Barney Frank: Obama Made 'Mistake' With Health Care Push

National Journal ^ | April 17, 2012 | Johnathan Miller

[lbryce]

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said he advised President Obama against taking up health care reform following a special election in 2010 that changed Democrats' fortunes in the Senate, saying that he should have instead turned his focus to financial reform.

Frank referenced former President Bill Clinton and his failed health care plan from the 1990s. “Obama made the same mistake Clinton made,” Frank said in a wide-ranging interview with New York magazine. “When you try to extend health care to people who don’t have it, people who have it and are on the whole satisfied with it get nervous.”

The outgoing representative from Massachusetts added that after Republican Scott Brown won former Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s seat, breaking Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority, Obama should have backed down: “I think we paid a terrible price for health care. I would not have pushed it as hard. As a matter of fact, after Scott Brown won, I suggested going back. I would have started with financial reform but certainly not health care," Frank said.

He said that if the president had followed his advice, “you could have gotten some pieces of it.”

Republicans seized on the comments, with the National Republican Congressional Committee issuing a release to several Democratic-held districts on Monday: “Even Barney Frank admits that ObamaCare has been a disaster,” the statement read. On Tuesday, Frank pushed back against the growing storm, saying that the GOP is “twisting my words,” and arguing that he was making a comment on the politics of the bill, not its “subject matter.”

“I have no issue with the subject matter or the bill itself,” Frank said in an interview with Talking Points Memo. “I was just commenting on the politics. And I was saying it was a mistake to have done it first.”

He further argued that he believes the bill will become more popular as time goes by. “I think, for instance, as the health care bill goes forward, it will be less and less plausible that it was doing any damage to anybody, and more and more people will be seeing the benefits of it,” Frank said.

[lbryce]

Barney Frank's newly found set in telling it like it is has nothing to do with speaking on principle and everything with not seeking re-election. He knows he won't have to pay the political price for criticizing Obozo and his pet project because he won't be around much longer while at the same time making himself look politically astute.

[MrB]

Barney must have pulled his nose out of another man’s behind long enough to sniff the demise of 0bamacare.

[chrisser]

Sure Barney.

Obama should have destroyed the economy first, then destroyed health care.

It was stupid to destroy health care first, and then target the economy.

[lbryce]

Contrary to popular belief, he does in fact pull his nose out on rare occasions, occurring once in a “blue moon”.

[SuziQ]

He said that if the president had followed his advice, “you could have gotten some pieces of it.”

IOW, he'd have done in incrementally, like most of the other legislation that has eroded the free market in the US.

[Jack Burton007]

Hey Barnie, did you vote FOR it or AGAINST it?

If you’re not part of the fix then you’re part of the problem.

Guess what Barn, you’ve always been part of the problem.

[MrB]

♫ Bwown Mooon... you saw me standing awooooone ♫

[boomop1]

He sounds like a stealth leaker, they know the rulling the liberals on the court have let the cat out of the bag.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[He sounds like a stealth leaker, they know the rulling the liberals on the court have let the cat out of the bag.]

Bingo! Newly appointed Justice Elena Kagan is also from Massachusetts. Frank must have lobbied for her appointment. Frank is using the bad news he is getting from Kagan to rewrite his role in ObamaCare.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks lbryce.