At yesterday’s press conference, after answering a question from NPR‘s Tamara Keith, the president paused and then added:
“I’m sorry, I’m going to say one last thing about this, just because this does frustrate me: States that have chosen not to expand Medicaid for no other reason than political spite. You’ve got 5 million people who could be having health insurance right now at no cost to these states — zero cost to these states — other than ideological reasons. They have chosen not to provide health insurance for their citizens. That’s wrong. It should stop. Those folks should be able to get health insurance like everybody else.”
Of course, we have Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts to thank for those five million uninsured. Some of them have already died as a result, but I doubt that Justice Roberts lost any sleep over those needless deaths.
Like Brian Beutler, I was less than happy with how the president chose to frame the debate about ObamaCare. I understood his overall point that Democrats shouldn’t spend all their time re-litigating the past, but I want to go over to a complete offensive on health care.
We shouldn’t wait for the polls to shift over in our favor. We should go on offense now.
