(POLITICO) — Hillary Clinton made a forceful case in support of Obamacare’s implementation and slammed the “noisy minority” of Senate Republicans advocating defunding the program, saying a government shutdown will be blamed on Republicans and “we’ve seen that movie before.”
“I find the debate over the issue to be quite unfortunate,” Clinton said at an afternoon panel at the Clinton Global Initiative in Manhattan, two hours before her husband and President Obama were set to take the stage to discuss the health care initiative. The remarks represented some of Clinton’s most political commentary since she left the State Department early this year, including her passionate defense of the Voting Rights Act at the American Bar Association.
On the one hand a law was passed, it was upheld by the Supreme Court, it is the law of the land,” she said, contrasting the situation with President George W. Bush’s efforts to expand Medicare Part D, which brought about a different response from congressional Republicans.
She added, “I think there are all sorts of threats going on by particularly some of the Republicans in the House and a few notables in the Senate. I think they ought to go back and read history … it wouldn’t be the worst thing for Democrats if they tried to shut the government down. We’ve seen that movie before. It didn’t work out too well [for Republicans].”