Democrats Seem Set to Go It Alone on a Health Bill

[tricky]

August 19, 2009
Democrats Seem Set to Go It Alone on a Health Bill

By CARL HULSE and JEFF ZELENY
WASHINGTON — Given hardening Republican opposition to Congressional health care proposals, Democrats now say they see little chance of the minority’s cooperation in approving any overhaul, and are increasingly focused on drawing support for a final plan from within their own ranks.
Top Democrats said Tuesday that their go-it-alone view was being shaped by what they saw as Republicans’ purposely strident tone against health care legislation during this month’s Congressional recess, as well as remarks by leading Republicans that current proposals were flawed beyond repair.
Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said the heated opposition was evidence that Republicans had made a political calculation to draw a line against any health care changes, the latest in a string of major administration proposals that Republicans have opposed.
“The Republican leadership,” Mr. Emanuel said, “has made a strategic decision that defeating President Obama’s health care proposal is more important for their political goals than solving the health insurance problems that Americans face every day.”
The Democratic shift may not make producing a final bill much easier. The party must still reconcile the views of moderate and conservative Democrats worried about the cost and scope of the legislation with those of more liberal lawmakers determined to win a government-run insurance option to compete with private insurers.
On the other hand, such a change could alter the dynamic of talks surrounding health care legislation, and even change the substance of a final bill. With no need to negotiate with Republicans, Democrats might be better able to move more quickly, relying on their large majorities in both houses.
Democratic senators might feel more empowered, for example, to define the authority of the nonprofit insurance cooperatives that are emerging as an alternative to a public insurance plan.
Republicans have used the Congressional break to dig in hard against the overhaul outline drawn by Democrats. The Senate’s No. 2 Republican, Jon Kyl of Arizona, is the latest to weigh in strongly, saying Tuesday that the public response lawmakers were seeing over the summer break should persuade Democrats to scrap their approach and start over.
“I think it is safe to say there are a huge number of big issues that people have,” Mr. Kyl told reporters in a conference call from Arizona. “There is no way that Republicans are going to support a trillion-dollar-plus bill.”
The White House has also interpreted critical comments by Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican negotiator in a crucial Finance Committee effort to reach a bipartisan compromise, as a sign that there is little hope of reaching a deal politically acceptable to both parties.
Mr. Grassley, who is facing the possibility of a Republican primary challenge next year, has gotten an earful in traveling around his home state. At one gathering last week, in a city park in the central Iowa town of Adel, a man rose from the crowd and urged him to “stand up and fight” the Democratic plans. If he does not, the man yelled, “we will vote you out!”
The White House, carefully following Mr. Grassley’s activities, presumed he was no longer interested in negotiating with Democrats after he initially made no effort to debunk misinformation that the legislation could lead to “death panels” empowered to judge who would receive care.
Citing a packed schedule, Mr. Grassley has also put off plans for the bipartisan group of Finance Committee negotiators to meet in either Iowa or Maine, the home of another Republican member of the group, Senator Olympia J. Snowe, before Congress resumes.
Further, Mr. Grassley said this week that he would vote against a bill unless it had wide support from Republicans, even if it included all the provisions he wanted. “I am negotiating for Republicans,” he told MSNBC.
In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Grassley said he had simply been repeating earlier comments that he would not support a measure that did not have significant Republican support. He said that raucous town-hall-style meetings might have made the job of reaching a compromise harder, but that he had not given up.
“It may be more difficult than it was before,” he said. “I am intent on talking. I am intent on seeing what we can do.”
Administration officials, who maintain that Republicans are badly mischaracterizing the legislation that has emerged from three House committees and the Senate health committee, said they had hoped to achieve some level of bipartisan support. But they are becoming increasingly convinced that they will instead have to navigate the complicated politics among varying Democratic factions.
The officials said the White House hoped to make the case to the American people that it was Republicans who had abandoned the effort at bipartisanship. Republicans countered by saying that they simply opposed the legislation and that the public outcry had validated their view and solidified their opposition.
This week’s careful administration maneuvering on whether a public insurance option was an essential element of any final bill was seemingly part of the new White House effort to find consensus among Democrats, since the public plan has been resisted by moderate and conservative Democrats who could be crucial to winning the votes for passage if no Republicans are on board.
For the second time in two days, Mr. Obama did not mention health care on Tuesday, a marked departure from the aggressive public relations campaign he mounted in July and early August. The White House is striving to stay out of the fray, aides said, until the president can get away on vacation this weekend.
Even as the administration showed some flexibility, angering liberal Democrats who consider a public plan essential, Republicans turned their attacks from the public option to the health care cooperative idea being promoted by some Senate Democrats.
In what Democrats regarded as further evidence that Republicans were not serious about negotiating, Mr. Kyl and Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the second-ranking House Republican, described a co-op as a public option carrying another name.
The continuing opposition was noted Tuesday by Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, who said of Republicans that at best “only a handful seem interested in the type of comprehensive reform that so many people believe is necessary to ensure the principles and the goals that the president has laid out.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/he...gewanted=print

[vinnie97]

Can't afford the public option, the CBO already admitted it.

