------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 25, 2009 - Goanet's 15th Anniversary
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(excerpt) from Teddy Kennedy the Hollow Champion
by Alexander Cockburn
http://www.counterpunch.org
The deadly attacks on the working class and on organized labor are Ted
Kennedy’s true monument. But as much as his brothers Jack and Bobby he was
adept at persuading the underdogs that he was on their side. If it hadn’t
been for Kennedy, a lot more people would have health coverage . In 1971
Nixon, heading into his relection bid, put up the legislative ancestor of
all recent Democratic proposals, but Kennedy shot it down, preferring to
have this as his campaign plank sometime in the political future.
After reelection, Nixon did promote a health plan in his 1974 State of the
Union speech, with a call for universal access to health insurance. He
followed up with his Comprehensive Health Insurance Act on February 6,
1974. Nixon said his plan would build on existing employer-sponsored
insurance plans and would provide government subsidies to the self-employed
and small businesses to ensure universal access to health insurance. Kennedy
went through the motions of cooperation, but in the end the AFL-CIO, with a
covert nudge from Kennedy, killed the bill because Nixon was vanishing under
the Watergate scandal and the Democrats did not want to hand the President
and the Republicans one of their signature issues. Now the Republicans
scream “socialism” at exactly what Nixon proposed and Kennedy killed off 38
years ago, in 1971.
+
venantius j pinto
