Who needs to make health care Barack Obama's Waterloo, as Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. suggested? Why not make it the president's Alamo?
That's the advice PBS host Bill Moyers had for President Barack Obama in an appearance on HBO's August 28 "Real Time with Bill Maher." According to the former press secretary for President Lyndon B. Johnson, a defeat on health care/health insurance reform would do the left more good than crafting some sort of compromise.
"I mean, I would rather see Barack Obama go down fighting for vigorous, strong principled public insurance, than to lose with a bill - look, BusinessWeek had a cover story last week, ‘The Insurers are Winning,'" Moyers said.
Moyers alluded to the deal the President has allegedly made with the pharmaceutical industry, but he said that ultimately Obama shouldn't stop at universal health care controlled by the strong arm of government for the good of the public.
"Everybody knows that the White House has already made a deal with the drug industry promising not to import cheaper drugs from Canada and Europe, promising not to use the government to negotiate for lower prices. That deal's been cut. Much better for Barack Obama to go back to this public insurance for everybody - universal health care run by the government with tough cost controls to which everybody can join - employees and individuals, and which puts the care of the patient back in the hands of doctors. And lose."
The consensus is that such a policy proposal would never make it through the U.S. Congress, however if it went down in flames it could serve as a symbolic gesture that rally the far left wing of the Democratic Party.
"If he were to do that and lose this fight, this fall - I guarantee you it would reinvigorate the party that we all know is suffering now from not being sure who it is and who it's for," Moyers added.
