Feingold Defends Health Care Vote in Wis. Debate

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold defended his vote for health care reform during a televised debate Friday, saying his Republican challenger Ron Johnson wants to replace the program with a system that puts insurance companies in control.

Johnson, who has called the health care law an assault on personal freedoms, countered that the nation's health care system was already the finest in the world, and needed only minor tweaks to become even better.

(snip)
While most congressional Democrats who voted for health care reform have downplayed their support, Feingold said he was happy to help pass it.

"The big thing is, we finally get control of the insurance companies," he told reporters after the event.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/10/08/us/politics/AP-US-Wisconsin-US-Senate-Debate.html?hp

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http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=213877

[dennis4868]

1. Feingold

And other dems have to do a much better job in defending HCR bill and the stimulus package.....both have and will do alot of good and Dems should be proud of their vote.....by the way, did Feingold's opponent say which provisions he would like to get rid of?

[life_long_dem]

2. Link to debate-- from DUer Qutzupalotl

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9284168

[No Elephants]

3. I'd be more careful about claiming hcr gave government control of insurance companies.

First, it's untrue. We put some limits on some of their most inhumane, unconscionable practices. That's all.

If you say government now controls them, you make government (and hcr) responsible for whatever they bad things they do. And, it's a safe bet they are doing and will continue to do, bad things.

Besides, government's taking control of an industry sounds like classic socialism and cherefore plays right into RW rhetoric.

Making a more limited, more accurate statement would have served him better with all parts of the political spectrum, IMO.

[speppin]

4. agree. I cringed when I heard him say that. I was listening via the radio.

[TomCADem]

5. The Republican Seriously Claimed That Our Pre-Reform Healthcare System Was Finest In The World?

Costs were rising exponentially, people were left uninsured with no type of subsidy with many markets dominated by just one insurer?