Liberal Regret Over Health Care

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), one of 57 liberal Democrats in the House threatening to reject health care reform that doesn't include a public insurance plan, says progressive advocates of single-payer health care misplayed their cards in the health care debate. "I think we should've drawn the line in the sand earlier with the White House and our congressional leadership about what important the public option was, not negotiate that away so early that now we find ourselves struggling to keep it in," Grijalva told NPR in an interview that aired last night and again this morning. Where would we be right now if liberals had applied more pressure from the beginning? It's mostly a question of Senate votes: whether calls for single-payer would sway three or four moderate Democrats to vote for a public option. We may never know, but Grijalva, at least, seems to regret that liberals didn't get loud earlier.