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White House Suggests Bipartisan Health Care Bill Dead, Republicans Not Serious About Reform
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First it was Rahm, then it was Gibbs, now it's Obama himself.
The implication--that President Obama believes the Republican party isn't serious about bipartisan health care reform--is significant for obvious reasons. When Congress returns to session at the end of August recess, four of five House and Senate committees will have passed party line health care bills. One--the Senate Finance Committee--will still be mired in rocky bipartisan health care negotiations over legislation that, according to Republican party leaders, won't win over many Republicans at all.
That implies rather strongly that Democratic party leaders are preparing to abandon bipartisanship and pass health care reform either along party lines, or through the budget reconciliation process, or some combination of the two. Which means Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus better prepare to change course or pull off some kind of miracle or else be rolled.
In a Wednesday New York Times report, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is quoted as saying the GOP "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." And earlier today, Gibbs said "only a handful" of Republicans are interested in anything resembling true health care reform
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ericf
August 19, 2009 4:16 PM
I've been saying Republicans were foolish to define defeat as any bill passing at all. If they can't get the blue cross Democrats to stop reform, assuming they can, the Republicans will have thrown everything they have into this fight and still lost. I'd like to think the Obama administration has been listening to the base. Maybe the turning point was when Republicans said a co-op was just another name for a public option and they would oppose it just as much. A co-op could be done in such a way as to amount to the same thing as a public option, and if that's what the final bill has, fine. We still win, and uninsured people will be able to get insurance.
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mans_best_friend
August 19, 2009 4:17 PM
There's a meme gaining currency that this was part of a rope-a-dope strategy by Team Obama, and the Republicans played their part perfectly. After the last few weeks it's a pretty easy sell to the American people that he tried a bipartisan approach but the R's wouldn't play. The Party of No all over again.
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Michael A
August 19, 2009 4:21 PM in reply to mans_best_friend
I hope that you are right. Because this whole thing is distressing the sh*t out of me.
Medicare for all works for me. Just pass it for pete's sake. It would be a one page bill and the repukes couldn't whine that they weren't able to read it. Great bumper sticker as well.
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mans_best_friend
August 19, 2009 4:36 PM in reply to Michael A
I think that's exactly the way it should be framed: a Medicare-like option for everybody. People like Medicare, and it cuts the legs out of any criticism of the public option.
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CT Voter
August 19, 2009 4:24 PM in reply to mans_best_friend
It's a pretty easy sell if you've been following the ins and outs of this.
However, when a not insignifcant chunk of the American public thinks that the government will be able to pull the plug on Granny, well, I guess I wonder at the effectiveness of the White House behavior.
I sort of side with the "They did this to flush the crazies out in the open", but the poll results about Granny and the government deeply concern me.
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mans_best_friend
August 19, 2009 4:33 PM in reply to CT Voter
I'm not sure there was ever a significant portion of the population that actually believed the whole "death panel" stuff. Mostly the same 23 percenters who think GWB did a great job. The R's have already earned a reputation as The Party of No, and you didn't need to follow this all that closely to see they were doing the same thing. They just threw a bunch of shit in the air to confuse the issue, but when people look past the shitstorm and to what is actually being proposed, they're mostly in favor of it. Now would be the perfect time for Obama to get on the teevee and explain exactly what they're proposing and what's BS.
Truth is, the R's were never the problem. It's the Blue Dogs that have to get rounded up. If Obama can sell this to their constituents, they'll go along.
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Moose49
August 19, 2009 4:36 PM in reply to mans_best_friend
I hope you're right, Goofy.
During the campaign, there were plenty of times when I was mystified at what they were doing but everything turned out right. Maybe this is the same thing. Or maybe the bumbled along to this point.
The main thing to keep in mind is that if they pass a strong health care reform bill with a real public option that improves the lives of the American people, no one will care (and few will remember) whether it passed by one vote or 20 votes.
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The Commenter Formerly Known as NCSteve
August 19, 2009 5:06 PM in reply to mans_best_friend
Grumble grump Obama worshipper grumble sneer three dimensional chess grumble sell out grumble grumble.
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mans_best_friend
August 19, 2009 5:18 PM in reply to The Commenter Formerly Known as NCSteve
LOL. It certainly seemed to work that way with the stimulus package. Despite all the right-wing blather, he compromised just enough (and in reality, a trifling amount of the whole) to pick off just enough votes to get it passed. I think they know exactly how many votes they have now and how much they have to give to get enough to pass.
As I said before, it's not the Republicans that are the problem - it's rounding up those Blue Dog votes. I'm not really sure whether running ads against the Dogs is going to put pressure on them or make them dig in their heels. Maybe it's a wash. I think a better strategy is for Obama to wait for the shitstorm to die down, then go on the teevee to explain exactly what he's trying to do and what's BS. If he can appeal to the Dogs' constituents, they'll fall into line.
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Clair Fraser
August 19, 2009 9:13 PM in reply to mans_best_friend
What really scares me is the fact that we are 37th in the world in terms of health care, that we spend more per capita than anyone on our health care and that many of us worry about our health care--will it provide for me if I get ill. If it doesn't like many people experience, well then what are we paying for really? The Stats are ridiculous really (see: http://www.project.org/info.php?recordID=98 ). We should have universal health Care because it is what needs to be done and for what we are all paying collecctively at the moment it should raise us to the top of the CDC's world ranking in life expectancy and decrease our infant mortality.
