Politics

Pelosi: A Romney win ‘will take us to a period before Lyndon Johnson’

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is warning liberals that the pillars of President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” program are at stake in the upcoming election.

Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House, made that declaration on Current TV’s Tuesday broadcast of “The War Room with Jennifer Granholm.” But she advised viewers of Al Gore’s liberal cable network not to panic, and instead focus on a get-out-the-vote effort.

“We don’t agonize, we organize,” Pelosi said. “Get out there and fight. I notice what the polls talk about are the likely voters, for example in Ohio it is four point among likely voters. It is 10 points among registered voters, so we have to make some of those registered ‘likely.’”

Pelosi defended her 2010 passage of health care reform, stating that the Democratic caucus was very diverse and blamed the Republicans for making it impossible for her to pass the legislation without steamrolling it through Congress. She went on to make the case that Obama and the Democrats have to win or health care reform and Medicare “as we know it” are in jeopardy.

“[T]he fact is this is something we have to fight because if these people win, Medicare as we know it will be gone,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi also advised against speculating on what might happen if Romney wins in four weeks and said that a Republican-controlled federal government would roll back former President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” measures.

“The president is going to win,” Pelosi declared. “Four weeks from today we will have the election. Four weeks from tomorrow morning we want to have no regrets. Everybody has to take personal responsibility, and if there’s anything that came out of the debate was to say that we all have to do everything in our power to make sure the president wins, the Senate holds and perhaps grows in numbers, and that we win the House. And in doing so, send a clear message because if there is a validation of [the Republicans] position, it will take us to a period before Lyndon Johnson on Medicare, a pillar of economic and health security for seniors and how that affects their families.”

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