Rep. Kucinich made some news during the NPR radio debate Tuesday, but not the kind candidates usually hope for. While chiding Gov. Dean for promising to balance the budget without making cuts in what Kucinich calls "the Pentagon's bloated budget," moderator Neal Conan pointed out that "Congressman Kucinich is holding up a pie chart, which is not truly effective on the radio." Kucinich responded, "Well, it's effective if Howard can see it."
Interestingly, Kucinich voted against the bill back in November because it wasn't overreaching and invasive enough.
Kucinich, who has advocated for a single-payer health-care system in which the government would supplant private insurers, was one of 39 House Democrats to vote against the bill last November and was easily the most liberal lawmaker among those Democrats
I'm not the least bit surprised by this. Kucinich obviously feels that while the current legislation is far from desirable from his perspective, it could serve as the foundation for incrementally phasing out private insurers and implementing the single-payer system. I'm not sure what the fallout is going to be exactly heading into this weekend's vote.
One might assume that all the holdouts now might come tumbling down like dominoes, except that Kucinich was a pretty flaky addition to the 'no' column to begin with.
Also, whatever good Kuchinich's defection might've achieved for the White House might have almost immediately been undone by President Obama's less-than-convincing interview televised yesterday on FOX News.
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