The fact is that we would have had comprehensive health care now, had it not been for Ted Kennedy's deliberately blocking the legislation that I proposed in 1978 or '79.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Presidents and speakers for over 100 years had tried to pass affordable care for all Americans. It was challenged over and over. The Supreme Court declared it constitutional.
If we did not have Obamacare, we could've addressed the healthcare crisis in a comprehensive but segmented fashion - meaning that we could have promoted a health savings plan. We could've pushed for tort reform, which added so much more cost to healthcare.
Hillary Clinton's radical attempts at so-called reform of the nation's health care system would have been more destructive than even Obamacare has been.
Republicans would have preferred the court overturn the health care bill, an act that would have underscored Obama's biggest liability - the perception among voters, including those who like and trust him, that he has been ineffective.
The debate on healthcare was not done like most of our conferences are done - meaning it was not all on television. There was this procedural feeling that the bill wasn't done thoroughly and didn't reflect peoples' wishes. It's not coincidence that upwards of 60 percent of folks in my district are against it.
Seven presidents before him - Democrats and Republicans - tried to expand health care to all Americans. President Obama got it done.
There's no question that Kennedy was an utter failure as a passer of laws during his proverbial thousand days.
It is hard to miss the irony in the fact that the very same week that Republicans were publicly heralding Congressman Paul Ryan's plan to inject market forces into the American health care system, they were crafting a budget deal to strip them from the health reform law.
I ran for Congress in 1996 to help Ted Kennedy pass a comprehensive health insurance reform bill.
On health care, virtually every political error that could be made was made.