In a virtual women’s town hall meeting on Tuesday, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said the coronavirus pandemic “would be a terrible crisis to waste” if we don’t create “universal health care.”
Hillary was speaking to Democrat nominee Joe Biden, whom she endorsed him for president and then swiftly segued to pushing for universal health care. “This is a high-stakes time, because of the pandemic,” Hillary said. “But this is also a really high-stakes election. And every form of health care should continue to be available, including reproductive health care for every woman in this country. And then it needs to be part of a much larger system that eventually — and quickly, I hope — gets us to universal health care.
“So I can only say ‘amen’ to everything you’re saying, but also to, again, enlist people that this would be a terrible crisis to waste, as the old saying goes.”
That “old saying” goes back to 2008, when Barack Obama’s then-chief of staff Rahm Emanuel infamously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” This kind of cynical political opportunism gets to the heart of what Democrats are all about.