Barack Obama offered up his plan for health care yesterday in Iowa, where he said the political climate is more hospitable to a broad, universal-coverage plan than it was in the early 1990s when the Clinton administration tried, reports the Washington Post's Anne Kornblut and Perry Bacon, Jr.
The plan could cost more than $50 billion, paid in part by increasing taxes on those who make more than $250,000 per year and reversing the Bush tax cuts. Key to the plan would be the requirement that almost all employers "offer insurance to workers or face a tax penalty, an idea that many businesses abhor and that is also" in John Edwards' proposal. "This employer mandate drove much of the opposition to the Clinton plan in 1994." The Obama plan doesn't include a "popular idea from both Democrats and Republicans who work on health-care issues:" an individual mandate that requires Americans to buy health insurance and was featured as part of the Massachusetts health care plan pushed by Mitt Romney last year. The Clinton and Edwards campaigns criticized Obama's campaign for not being truly universal.
For both Clinton and Obama, making health care more affordable is the "tale of two villains:" drugmakers for Obama and insurers for Clinton, writes Bloomberg's Aliza Marcus. Obama wants the government to "negotiate drug price-discounts for Medicare ... spur wider use of cheaper generic copies of pharmaceuticals and allow Americans to buy lower-priced medicines from Europe and Canada." Clinton plans to bar insurers from "cherry picking" who they sign up and prevent them from charging "higher rates to those in ill health."
As Obama unfolded his health plan, Clinton talked up her economic plan yesterday in New Hampshire, reports the New York Sun's Russell Bermann. Clinton drew the most attention for saying that it's "time to reject the idea of an 'on your own' society and to replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity. I prefer a 'we're all in it together' society." However, she did detail some planks of her economic policy: let the Bush tax cuts expire for those making more than $200,000, "scrap subsidies for oil and gas companies, and require large oil companies to invest in alternative energy or pay into a national research fund." Clinton wants "greater scrutiny of the salaries of chief executive" and is pushing to make sure companies cannot "defer taxes on profits they earn overseas" to halt outsourcing.
Clinton said, "It's not as if America hasn't been successful economically these past years. But the measure of success doesn't relate to what's happening in households across our country, because, while productivity and corporate profits are up, the fruits of that success just haven't reached many of our families. It's like trickle-down economics, but without the trickle."
On the campaign trail Clinton got major endorsements out West. First, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa endorsed Clinton after being courted by the senator and her husband, reports the New York Times' Patrick Healy. Villaraigosa has a "network of supporters as mayor of the nation's second-largest city and as a former speaker of the State Assembly, and he is widely seen as a rising star in the party and a national spokesman on Hispanic concerns like immigration and education."
In Nevada, Clinton scored the endorsements of the last Democratic governor and 34 black leaders, including Robert Fowler, pastor of a 9,000-member Baptist church in Las Vegas. Fowler said he chose Clinton because of experience and "political savvy." Folwer said, "I believe that Sen. Obama has a day, I just don't believe that this is the day, personally."
Meanwhile, The Politico's Mike Allen reports Fred Thompson will announce his bid for president over the July 4 weekend and has already formed a committee to raise money and pay some staffers. Thompson's policy team remains under wraps.
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