With Reform in Jeopardy, and Progressives Restless, Obama Weighs His Options - TPMDC

[WillyT]

With Reform in Jeopardy, and Progressives Restless, Obama Weighs His Options
Brian Beutler | September 4, 2009, 1:55PM

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After nearly 48 hours of trial balloons and kabuki theater, it seems pretty clear that the White House is focusing its attentions on a couple different potential paths forward for health care reform.

The first, and seemingly preferred, idea is to court Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), give her tremendous say in the shape of legislation, and then, if that's good enough to get 60 votes in the Senate, pressure House progressives to hold their noses and go along with it. It wouldn't be pretty though. Snowe's preferred approach appears to be a 'trigger' for a public option -- implementing a public option only if insurance companies are unable to rein in costs and expand coverage by a certain fixed date. And House progressives have really put themselves on the line for a public option free from any trigger mechanism.

If that strategy fails at any point along the road, the White House could still turn to the Democrat-only strategy of passing reform (or at least, many elements of reform) through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process. Just yesterday, former Senate Majority Leader and current White House ally Tom Daschle wrote in the Wall Street Journal "should Republican intransigence continue, must focus on the budgetary implications of health reform and use the Senate rules of budget reconciliation to allow a health-care bill move with majority support. The choice between complete legislative failure and majority rule should not pose a dilemma for any Democratic senator."

That's an important tell.

Given his closeness to the president and the importance of the reconciliation option, it seems unlikely Daschle would significantly out of step with Obama's thinking on this issue.

The budgetary implications of health care reform would likely include Medicaid expansion, subsidies for low- and middle-class people to buy insurance, taxes and spending shifts needed to cover the cost of those measures, and, perhaps, a public option. Though a number of political and legislative questions about passing a public option in that way remain unanswered, the pressure on party leaders to include a strong public option in reconciliation will be tremendous if negotiations with Snowe don't pan out. While it remains unclear whether a robust public option could muster the required 50 votes in the Senate, if the White House doesn't at least threaten to push big reforms through reconciliation, it will have given up much of its bargaining power relative to her and, perhaps, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).

(The other key elements of health care reform--mandates, and insurance regulations--would likely still be subject to a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.)

In the meantime House progressives are being left in the dark as to where the President stands right now, particularly on the public option. How long will that last? We may know more in a matter of hours and through the weekend, after Obama briefs members in a conference call later today. Stay tuned.

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Link: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/with-reform-in-jeoparty-and-progressives-restless-obama-weighs-his-options.php#more

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And...

The Plum Line
Greg Sargent's blog
House Liberals Complain They’re Being Left Out Of Loop On Health Care

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Hmm, this doesn’t bode well for liberal hopes on health care: Some House progressives are beginning to complain they’re being kept in the dark about House leadership negotiations over reform, suggesting they don’t know what direction reform is headed in.

The complaints are few and scattered, but they’re beginning to add up. While the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus have pledged to maintain a united front, insisting they won’t support any bill without a public option, rank and file House progressives complain that the process is adrift and that they have no sense of direction from leadership.

“Out of 435 House members, 430 don’t know what’s going on,” Dem Rep. Maurice Hinchey of New York said the other day.

“It’s being done by the leadership, and we don’t know what’s going on,” Dem Rep. Dennis Kucinich said in a recent interview.

Asked by constituents recently what would be in the final bill, Dem Rep. Corrine Brown of Florida said she didn’t know. “You wouldn’t want me to tell a lie, would you?” Brown said, adding: “Right now we’re just talking about concepts.”

Meanwhile, Dem Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York suggested he didn’t know what the cards held, but added that word of no public option “had better be wrong.”

The point is that despite the strong talk from House leaders about keeping the public option, there seems to be a growing sense among some House progressives that they don’t really have a seat at the table as the process unfolds. They don’t seem to think they’re in the game. A dynamic worth keeping an eye on.

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Link: http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/house-liberals-complain-theyre-being-left-out-of-loop-on-health-care/

:shrug:

[neverforget]

1. I stand with the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Rahm can take his

negotiating with Snowe and other Republicans and shove it up his ass.

[WillyT]

2. LOL !!!

I feel the same way about bipartisanship, especially concerning the current configuration of the Republican Party.

:shrug: