Wed Jan 27, 2010 at 12:15:00 PM EST
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Politico has a story about Congressman Pascrell and how vocal he has been about the handling of healthcare by his own party:Rep. Bill Pascrell has called fellow Democrats "arrogant" and referred to a key party talking point as "BS." He slammed deals cut by leadership and special interests and said, "We're not going to accept that any longer."
Agitated and unfiltered, Pascrell has become the guy who's not afraid to go public with what many rank-and-file House Democrats have been saying behind closed doors. Speaking directly to the White House, Pascrell had this to say about chief of staff Rahm Emanuel:In a front-page POLITICO story Friday, he said he'd like to see White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel "come out from behind his desk" to talk to the common folk more. He talked about the complexity of the bill and the difficulties getting people to understand what it really would do as a self inflicted wound:"It's so complex; we made it complex," Pascrell said of the health care debate. "And we knew this from the very beginning." So he's proposing to split the bill up an pass the more popular pieces, but those wouldn't be a public option or individual mandate."We are arrogant when we say, 'Well, as soon as the public understands what we're doing, they'll like it,'" he told a clutch of reporters. "That is not only arrogant, it's BS."
Rank-and-file Democrats are "tired of hearing about and not knowing about" the deals that leadership cut with industries for their support of this legislation, Pascrell said, and in expressing that, Pelosi became Pascrell's prime target.
"We're not going to accept that any longer," he said. "In fact, if you go back to those agreements, they should've been much more robust; talk about robust - those agreements should've been more robust. The Democrats have been trying desperately to clean up the mess they've made of healthcare. A once popular concept has now become the boogeyman for many, including our elected officials. You've seen support splinter with everyone coming up with their own path forward, whether it be starting over, passing what's there or some path in between. And now the icing on the cake, Harry Reid said Democrats see "no rush" to keep moving forward at this time. I wonder how much more they would all rush if someone took away their health insurance while they waited? |
| Jason Springer :: Pascrell slams Democrats approach to healthcare as arrogant |
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