Bill Clinton has told the truth. I repeat. Bill Clinton has told the truth. And it this case it was a truth about Obamacare which is sure to make liberals very uncomfortable. So how can they explain it away? Simple. By claiming that Bill Clinton has lost his political abilities.
Such was the argument of Esquire politics writer, Charles Pierce, who claims that Bill Clinton has lost his political chops much in the same way that Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Steve Blass lost his ability to pitch:
One of the finest pieces of magazine writing I ever read was Roger Angell's elegy for Steve Blass, a star pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1970s who suddenly, inexplicably lost the ability to pitch a baseball.
...Once, and not that long ago, Bill Clinton was probably the most gifted natural politician I ever saw. While his big speeches often were exercises in bloviating non-writing, he worked a small room like a maestro.
...Right now, as his wife edges closer to assuming the office he once held, Bill Clinton is starting to look like Steve Blass.
Here is the rare truth from Bill Clinton that Pierce found so offensive:
Speaking Monday at a Democratic rally in Flint, Michigan, the former president ripped into the Affordable Care Act for flooding the health care insurance market and causing premiums to rise for middle-class Americans who do not qualify for subsidies. "So you've got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It's the craziest thing in the world," Clinton said… "On the other hand, the current system works fine if you're eligible for Medicaid, if you're a lower-income working person; if you're already on Medicare, or if you get enough subsidies on a modest income that you can afford your health care," Clinton said. "But the people that are getting killed in this deal are small business people and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies."
No, NOOOO! Stop with telling the painful truth! What's wrong with you, Bill?
Even if you agree with him, and I do, at least when he points out that the market-based model doesn't work in this area, this is stupid-to-the-bone politics.
Yeah. Stupid politics for letting the truth slip. Try not to do this again, Bill.
