Yeah, he was reelected, right?
“Yeah, he was reelected, right?”
Yes, but...
He pushed privatization after that reelection. Remember his “I’m going to use my political capital” speech? One of the odd ball things about that debate is there was no bill, yet he kept urging passage of it. The bill was a ghost. There were strange times he was blaming Democrats for not offering a bill in response to the ghost bill.
I think what might have happened is that when the dice were cast the brokerages backed out, realizing the additional scrutiny and regulation from the government would be when the government was turning over funds to them. Also there is a Hillary-Care-type dilemma which favored certain HMOs over others. The brokerage losers would create an ad campaign against the privileged winners, like happened with Hillary Care.
A funny chapter - Schwab vocally dropped its support for any such bill. Months later the Dems staged a protest at Schwab headquarters. They didn’t get the message.