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Progressive Party
August 19, 2009 4:19 PM
the message war w/ the GOP is a mess from the White House. Get your shit together and fight like hell; no pussyfooting around at this time.
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Viva!America!
August 19, 2009 4:23 PM in reply to Progressive Party
Maybe Progressive groups should have listened when they were told by the WH to stop attacking Blue Dogs and use their money to frame the debate.
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Steve LaBonne
August 19, 2009 4:30 PM in reply to Viva!America!
Maye you should stick it where the sun don't shine, since anything resembling real reform would have been stone dead long since if it weren't for pressure from the Progressive Caucus and the progressive grassroots.
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musgrove
August 19, 2009 4:34 PM in reply to Steve LaBonne
But is spending time attacking baucus more important then framing the debate?
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foodchain11
August 19, 2009 5:23 PM in reply to Steve LaBonne
please let's not fight. let the GOOP divide and conquer themselves, rather than us. Social Security was added on to as the years went by but first it needed to be made into policy. What the GOOPs are doing to us should be the only battle front
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Viva!America!
August 19, 2009 6:24 PM in reply to Steve LaBonne
Stick it where the sun don't shine? LOL!!!! Very mature.
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chimpale
August 19, 2009 4:32 PM in reply to Viva!America!
Or, maybe it was the progressive groups speaking up and making themselves heard that got the WH to give up on the impossible bi-partisan compromise.
We'll probably never know. But, it sure doesn't hurt to speak up.
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CT Voter
August 19, 2009 4:37 PM in reply to chimpale
Oh, we'll never be able to tell, but when Obama paraphrases Roosevelt's "Make me do this" quote, I'd say that speaking up and making a ruckus probably are exactly what we should be doing.
Look at the change in the DOMA brief. Had everyone been quiet and well-behaved, would Obama have been forced to write what he did about disagreeing with the policy, finding it discriminatory, etc?
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Viva!America!
August 19, 2009 6:34 PM in reply to chimpale
???????????????????????????
I never said the Progressives shouldn't speak up. They should speak up every. dang. day. My point is their focus, as Obama said, should have been on framing the debate. Educating people on why health care reform is important, how the health insurance industry screws them all the time. Not attacking the Blue Dogs. What happened to that ad linking the GOP to the health insurance industry? I loved it. That message should have been taken nation wide and hammered in 24/7.
I'm still sticking with the opinion that these progressive groups should have listened to the WH. Instead, people like Steve LaBonne immediately take offense, get nasty and completely cut off perfectly sensible advice. Stick it where the sun don't shine indeed.
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Progressive Party
August 19, 2009 4:54 PM in reply to Viva!America!
hell no...pour the money into ads on the public option and against the conservdems in the senate and blue dogs in the house. Nelson has been crying over those ads ran in his backyard!
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Viva!America!
August 19, 2009 6:35 PM in reply to Progressive Party
and STILL he has not come around.
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chimpale
August 19, 2009 4:21 PM
Thanks, Rahm. That was very well put. I think you'll find that we far far lefters are in agreement with that statement, too.
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thumbs
August 19, 2009 4:37 PM in reply to chimpale
Actually, we "far, far lefters" tend to believe Rahm Emanuel has made a strategic decision that defeating meaningful health care reform furthers his own political goals, too.
Screw you, Rahm.
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chimpale
August 19, 2009 4:39 PM in reply to thumbs
Can't disagree with the statement, though, regardless of his motives.
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FreeRider
August 19, 2009 10:43 PM in reply to thumbs
If Rahm was interested in furthering his personal political goals, he would have never become chief of staff. Rahm desperately wanted to be Speaker and was on track to get it. That's over now. Done. Finished. Kaput.
In fact, I doubt he will ever hold elected office again. So, I'm really curious as to what the wise ones say are his political goals.
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Tom Wells
August 19, 2009 4:54 PM
Good news.
Now keep up the pressure for a public option!
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dougom
August 19, 2009 5:38 PM
Absolutely Max Baucus should be "rolled." Also Kent Conrad, Dianne Feinstein, and any other weak-kneed nominal Democrat. It's time for an LBJ-style effort. Hell, it's past time for it.
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bill
August 19, 2009 5:50 PM
"He [Gibbs, I believe] added that President Obama would do whatever it takes to get a bipartisan bill."
He might also have added:
"If a meaningless bill is what it takes to get Republicans to sign-on, then, he's for a meaningless bill" or
"If the American people get little from the bill, he's for sacrificing their needs, in order to achieve 'bipartisanship'."
The President and his advisors are delusional or disingenuous. Either way, panting after the fantasy of 'bipartisanship' is not what got Obama elected; it was "Change We Can Believe In".
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dswx
August 19, 2009 6:02 PM in reply to bill
Goodness no, they are not delusional at all. They are smart. You really ought to read this again carefully: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/white-house-suggests-bipartisan-health-care-bill-dead-republicans-not-serious-about-reform.php
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atticus1104
August 19, 2009 6:04 PM
everyone has to see this video of Hannity saying he would rather see 15 million people suffer than see health care reform pass.
Make this video viral and get his advertisers to cut ties.
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2608
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shabazz89
August 19, 2009 6:23 PM
This whole thing was a ploy by the white house (and a brilliant one at that),
In the end, it could get health reform moving again..
http://tuftsroundtable.org/blog/21st-century-sagas/276-clever-white-house-trick-could-put-health-care-reform-back-on-track
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