Health Care: as rhetorical promises turn to legislative language, everyone is moving in different directions.
One shot?
By MARTIN KADY II
Politico
After 40 years of dreaming about universal health care, Democrats are entering perhaps the most critical phase of what some believe is a one-shot opportunity to make it all happen.
But as rhetorical promises turn to legislative language, everyone is moving in different directions. Once promising business alliances are shaky, Ted Kennedy is absent due to health problems, Republicans are uninvited to meetings and uninterested in a public option, and President Obama is exerting a heavier hand than he has on other legislative initiatives.
KENNEDY, BYRD HEALTH: The absence leaves really just a 57 vote majority, hindering a few key issues, as Manu Raju reports in POLITICO: “The prolonged absences of Sens. Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd may make it harder for Democrats to move forward on health care reform, the Employee Free Choice Act and the confirmation of a controversial Justice Department nominee. The two men — the longest-serving members in the body — are each battling illnesses: Kennedy a brain tumor and Byrd a staph infection. It’s unclear when either will make a full-time return to the Senate.
“What is clear is that their absence dramatically decreases the margins for their party. While Democrats still have an overwhelming majority without the two, it’s not the filibuster-breaking, 60-vote supermajority they’d have if Kennedy and Byrd were on hand and Al Franken were seated in the ongoing Minnesota race. Instead, Democrats have just a 57-40 majority — meaning that, on any issue, the GOP can lose two Republican votes and still deny the Democrats the votes needed to stop a filibuster.”
MINDMELD: The Washington Post (On the Cusp of Historic Majority, Senate Democrats Miss 'Pillars') and New York Times (Senate Feels Ted Kennedy’s Absence on Health Bill) had similar stories this morning.
OBAMA ON HEALTH CARE: Atul Gawande’s New Yorker article is now required reading at the White House, as Robert Pear reports in the NYT this morning: “President Obama recently summoned aides to the Oval Office to discuss a magazine article investigating why the border town of McAllen, Tex., was the country’s most expensive place for health care. The article became required reading in the White House, with Mr. Obama even citing it at a meeting last week with two dozen Democratic senators.
“He came into the meeting with that article having affected his thinking dramatically,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. “He, in effect, took that article and put it in front of a big group of senators and said, ‘This is what we’ve got to fix.’ ”
BIZ GROUPS BAILING: With the public options seriously on the table, business groups are bailing on health reform backing, as Roll Call’s David Drucker and Kate Ackley report: “As health care reform takes shape in the House and Senate and shows signs of veering decidedly left, business lobbyists are considering joining their Republican allies and mounting a public relations offensive to put the brakes on President Barack Obama’s overhaul plans.
“Advocates for health insurance companies, hospitals, provider groups and employers have so far been engaged in a marriage of convenience, hoping that by maintaining radio silence in exchange for a seat at the negotiating table they could influence the process and obtain a reform bill to their liking. But as legislative details have emerged in recent days and suggested the business community could be stuck with costly mandates and a government-run, public plan option, lobbying groups are preparing to step up their opposition messaging.”
TAXING BENEFITS: It’s controversial and it won’t totally pay for the program, as Richard Rubin reports in today’s CQ: “The most talked-about strategy to pay for overhauling the health care system — taxing a portion of employer-provided benefits — would generate $418.5 billion over the next 10 years, according to an early estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation.
“That’s not enough to pay the full cost of expanding health insurance to all Americans, but it would make a significant dent in the estimated $1 trillion price.
That makes capping the exclusion, but not altogether eliminating it, an attractive option for the Senate Finance Committee, which hopes to mark up its bill the week of June 22.”
Source: Politico
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