Kevin Drum provides a timeline showing that George W. Bush was once vehemently against a so-called patients’ bill of rights, took credit for it in 2000 even though it only passed over his veto, and is now joining a lawsuit in the Supreme Court on the side of those who want to strike down the law.
While I haven’t read the administration’s position on the lawsuit, I must admit it doesn’t look good. But it’s hardly unprecedented for politicians to take credit for a popular program that they opposed but got forced into supporting. The classic case is Bill Clinton who campaigned to “end welfare as we know it” in 1992, vetoed the welfare bill passed by Gingrich and company in 1995, wound up signing an essentially identical bill, and bragged about it incessantly in the 1996 campaign–acting as if he’d forced welfare reform on the Republicans rather than vice versa.
Update: Commenter keiser has an interesting defense of Bush’s position.
