Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Senate health committee, appeared on MSNBC earlier today, apparently confident in the new timeline for health care reform and unfazed by Republican threats to make the 2010 election a referendum on the legislation.
“We’re pretty close to bringing [the bill] into the safe harbor,” Harkin told Andrea Mitchell. “I really believe we’re going to have it on the president’s desk by Easter.”
Mitchell asked Harkin to respond to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) claim yesterday that if Democrats pass health care, Republicans will use the 2010 election as a referendum on the legislation. Harkin suggested Democrats have no reason to fear that threat. In fact, Harkin implied, it is the Republicans who should be afraid.
I’ve been around here long enough to recognize reverse psychology when I see it. If the Republicans and Mr. McConnell thought that this was going to be devastating to the Democrats, they’d be sitting back, rubbing their hands, and saying, ‘Go ahead and do it.’ They’re pulling out everything they can do to stop this. Why? Because they know … Once we get it through, we’ll have from now to the election, [and] the American people will know what’s in [the bill].
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