And now this: Buffett says unchecked U.S. debt threatens economy: report

[tragicallyunhip]

It's about fucking time. I don't know what the hell took them so long.

[e-brake]

Never going to work, the democrats are completely incapable of working together.

It needs to be done, but it will never happen without some republicans voting for it.

[vinnie97]

When the proposed reform actually promises to make it more costly for everyone (well, other than those who are dirt poor), I can't see how any rational person would get behind the legislation as is.

[tragicallyunhip]

We'll see. The article made a good point about how it might reshape the debate to remove the Republicans from it entirely.

Originally Posted by e-brake

Never going to work, the democrats are completely incapable of working together.

It needs to be done, but it will never happen without some republicans voting for it.

[david austin]

Originally Posted by tragicallyunhip

how it might reshape the debate to remove the Republicans from it entirely.

Do you really not see how that is exactly the wrong thing to do?

[tricky]

Originally Posted by david austin

Do you really not see how that is exactly the wrong thing to do?

How is it wrong? Republicans are neither for insurance reform or health care reform. They are merely interested in mantaining the status quo . They never felt the need to include democrats for debate in the past.

Karl Rove - "All i need is 50% +1"

Fuck em'

[tragicallyunhip]

Exactly. Their M.O. at this point is to posture to the Right in an effort to keep them afraid and angry. It's the only way to save the Republican party. By making the Republicans feel they are on this moral crusade to save our country from becoming Nazi Germany, the people stay emotional and don't actually bother to think for themselves. They're hoping and praying to keep the anger whipped up long enough they might win back some of the seats they lost.

So, yeah. Fuck 'em.

[tricky]

Originally Posted by tragicallyunhip

Exactly. Their M.O. at this point is to posture to the Right in an effort to keep them afraid and angry. It's the only way to save the Republican party. By making the Republicans feel they are on this moral crusade to save our country from becoming Nazi Germany, the people stay emotional and don't actually bother to think for themselves. They're hoping and praying to keep the anger whipped up long enough they might win back some of the seats they lost.

So, yeah. Fuck 'em.

[david austin]

Forgive me for thinking one of the biggest pieces of legislation in our modern history shouldnt be well thought out, disseminated, and hammered out before its put into place.

I know we will never achieve an overwhelming majority on issues... but I certainly feel we can do better than 51/49.

Like I said before. Dem or Repub isnt the issue for me. Even the past isnt as much of an issue. Its finding the best platform for our future. Leaving out some 50% of the public that may not agree isnt a smart move.

The continued polarization will do nothing but trade parties every 4 or 8 years and get little to nothing done in the long term.

[tragicallyunhip]

Well, I happen to like Obama's healthcare plan. It's one of the main reasons I supported him during the election. What I am not happy with is the way the idiots in congress can't manage to pull it together enough to come up with a bill that isn't completely incomprehensible.

[david austin]

Originally Posted by tragicallyunhip

Well, I happen to like Obama's healthcare plan. It's one of the main reasons I supported him during the election. What I am not happy with is the way the idiots in congress can't manage to pull it together enough to come up with a bill that isn't completely incomprehensible.

And thats fine. You are a rational supporter. Much like all of those rational dissenters.

When public approval on a bill is just about 50/50 then thats a pretty good indication that theres a whole lot of people who dont agree... and they arent all right wing wacko nutjobs

[tragicallyunhip]

Well, I think what people are worried about is how there don't seem to be any moderate Republicans left. The evangelical Right has completely taken over the party, and it's whipping people up into this frenzy. Even my own mother, who I've previously been able to discuss politics with calmly and rationally, is convinced Obama is going to start rounding dissenters up and placing them in detainment centers. This is something she literally thinks is going to happen.

People have lost their damned minds.

[david austin]

Originally Posted by tragicallyunhip

Well, I think what people are worried about is how there don't seem to be any moderate Republicans left. The evangelical Right has completely taken over the party, and it's whipping people up into this frenzy. Even my own mother, who I've previously been able to discuss politics with calmly and rationally, is convinced Obama is going to start rounding dissenters up and placing them in detainment centers. This is something she literally thinks is going to happen.

People have lost their damned minds.

And to be fair... the public are sheep.

Word choice and perception is a very important tool that I am frankly shocked Obama has done such a poor job handling.

Dozens of 'Czars' of which nobody really knows what power they hold/who they answer to. When you nominate a admitted communist to a position what do expect people to think?

White House blogs asking for people to send in dissenting information

Speaker of the House calling dissenters Nazis?

Im not saying that there isnt a far right ice cream social going on right now... but the Dems arent doing much to put out the fire... in fact they are feeding it daily.

Obama could do himself a lot of good by just saying we are going to start over and we are going to get this right. Instead its pounding the table to get it through... which scares people even further... if not for the health care itself... for the fact that it can really be that easy to push your policy regardless of what the public isnt fully agreeing with.