Matt Yglesias

Dick Gephardt’s Flip-Flops on Universal Coverage

Dick Gephardt seems happy in his second career as a corporate lobbyist and is now a universal health care skeptic: “Now Mr. Gephardt says universal or near-universal coverage cannot pass this year — and he is urging the White House to defer that goal until it enacts cost-saving reforms in health care delivery.”

Igor Volsky at the Wonk Room has a nice roundup of Gerphardt’s contrary ideas from the 2004 campaign:

— “Howard Dean and the other candidates may think leaving tens of millions of Americans uninsured is acceptable….I think they’re wrong.” [NYT, 01/03/2004]

— Gephardt promised that if he reached the Oval Office he would immediately seek to repeal recent tax cuts. The money would be used to give tax credits to businesses, which would be required to provide health insurance to employees. Pension systems also should be simplified, he said, because too many Americans reach retirement without their finances secure. “Everyone who works will have health care,” Gephardt said.

— “It is immoral to have people without health insurance,” he said, speaking to about 70 people on the lawn of a Manchester home. “This issue is in my heart. It’s in my head. It’s in my soul. I will not rest until I get the people health insurance.” [Chicago Tribune, 07/22/2003]

— “Today in this country there is a great divide, a Grand Canyon between those who have health coverage and those who do not. And for too many, trying to cross from one side to the other is a hopeless pursuit.” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 04/24/2003]

— “We have proven our mettle at liberating oppressed peoples. Let us prove our worth at liberating millions of Americans from economic oppression and a life without health care.” [NY Daily News, 04/24/2003]

It’s one thing to say that ambitious, progressive health care reform is just a bad idea. But if it’s something you favor, I think it’s very difficult to make the case that there’s some better time to do it than in the wake of a big progressive electoral sweep. Naturally, a lot of people in the K Street community have suddenly developed an appreciation for incremental change that was lacking back when they wanted giant tax cuts and Social Security privatization, but there’s no reason policymakers should be guided by that kind of caution.