The public doesn’t trust Washington politicians—and those politicians don’t trust each other. Those two truths could doom President Obama’s health care bill even if it weren’t an unaffordable behemoth.
The final health debate merges multiple story lines into one, just as March Madness does for an assortment of college basketball teams. Some of these themes are:
–The Ugliness of Today’s Washington. Trust in elected leaders is collapsing into a hole deeper than Alice ever fell into. It deepens with every disclosure of the process. “Deeming” a bill to pass; avoiding votes to avoid accountability; buying votes with taxpayers’ money, etc. “Louisiana Purchase” and “Cornhusker Kickback” are only visible symptoms of a wayward system that long ago went amok.
–House vs. Senate Mistrust. Even if the House passed it this weekend, that bill must go back through the Senate. Knowing it could be blocked or changed in that chamber, House members are reluctant to take political risks with no reward. Thanks to the reconciliation process is being used, GOP Senators think they can win parliamentary rulings that automatically strike out multiple parts of the bill. The Senate Budget Chairman predicts the bill definitely would be changed in the Senate. That would mean a return trip to the House and a repeat of this soap opera—again diverting attention from more pressing issues like fixing the economy.
–Making Health Care Cost More for Individuals. President Obama and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R, TN) publicly sparred over whether the bill would make individual coverage cost less or more than it does already. Eventually, Obama was forced to admit—live on C-SPAN last month—that many Americans indeed would pay 10% to 13% more. This week, an Associated Press fact check article found no truth in Obama’s oft-repeated claim that his proposal will make individuals’ health insurance more affordable.
–Making Health Care Cost More for Government. The trillion-dollar cost of the bill (over ten years) makes people wonder how spending more would supposedly reduce the deficit. The simple answer is that it creates and raises taxes by more than a trillion dollars, such as new taxes on health insurance and medical devices. As The Heritage Foundation concludes, there are “Six Ways the Senate Health Care Bill Raises Health Care Costs, Kills Jobs, and Weakens the Economy.” The Congressional Budget Office admits its fiscal evaluation is “preliminary,” and others call the numbers “phony.”
–Creating Doomsday. The chair of Blue Dog Democrats, Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (D, SD), predicts the use of “deeming” via the Slaughter Rule, “would poison an already terribly partisan atmosphere and leave the Congress even less able to find bipartisan solutions to fiscal problems that are on the verge of becoming overwhelming.” Once more, we learn that no situation is so bad that government cannot make it worse.
–Ignoring the Real Problems. As Rep. Jason Altmire (D, PA) told ABC News, “The long-term cost projections are simply unsustainable.” He correctly noted that cost containment is missing. Even if 15% of Americans lack insurance and want it given to them at taxpayer expense, the other 85% who have health insurance want lower premiums. Offering them a government subsidy doesn’t reduce the costs—that money has to be taken from taxpayers before a part would be given back as a subsidy. Yet that is what Obama calls “savings” for consumers. Sleight-of-hand is too kind a term for that process.
–The “All About Me” Approach. Sadly, the White House is pitching the notion that aye votes are needed to save the Obama presidency rather than help the country. As Rep. Jose Serrano (D, NY) described after Obama met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, “He was subtle, but that was the underlying theme of the meeting — the importance of passing this for the health of the presidency.” If that means some Democrats in Congress are thrown under the bus and defeated at the polls, it’s an acceptable price to their leaders.
So when Obama calls for Congress to show “courage” by voting on the bill it’s easy for him to say. It’s others who will pay the price—both members of his party and the beleaguered taxpayers of the United States of America.
In basketball, March Madness will end on April 5th. But in politics, the madness promises to continue at least until November.
On February 25th, the White House has proposed a bipartisan, half-day televised summit on health care. It is unclear as to whether this is a publicity stunt by the Obama Administration or a good faith effort to negotiate with Republicans to come up with a bipartisan health care reform bill. The Washington Post reports today many Republicans are pushing back and urging the White House to scrap Obamacare as a precondition to any negotiation. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel objecting to the House and Senate versions of Obamacare being the base line bills of the negotiations. Hopefully, this summit meeting is more than the President checking off a campaign promise to have all health care negotiations on C-SPAN.
If this summit is a genuine start to bipartisan negotiations, then a few issues need to be settled before the meeting:
1. Start Over – The American people have rejected Obamacare and they want Congress and the Obama Administration to start over from scratch. The election of Scott Brown as Senator from Massachusetts was a strong message, from a liberal state, that Obamacare is not popular with the American people. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll indicates that 31% think the President’s health care plan is a good idea v. 46% a bad idea. CNN/Opinion Research has the numbers at 38% in favor and 58% opposed. It is clear that a minority in Congress is representing the will of a majority of Americans who think Obamacare is a bad idea and it is time for liberals in Congress and the Obama Administration to start listening to the American people. With the overwhelming weight of polling data and election results in Massachusetts indicating widespread opposition, it is time to start over.
2. Take Reconciliation off the Table – The President needs to state publicly that he will not support partisan efforts in Congress to use reconciliation procedures as a mechanism to railroad through pending versions of Obamacare. Reconciliation, commonly referred to as the Nuclear Option in the Senate, allows the supporters of Obamacare to avoid a filibuster in the Senate and ignore the traditional rules that would allow extended debate and amendment. Using reconciliation and relying on one party’s votes to pass an unpopular approach to health care reform would not translate into a bipartisan solution to comprehensive health care reform.
3. Transparency – Transparency has to be any part of a summit and it does not begin and end with the publicly broadcast meeting. First, what may be necessary is for the Obama Administration, Republican Leaders, Democrat Leaders and Moderate Democrats have a private meeting, before any planned public summit to clear the air. There is nothing wrong with having a private meeting to provide an opportunity for members to speak freely and build some needed trust. Right now, there is no trust and there has been a complete breakdown in communication. Maybe they could sit and discuss the core elements of a true bipartisan plan in private, and then have a public summit to air any agreement over a half day. A meeting and summit does not mitigate the need for public hearings in Congress and other means to transparently consider any new elements of a health care bill. The White House had been actively engaged in closed door negotiations as recently as the first week of this year with lobbyists and congressional leaders in a manner that excluded moderate Democrats, Republicans and the American people. This needs to end. It is reasonable for members of Congress to have informal negotiations at times, yet the work product should be subject to transparent hearings in the House and Senate committees of jurisdiction. Any deal should be vetted with the American people and subject to a transparent process.
The great danger in this process is that the Obama Administration checks off a campaign promise then goes on with business as usual. This summit can’t merely be a gimmick where the President lectures Republicans and Republicans lecture the President, then the President forges forward with the same Obamacare bill that has been rejected by the American people. This summit should be where the President starts the process over and engages in real negotiations with a broad audience.