Bill Clinton: “I hope Democrats don’t use [NY-26] as an excuse to do nothing.”
Posted: May 25, 2011 Filed under: just because 33 CommentsWe’re back to what the meaning of is is, or rather what the meaning of “doing nothing” is.
Via ABC News, Bill Clinton caught on a mic schmoozing with Paul Ryan after Hochul’s win:
Vodpod videos no longer available.“So anyway, I told them before you got here, I said I’m glad we won this race in New York,” Clinton told Ryan, when the two met backstage at a forum on the national debt held by the Pete Peterson Foundation. But he added, “I hope Democrats don’t use this as an excuse to do nothing.”
Ryan told Clinton he fears that now nothing will get done in Washington.
“My guess is it’s going to sink into paralysis is what’s going to happen. And you know the math. It’s just, I mean, we knew we were putting ourselves out there. You gotta start this. You gotta get out there. You gotta get this thing moving,” Ryan said.
Clinton told Ryan that if he ever wanted to talk about it, he should “give me a call.” Ryan said he would.
For more context, here’s a bit of the speech Clinton gave just prior to his backstage exchange with Ryan:
“It was about Medicare,” Clinton said during a speech to the debt forum minutes before he met Ryan back stage. Clinton was referring to Ryan’s controversial budget plan, passed by the House this year, which would transform Medicare for those under the age of 55.
“You shouldn’t draw the conclusion that the New York race means that nobody can do anything solve the rising Medicare costs,” said during his speech. “I just don’t agree with that. I think you should draw the conclusion that the people made a judgment that this proposal in the Republican is not the right one. I agree with that, but I’m afraid that the Democrats will draw the conclusion that because Congressman Ryan’s proposal, I think, is not the best one, that we shouldn’t do anything and I completely disagree with that.”
Well, as I’ve been saying, what NY-26 showed is that Democrat can win on being Democrats, in the reddest of red districts no less, but unless Dems actually govern like Democrats and make good on protecting the social safety net, demagoguery and running against the GOP and Ryancare will not actually change anything.
I agree that Democrats can’t just spout a bunch of heated campaign rhetoric and do nothing…but I’m not sure what Clinton was trying to communicate with Ryan or whether he’s got some kind of triangulating scheme up his sleeve.
What Democrats need to “do” (instead of just “say”) is to actually govern like Democrats.
Bill Clinton’s exchange with Paul Ryan no doubt reinforces all the criticisms progressives have of the Clinton presidency, though it is important to remember that Clinton is the president who in ’95 vetoed Newt Gingrich’s plan to cut Medicare:
“I am using this pen to preserve our commitment to our parents, to protect opportunity for our children, to defend the public health and our natural resources and natural beauty, and to stop a tax increase that actually undercuts the value of work,” Clinton said in an Oval Office ceremony.
To dramatize his point, he vetoed the bill with the same pen Johnson used to sign the Social Security Act amendments of 1965, which created Medicare and Medicaid. The pen was rushed to the White House by Federal Express from the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas.
Earlier that year in threatening the veto, Clinton had said the following:
President Clinton said today that he would veto the Republicans’ legislative package for Medicare and Medicaid. He said that their proposals for large savings in the Government health plans for the elderly and the poor would have “Draconian consequences” and would “dismantle Medicare as we know it.”
Speaking to elderly people at the White House just 24 hours after House Republicans outlined their proposals, Mr. Clinton said, “If these health care cuts come to my desk, of this size, I would have no choice but to veto it.”
[…]
Even while threatening a veto, Mr. Clinton urged elderly people to seek bipartisan support for changes in Medicare that would control costs without harming beneficiaries. “We ought to be here to build a bridge,” he said.
So in that sense, Bill Clinton is being consistent, albeit annoying, in rubbing shoulders with Paul Ryan the way he has.
But, as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities graph below shows, it’s Tax Cuts and War that are driving the national debt (h/t Susie Madrak):
This is what Democrats need to start doing something about.
It’s the War and the Tax Cuts, stupid.
If the DC crowd really cared about saving Medicare and Social Security, they wouldn’t be pushing austerity before cutting defense spending, bringing our troops home, going back to the Clinton tax rates, and spending money here at home, where our own infrastructure is crumbling, instead of “nation-building” everywhere else.
“The rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues [America currently does] — whether it’s individual, corporate or whatever [form of] taxation forms.”
The FDR/LBJ social policy legacy is the closest thing to “American exceptionalism” that we have had.
