Reihan Salam, the coauthor of a book "Grand New Party," was a guest on the Lou Dobb's Radio Show, March 2010. The subject was about the health-care bill that had just been signed into law, back then.
5:26-5:40 Lou Dobbs: And this is the same President that has been out trashing, vilifying, demonizing insurance companies; but as a result of this legislation, more than $300 billion will be put in their pockets because of the individual mandate.
5:41-6:00 Reihan Salam: Yup yup yeah, I think that's absolutely right ... And I think that what we're likely to see, in my opinion, is that the individual mandate is going to get, quote unquote, strengthened ... Which means that you're going to see it get tougher ... You're going to see tougher, stiffer fines coming down the road ... And I think that, you know, it's likely that Republicans are going to be the ones doing that. I hope that's not actually the case.
6:01-6:02 Lou Dobbs: Why do you think it'll be Republicans doing that?
6:03-6:55 Reihan Salam: Well why? Because basically the Democrats had passed this bill that is unworkable ... And the Republicans are going to come in, they're going to find out that, you know, 'Guess what? ... We can't actually repeal this thing.' ... And so, you know Republicans who are cozy with the health insurance companies, just as you have got Democrats who are cozy with the health insurance companies, you're going to get a handful of them who are going to say, 'Well hey, you know we can do the health insurance companies a favor.' -- I'm not saying that's going to happen necessarily ... I'm saying it could very well happen ... And if you think that it can't, you're being naïve. I think that you're going to see all kinds of ways this bill is going to be fixed at the edges: that are actually going to strengthen the hands of the big winners from this ... Which are either the pharmaceutical companies or the insurance companies. The Pharmaceutical companies had spent tens of millions of dollars to get this legislation passed ... And they're breaking out the champagne right now because they know that it's a big win for them.
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My own commentary:
Fast forward to 2012. Why do you suppose Mitt Romney is a huge recipient of money from corporate donors? Why do you suppose Romney had recently stated his Massachusetts' Health Care Plan to be "conservative," particularly in reference to the mandate? Do you really believe that Mittens will fully repeal ObamaCare? (If Supreme Court rules the mandate to be constitutional, then Romney will have the green light to preserve the mandate, too.) That's why I very strongly oppose his candidacy.
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For the full podcast of the Lou Dobbs interview with Reihan Salam: http://bit.ly/wtqulp
For info on Reihan Salam's book: http://amzn.to/zIbcBw
On Twitter, Reihan Salam is @reihansalam or go to: http://bit.ly/wHKblx
Reihan, you are very astute, Health Insurers paid Barack Obama 20,000,000 in 2008 to get him elected. But I think the tiger they are riding will eat them. Because guaranteed issue will cause huge losses that can't be made up with penalties or premiums. How high could Congress (or HHS?) set the mandate? I'll find out if it's discretionary. Still, many will try and jump and dump Obamacare:http://cobrahealth.com/jump-dump-Obamacare.htm
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