Perry Bacon Jr. and Garance Franke-Ruta
The Washington Post
March 17, 2010
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), often a proponent of very liberal, unlikely ideas such as the creation of a “Department of Peace” and the impeachment of then-Vice President Cheney, has found his pragmatic streak.
Under pressure from both President Obama and liberal groups, the Ohio congressman announced Wednesday morning he would back the health-care bill Democrats are trying to push Congress this week. Long an advocate of a Medicare-for-all health care system, Kucinich in November voted against the House version of the legislation, arguing it “incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem.”
“I know I have to make a decision, not on the bill as I would like to see, it but on the bill as it is,” the longtime congressman said in a 30-minute press conference on Capitol Hill where he detailed his vote change. “I have doubts about this bill,” he said. “…This is not the bill I wanted to support.”
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