Brown blasts GOP on health-care bill
The Columbus Dispatch – Republicans oppose the health-care overhaul not because it would harm the country but because its passage would hurt them politically, says Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
Persistent lies by the GOP about the proposal being finalized by the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders are why Americans oppose the measure in opinion polls, Brown told The Dispatch editorial board today, predicting that opinions will change once it's passed.
Brown said a bill will pass within a couple of weeks despite staunch GOP opposition.
"I think Republicans know when Medicare passed (in 1965), they know how much political damage it did to them for a generation," he said. "Some Republicans, the ones that will be more honest with you, don't fear what happens to the country if this bill passes. They fear what it means politically to them when it does.
"I think it's going to be a long-term problem (for Republicans) if this bill passes because I think it's going to work for the country. And people are going to say they were on the wrong side of history, and Democrats weren't."
Brown also predicted that the benefits promised to Nebraska to win Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson's vote will never happen. The primary goody – the federal government picking up Nebraska's share of increased Medicaid costs – wouldn't take effect for a few years and would be eliminated by then, Brown said.
