Schwarzenegger Pumps Up Health Care Reform

The California governor and rare Hollywood Republican released a statement Tuesday in support of health care reform, in which he praised the president and urged his “colleagues on both sides of the political aisle at the national level to move forward and accomplish these vital goals for the American people.”

It’s a testament to the bitter partisanship of the health care debate that a moderate Republican who has championed reform in the past would make headlines by breaking with his party’s no, no, no strategy.

Arnold Schwarzenegger had tried and failed to bring universal health care to his state, so his opinion that reform is needed is not all that shocking.

Bush HHS chief Tommy Thompson, former Senate GOP honcho Bill Frist and quasi-Republican and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg have all expressed various degrees of support for some form of reform.

If that’s the best we can do for bipartisanship, the Democrats may just have to do something with their majority. Although some Democrats are just as determined as the GOP to stymie reform. — PS