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| Unlikely Duo Lays Claim to Role in Healthcare Debate |
| Posted by Karen (karen) on May 14 2008 at 8:55 PM |
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - The Hill - Jeffrey Young
Sometimes if you want a seat at the table, you need to build your own chair.
That’s what Reps. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) are working on as the unlikely pair position themselves for a major debate on healthcare reform in 2009 by laying down a marker this year.
“How can we be players so that we are in the mix in this debate?” Shays told The Hill during a recent joint interview with Langevin. “We start here to get people to pay attention,” he said.
“Whether it’s now or after the election, the time has got to come. … The American people are going to demand it,” Langevin said. “The simple fact of the matter is: It has got to get fixed at some point.”
Players on Capitol Hill and K Street have been gearing up since the beginning of last year for the possibility of healthcare reform taking center stage in Washington for the first time since President Clinton’s plan crashed and burned in 1994. Langevin and Shays want in.
Lawmakers, especially Democrats, like to say that the public should have access to the same healthcare that members of Congress have. The Langevin-Shays bill would essentially grant that, all for the projected cost of $540 billion a year.
Shays thinks healthcare can do for him what campaign finance reform did a few years ago. “This is my campaign finance reform,” he said.
And like campaign-finance reform, Shays thinks health reform isn’t going to happen quickly or without a struggle. “I think it’s a four-to-six-year effort.”
For the complete story, click here.
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