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After months of effort the committee chairs tell me I need to become resigned to the reality that broad bipartisan consensus cannot be achieved "for many of the reasons I mentioned earlier. It's no use wasting more time, they say. Not all, but almost all Republicans will vote against any meaningful reform.
We will not stop working to persuade Republican lawmakers to vote on the merits of draft legislation and to avoid voting simply to "break me and embarrass my administration.
But I have decided to move forward and have asked House and Senate leaders to give me a bill to sign before Thanksgiving. The bill I want is quite simple. It will extend insurance for quality health care to ALL Americans. It will have a robust public option to create the kind of competition that will bring costs down.
And If More is Needed"
There are additional ways to obtain the necessary funds for transformative health care reform. They do not require giant leaps of imagination.
I was able to do some reading while on vacation. And I have come to the conclusion that, by any reasonable measure, we are giving too much money to trying to project power abroad. We say it is for "defense, but much of it goes toward an eventually futile effort to maintain a Pax Americana, in the model of Rome and the former British empire.
I have decided it makes no sense to throw untold billions more into adventures like Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which have only tenuous relationship to our nation's security.
Yes, critics will criticize me for changing my mind. And in response I would simply cite Emerson's dictum: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
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