Hillary Clinton has co-authored a New York Times op-ed with former GOP Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, and in doing so has given us a preview of what her poll-tested, K Street-approved presidency would be like.
The op-ed urges Congress to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a program supported a majority of U.S. governors and a host of healthcare lobbyists and special interest groups. It is about as politically safe a position an aspiring candidate can take, especially for one as cautious as Clinton, who still refuses to take a position on the Keystone XL pipeline.
It’s also an example of Hillary’s bravery and willingness to embrace bipartisanship. Sort of. Frist, a former Senate majority leader, is the perfect Republican for Hillary to team up with. He is firmly entrenched in the establishment K Street wing of the party, so much so that he even said he would have voted for Obamacare. Interestingly, he sits on the boards of a number of healthcare-related companies that came out quite well under Obamacare.
During his time in the Senate, Frist was the subject of multiple conflict of interest complaints after it was revealed that he had significant stock holdings in a family hospital company while he was working to pass the Medicare prescription drug benefit legislation. One of the groups to file an ethics complaint against Frist was Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal organization currently chaired by eccentric Clinton loyalist David Brock.
So if you enjoy the influence of lobbyists on politics, conflicts of interests, and poll-tested caution from your politicians, you are going to love the (second) Clinton presidency.