From my first official post at Sky Dancing:
Peter Daou earlier this week: “It’s a nightmarish joke that Republicans and Tea Partiers want to assail President Obama for denying American exceptionalism, while doing everything possible to undercut it.” Perfectly said, but of course, on the other side of the mockery, the great DLC/Clinton Slayer That Never Was… wants to call himself a Blue Dog, not to mention do everything to undercut the domestic policy legacy of FDR and LBJ. Another sick joke for sure, though it is no surprise. (See Politico, March 2009: “I am a New Democrat.” –a newly inaugurated President Obama )
Obama won’t even mention Medicare in his congratulations to Kathy Hochul. He leaves that for Debbie Wasserman Schultz to do.
Is anyone detecting a pattern here?
Hillary, Debbie, Kathy, Kirsten… they fight like Democrats of old, like FDR and New Deal architect Frances Perkins.
They say the simple truths, be it Hillary saying the rich aren’t paying their fair share or Kirsten picking up where John Murtha left off in starting the call in earnest for an end to the war in Afghanistan.
As I asked several months back — What if this is as good as an Obama Administration gets?:
A huge part of the problem is that we have an empty suit in the White House from whom the best we can hope for is that he simply lets other people lead for him and make something good happen once in awhile, if we are even that lucky. It’s a victory if he lets other people throw us a bone and fight the fights of ordinary Americans for him. Woo hoo.
And, it seems like he increasingly relies on women to take the heat for him. Just look at what Liz Warren is going through right now.
So if progressives want to hate on Bill Clinton for hobnobbing with another policy wonk, albeit a scary right wing one, and sending weird triangulating signals to him, that’s fine… but if they’re going to do that, they need to come clean and address that their hero, Barack Obama, is not only the same, but worse.
At least with Clinton, there appears to be some genuine history of trying to protect that social policy legacy.
With Obama, there’s a photoshopped picture of him hearting Reagan.
I’ll leave you with Sophia Petrillo singing,”Thanks for the Medicare…”:
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I think Clinton told Ryan to call him so he (Bill) can explain the facts of life to a wet-behind-the-ears geek.
One very easy way to cut Medicare spending would be to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. But Obama did do that in his heath care bill either.
I think Big Dawg is trying to rope-a-GOP-dope somehow… that’s just the feeling I get. I could be wrong.
I’m with you on that thought, rope a gop dope.
I agree with that…you get more done with the southern fried honey schmooze than not etc
I took it the same way, you know if you get Bill Clinton on the phone, it’s going to be a one-way conversation, not a dialogue. 😉
lol!!!
Absolutely. There’s no way in hell Ryan can run with the Big Dawg.
I love Bill Clinton when he make the progressives cry. The progressives hate him because he is not a Kennedy,Kerry, or Pelosi but a redneck from the south and proud of it. Clinton is not a liberal or progressive and he never claimed to be one.
On an even better note schultz got suspended for call Laura Ingram a slut. He cried because he felt so bad. One word KARMA.
The progs fell for the corporate media marketing that the nineties peace and prosperity were a bad thing, and yes in part out of class bias. Their anti-populist strain is just as destructive as the right-wing’s anti-intellectual strain.
Re: Ed Schultz. The world is just one big frat house to both MSNBC and the Obama WH.
As always, a terrific post…
I don’t think this is triangulation. I think the Big Dawg is right–Medicare costs do need to come down, but they need to come down because the costs of medical care in general are far, far past the bounds of reason and need to come down along with them. Nowhere else in the world do medications cost what they do in the United States. Mexico strictly conrols the price of drugs; the “maximum price to the public” is printed right on the box for the patient to check agains the cash register. High-strength Nexium from India costs less than over-the-counter Prilosic here. A friend’s son broke his arm, and insurance paid $23,000.00 on the bill. (The son’s co-pay was $5,000.00) He could have gotten equally effective care a few miles away in Mexico for a couple hundred.
It’s grotesque. And one way or another, whether it’s through total economic collapse or popular revolt, it’s going to have to change.
There are things that can be done, but until we do something about defense spending and tax cuts, scapegoating social programs seems to me to be a red herring.
Again I could be wrong, so I hesitated to put this in the post up top, but I think Big Dawg is trying to encourage the Paul Ryan rightwing to keep walking right over a cliff with their idiocy on Medicare. IMHO. I’m sure he’ll do it in his signature Bill Clinton style while trying to talk sense about what can really be done to save Medicare, but Bill is savvy enough to know the GOP aren’t going to try any of those ways.
ITA, Wonk.
I agree also. The wars–three of them, now–are an unjustifiable drain on both human and fiscal resources. Let the energy companies hire Eric Prince if they want to prey on Middle Eastern oilfields, and let them take the consequences. The tax structure also needs to go back to the Clinton model.
but Bill is savvy enough to know the GOP aren’t going to try any of those ways
He and Hillary certainly learned that when they tried to get national health done themselves and got blogged down answering all the GOP ” concerns” . Of course only real concern the GOP had was how to kill it the quickest. Which they did while most Dems sat on their hands….as they did for most of Bill’s 8 years
The good news in NY 26 is that the population recognizes a sham and when given a chance they will vote against that.
