Originally Posted By: the G-man
Barney Frank Deals Potential Death Blow to Obamacare
  • Rep. Barney Frank is not a wobbly moderate in a marginal district, but a liberal Democrat who has been supportive of the health care push. And that's why this statement below, which essentially rules out all of the options being discussed for pushing through Obamacare, deals a potentially fatal blow to the legislation:
     Quote:
    “I have two reactions to the election in Massachusetts. One, I am disappointed. Two, I feel strongly that the Democratic majority in Congress must respect the process and make no effort to bypass the electoral results. If Martha Coakley had won, I believe we could have worked out a reasonable compromise between the House and Senate health care bills. But since Scott Brown has won and the Republicans now have 41 votes in the Senate, that approach is no longer appropriate. I am hopeful that some Republican Senators will be willing to discuss a revised version of health care reform because I do not think that the country would be well-served by the health care status quo. But our respect for democratic procedures must rule out any effort to pass a health care bill as if the Massachusetts election had not happened. Going forward, I hope there will be a serious effort to change the Senate rule which means that 59 votes are not enough to pass major legislation, but those are the rules by which the health care bill was considered, and it would be wrong to change them in the middle of the process.”


Let's make no mistake, though.
Barney Frank --for me the most vicious partisan and worst liar of all the Democrats in Congress-- and the one most responsible for the collapse of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the larger financial collapse, clearly wanted to ram through Obamacare legislation, on the path toward a single payer system and destroying private care health insurance completely.
But Barney Frank simply sees it as politically unfeasable, and has just enough survival instincts to back off this policy, despite how bad he really wants it.

And would ram it through any way he could, if he could get away with it.

Barney Frank's remarks are a powerful statement. That as much of a zealot as he is, even he knows the political wind against this is too strong, so he's backing off ramming it through. Much as he'd like to.