Hillary Couldn't Pass Universal Healthcare with a Democratic Congress and cost Dems the Congres

berni_mccoy

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sun Feb-17-08 08:11 PM
Original message

Hillary Couldn't Pass Universal Healthcare with a Democratic Congress and cost Dems the Congres

Edited on Sun Feb-17-08 08:12 PM by berni_mccoy

Hillary's Record:

From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton#Health_care_and_other_policy_initiatives

The plan did not receive enough support for a floor vote in either the House or the Senate, although both chambers were controlled by Democrats, and proposal was abandoned in September of 1994.<133> Clinton later acknowledged in her book, Living History, that her political inexperience partly contributed to the defeat, but mentioned that many other factors were also responsible. The First Lady's approval ratings, which had generally been in the high-50s percent range during her first year, fell to 44 percent in April 1994 and 35 percent by September 1994.<135> Republicans made the Clinton health care plan a major campaign issue of the 1994 midterm elections,<136> which saw a net Republican gain of fifty-three seats in the House election and seven in the Senate election, winning control of both; many analysts and pollsters found the plan to be a major factor in the Democrats' defeat, especially among independent voters.<137> Opponents of universal health care would continue to use "Hillarycare" as a pejorative label for similar plans by others.<138>

Not only did she support the Iraq War, she voted against putting Limits on Bush proposed by Levin (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_career_of_Hillary_Rodham_Clinton) :

(However, Clinton voted against the Levin Amendment to the Resolution, which would have required the President to conduct vigorous diplomacy at the U.N., and would have also required a separate Congressional authorization to unilaterally invade Iraq.<1> She did vote for the Byrd Amendment to the Resolution, which would have limited the Congressional authorization to one year increments, but the only mechanism necessary for the President to renew his mandate without any Congressional oversight was to claim that the Iraq War was vital to national security each year the authorization required renewal.)

Ah, but if she had only read the NIE that said the intelligence for the Iraq War was baked. But wait, she was briefed on it (same link above).

In 2005, she agreed with Cheney when he said the insurgency was in it's last throes: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-02-19-iraq-senators_x.htm

In that same year, she shut down filibuster attempts by Democratic Senators that would have stopped Bush's judicial nominees ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_career_of_Hillary_Rodham_Clinton ).

But, hey, she did propose Flag Protection Act of 2005 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Protection_Act_of_2005) and is a member of the Senate Prayer Breakfast ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Prayer_Breakfast ) so we should cut her a break for being a GREAT AMERICAN.

In her second term, things got a little better, but not by much. At least she didn't vote to go to War with another nation. Oh, wait, she did, by voting to label Iran as a terrorist organization, giving Bush military authority under previous Congressional Acts she voted for. But she's all about restoring civil liberties, so long as the telecom companies are granted immunity.

So, she *does* have a substantial track record, one I'm sure that many Democrats are hopeful for. Well, at least the 30-39 % that are still supporting her.