as a write-in candidate after losing the Republican primary, blasted the conservative group Tea Party Express for intervening in her primary race. “What happened in my particular race, you had the Tea Party Express, this California-based group, come in at the last minute in a campaign, run a mudslinging, smear – just a terrible, terrible – campaign with lies and fabrications and mischaracterizations,” said Murkowski. “They came in, dumped $600,000 into a small market here in Alaska, and they absolutely clearly influenced the outcome.”
