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Enzi: If I Hadn't Been Involved, You Would Already Have National Health Care

Brian Beutler | August 26, 2009, 5:34PM

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY)

Health Care, Mike Enzi, Senate Finance Committee

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Speaking before 500 Wyomingites in Gillette last night, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) took flack from colleagues and voters for participating in bipartisan health care reform negotiations on the Senate Finance Committee...and quickly gave up the game.

"If I hadn't been involved in this process as long as I have and to the depth as I have, you would already have national health care," he said. "It's not where I get them to compromise, it's what I get them to leave out."

State Rep. Timothy Hallinan called for Enzi to ditch the so-called "Gang of Six" talks.

But that's not Enzi's philosophy. "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu," he said.

Despite Enzi's apparent belief that his chief role in the process is to slow things down, block national health care, and kill key provisions so that Republicans don't--to extend the metaphor--get eaten, a number of key Democrats insist that health care reform legislation will be better if it comes out of the Finance Committee than if Democrats pass it on their own.

Spokesman: Schumer Open To Public Option Negotiations, But They Haven't Started

Lieberman Repeats Claim That Public Option Not Part Of 2008 Presidential Campaign

Reid: 'I Welcome Schumer, Landrieu, And Carper, As They Work On Public Option Compromise'

Spokesman: Schumer's Not Initiating Any Trigger Negotiations

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9 comments

Recommend Recommend (2)

mans_best_friend

August 26, 2009 5:49 PM

"If I Hadn't Been Involved, You Would Already Have National Health Care."

Not losing health care coverage when you lose your job.

People able to get care when they get sick.

Insurance companies unable to stiff policyholders who actually make claims.

Yeah, that would really suck. Thanks a lot, Mike.

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Walter Mitty

August 26, 2009 6:20 PM

Send that quote to Baucus. Enzi and his side of the "Gang" are doing nothing but running interference. They're not even trying to hide that fact for crying out loud.

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ttarleton

August 26, 2009 6:34 PM

WTF! "If I Hadn't Been Involved, You Would Already Have National Health Care." He thinks his intransigence and obstruction are heroic! I hope this shockingly idiotic boast ends up in the history books as an example of the shit-for-brains lunacy of the Republicans legislators of this era.

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johnmccsf

August 26, 2009 6:39 PM

"If you're not at the table, you're on the menu,"

So he took his seat and proceeded to eat all of Baucus's and Conrad's porridge

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714Day

August 26, 2009 7:49 PM

At least Enzi has baldly opened his real agenda.
If this forthcoming bill is a reflection of obstructionist, corporatist toadying, it would be a sin to have Kennedy's name on it. To Kennedy, Public Option was the compromise because universal payer was truly the only conscionable program. He said he could handle Public Option as a starting compromise on the road to the inevitable realization of a great American society. Kennedy's health care reform ought to be just that.

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Kuyleh

August 26, 2009 8:39 PM

What a Fucking scumbag.

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midnight rambler

August 26, 2009 10:51 PM in reply to Kuyleh

Hey, he's being honest and upfront about it. It's Baucus and Conrad, who decide who is in on the negotiations and keep Enzi at the table even with this kind of crap, who are the scumbags here.

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nova voter

August 26, 2009 9:28 PM

it makes me SICK that health care reform was delayed until after the recess, and after teddy's death, in the vain (actually, irrational) hope that the republican party would bargain in good faith.

it's going to wind up needing to be rammed through, if it's going to be meaningful at all. so it could have been rammed through before the recess. and teddy could have passed on knowing. but no. it was delayed for frivolous, self-absorbed reasons by shitheads like enzi.

fuck enzi. fuck boehner. fuck lieberman. and fuck the rest of them. and they know who they are. disgusting pigs.

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