Frank Pallone: “I would just say, you know, a lot of people will say, well, why would the President want to do this? Why does he…”

“I would just say, you know, a lot of people will say, well, why would the President want to do this? Why does he privatize? Why does he give money to the HMOs? What is the reason? Because you would like to think he would make the right decisions and do the right things. There are two things I have to point out: one is that he is often driven by ideology, and I think it is a mistake. You have to be practical. You have to look at what actually works and not just look and say, well, government is not good and privatizing is better. Sometimes government is better. Sometimes privatizing is better. But just do not be stuck in this ideology that it is always better to privatize. The other thing, unfortunately, is the special interests. I mean, the bottom line is that the drug companies traditionally gave a lot of money to the Republican candidates and his own campaign, and the same with the HMOs. The HMOs were always the darling of the Republicans and the President, and they contributed a lot to their campaigns. So there is a special interest reason here, as well as an ideological reason unfortunately.”