I would also contend that we economically are in a dangerous zone. The chart above explains a lot of it. Clinton had the deficit near zero and since George Bush, we have been in trouble.
We seem to not be able to recognize that we cannot keep spending for wars and not raise taxes. There are certainly other factors, but the public seems to be realizing that the Republicans are about not paying for things. I say we, because a lot of Democrats were part of this irrational spending
Now the base seems to be realizing that core values are in jepordy. I think Bill Clinton can explain this to Paul Ryan when he calls.
That call should have been made before by Obama. Instead we have gotten capitulation which has emboldened the Republicans.
The problem both parties have is that neither is serious about dealing with the core problems we face. You are right, voters understand the sham, just like they understand that Obamacare is a sham. I don’t see a reason to get excited about a win in NY 26. Democrats will not govern like Democrats, as evidenced by the 111th Congress. Both parties are made of the same cloth, bought and paid for by corporations. To believe that Democrats will do what is best for Americans is wishful thinking, just like those who voted for Obama when the reality said something else.
Got to disagree about NY-26. That was a power play against the DC Dems by Hochul and Gillibrand.
I agree with you WTV. But a few Democrats can’t change the structural deficiencies of a party. If under a speaker from San Francisco, with a super-majority, the Democrats couldn’t deliver, what hope is there that a few Democrats can make the party deliver for the working class? The Black Caucus folded and went along with what the leadership wanted. That’s how I see it.
It’ll take more than one election cycle, but under a President Gillibrand, maybe things could be better than under a Speaker Pelosi.
President Gillibrand sounds great.
Bill talks with Ryan and gets hate. Obama admits raygun is his hero and give the republicans everything they want and gets love from the progressives. I don’t get it.
And Gore, a Democratic VP presiding over peace and prosperity, they couldn’t vote for, but Reagan wannabe Obama they had to vote for out of fear of McCain, who John Kerry almost put on his ticket. Shrug. They’ve got some failure to critically analyze going on.
Bill Clinton is an ex-president, and I think he tries to be bipartisan whenever possible, especially about developing solutions that work for Americans. Having used Obamacare to slam the Democrats in the 2010 election, Paul Ryan sold the rest of the GOP Obamacare for Medicare. How stupid is that?
Pretty damn stupid…
I think Bill is governing. In the absense of leadership from the actual President, it seems that he is stepping in to fill the void, and on this a very important issue.
President Clinton more than anyone else in any party, can claim that he understands bipartisanship in its policy fomr. How to get bills through Congress that adress his core beliefs, even though the other branch is completely in opposition to them.
I think more than anything else, he is reaching out to Ryan to put him back in line. I think he is on the side of the American people. I think that he hears this mess of debate and realizes that the grown-ups need to get back into the room.
I think Hillary needs to get away from this administration.
They are asshats.
Hillary 2012
Lord love a duck, I hope you’re right.
6:14 Easterm time
Gillibrand going to be on Morning Joe
Joe makes the case that Obama is not in the picture regarding Budget. They comment tht if the Democrats only Demagogue Medicare, that opens the door for Republicans to reframe the discussion.
I agree and I see Ryan starting the process to do that. Despite NY 26 victory, there is a lot of time before the election to reframe in the absense of real reform.
watched Morning Joe………..and Mika’s segment “know your value”, women and pay disparity. Several women on the show, including Gillibrand, McCaskill, Carol King,
Lesley Stahl, Tina Brown, and Norah O’Donell
discussing the various issues as to why women themselves are the reason they are left behind when it comes to values.
Strange enough not one mentioned the issue of sexism in the media, and not once was the issue of reproductive health care mentioned as issues of why women are left behind. I also found this segment to be once again, largely for those elite women who have made it, and women who are not affluent, are as always overlooked.
For a Mika segment, that’s about what I’d expect.
Wonk she did ask one question, what if women were on board when wall street had it’s crisis, what would have been the outcome?
Did any of the guests say anything interesting?
I liked Carol King’s reply, how the men in congress should have been, and should be voting on the issues of equal pay.
I also like what Elizabeth Warren said, that when a woman makes a suggestion, that other women need to repeat it, as in: What Shirley just said is a good point, etc, etc.
That way men don’t get the credit for the thoughts/ideals and suggestions.
I felt really strange with Norah O’donnell response and Clare McCaskill, knowning everyother word out of their mouths was OBAMA in 2008.