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Dean Softens On Senate Health Care Bill: If The GOP Hates It, It Can't Be So Bad
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Governor Howard Dean raised the ire of the White House and Democratic leaders last week when he publicly denounced the Senate health care bill, and urged liberal members to kill it. Dean's influence with progressive reformers goes without saying, so members weren't shy about dismissing his proclamation.
But he seems to have changed his tune.
Here he is on the Rachel Maddow show last night.
So what caused Dean to change his position? An ominous threat from his old rival Rahm Emanuel? A realization that his initial reaction to the death of the public option was informed more by anger than by analysis? No, according to Dean, two things tipped the scales for him. "The first," he said, "is the bill was improved."
What the president and the Congress have essentially done is to expand the existing system, not to reform the system. There are a lot of things that have been changed.There are faults as we talked about last week. In the intervening week, they tightened up the cost control. Money was added for community health centers, for wellness and prevention. They increased doctor reimbursements for rural physicians.
So they`ve done a number of things that will make this approach more likely to work. It also is going to a conference committee with a body that did vote for public option. In my view, in order to have any reform, you`ve got to have a public option.
You`ve got to give Americans a choice between different kinds of system and not just require that we be in the system we already have. That may or may not happen in the House.
The second thing is, honestly, you see the Republicans up there, carrying on the way they are. I basically concluded that, you know, maybe we should just pass this thing. It`s going to take an awful lot of time to work on it. But if the Republicans hate it, there must be some good in it.
Dean also says he remains hopeful that the public option will be reanimated. "Tom Harkin`s right," Dean said. "You could modify this at a later date. I wish that weren't necessary. I wish we had that change now. But you could do it later if this doesn't work out. And I think this 30-year battle with insurance companies over regulation is going to be tough to make it work properly."
So there you have it.
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IndyLinda
December 23, 2009 1:11 PM
"If the GOP hates it, it can't be all bad." Well, he's got a point there.
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Steve LaBonne
December 23, 2009 1:13 PM
Putting substance aside and speaking purely in terms of gamesmanship, this probably shouldn't make you very happy if you want the bill to pass, because the other side of this coin is that if Howard Dean is OK with it, conservadems will have second thoughts.
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Homefries
December 23, 2009 1:40 PM in reply to Steve LaBonne
In my view, one of the big pluses to the liberal brouhaha over the content of this bill is it has helped distract the opponents on the right from instituting more effective obstructions. Thus we've seen the right repeatedly think they've driven a stake into the heart of this thing only to see it resurrect itself in another form.
Best of all, with luck, the fat lady starts singing on Christmas Eve. What marvelous symbolism if that happens.
For the first time in a long while, I'm actually looking forward to Christmas this year.
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Barry Champlain
December 23, 2009 5:21 PM in reply to Homefries
And here we have one of the most egregious insults about this whole endeavor: the slowly-raised bar that created the CW that "THE LEFT" (liberals, progressives, blah...) is who wanted a so-called "public option". Those polls showing that most Americans wanted it (and therefore, did not meet the strict definition of "Left")? Down the old memory hole, with you.
So knowing as we do that what "THE LEFT" wants is always laughable, and a trifle to be summarily disposed-of, who the hell cares what this small, insignificant fringe wants?
America is wonderful. It loves its mythology more than the ancient Greeks did. As Steven Colbert once opined, "I FEEL it's true!"
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Homefries
December 23, 2009 9:22 PM in reply to Barry Champlain
As one who has grown up and currently lives in the deep red south (since segregation) I totally agree and feel your pain. Just one peccadillo with your commentary, the "left" is controlling the political discourse of our country for the first time in a long, long, time. The entrenched oligarchs are nervous, and justifiably so.
Merry Christmas to us and lets keep it up.
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gharlane
December 24, 2009 12:17 AM in reply to Barry Champlain
Barry is right, of course: the public option has documented, repeated, supermajority support of the American people, in poll after poll after poll. And that means not just the left: the entire population (minus the rump teabaggers). The public option is considerably more popular than the bill itself, especially the Senate version.
That said, I am glad and proud to be part of the liberal brouhaha-ers who have helped distract the opponents on the right from instituting more effective obstructions. And I will continue to do my part in this endeavor. (It helps, of course, when you also have the facts on your side, as the liberal brouhaha-ers do....)
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Catsy
December 23, 2009 1:24 PM
As cute as it is, this is a really stupid point and the wrong way to be looking at policy. It's the equivalent of the Republican attitude of "as long as it pisses off liberals".
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UTMark
December 23, 2009 2:13 PM in reply to Catsy
I don't think it's a stupid point. It's not the best way to look at policy, but at this point when I see all Republican senators and congresspersons unanimously and adamantly opposed to something, it certainly makes me suspect that it must be at least somewhat worthwhile.
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Indie Pro
December 23, 2009 1:28 PM
What the president and the Congress have essentially done is to expand the existing system, not to reform the system.
i'd say they are entrenching the privatized system.
I think Rahm Emanuel has done a great disservice to President Obama with this Special-Interest-Centric Strategy.
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dinsdale
December 23, 2009 1:42 PM in reply to Indie Pro
I think Rahm Emanuel has done a great disservice to President Obama with this Special-Interest-Centric Strategy
Actually, Rahm is just implementing Barak Obama's tried and true sell favors to industry strategy while the president tries to blow smoke up our asses to cover for it.
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Lynn Dee
December 23, 2009 1:31 PM
LaBonne and Catsy -- Maybe your two posts should be merged -- i.e., by making a cute, "really stupid point" and seeming not all that enthusiastic about the bill, maybe Dean's comments won't piss off conservadems.
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evie
December 23, 2009 1:39 PM
And the Iraq war opponent comparison to HCR looks more absurd every day.
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Barry Champlain
December 23, 2009 1:42 PM
I still love Howard, and want to see him as President before I die...
But it wasn't a case of the bill itself, pissing off the GOP. Any bill (and what we're getting pretty much qualifies as anything) would have done so. It's all a dog-and-pony show, that any R would conceivably accept any Democratic health care bill whatsoever, and you're hopelessly naive if you believe they ever would, under literally any circumstances.
REALITY: all Senators, Dem or R, are either looking constantly over their shoulder, to make sure the health lobby Sherman tank isn't coming after them; or they are already so far into the pay of these industries (Ben Nelson, Kent Conrad) as to be lying on the bed, legs spread, wearing only their panties... which is legal in this country, only when you're a Congressperson.
The Republicans have an added layer of compromise: they are committed to a scorched-Earth policy of stopping Obama from doing literally anything, until they can once again take control of it all.
And it's a winning strategy; obscene as it may be to the American way of life, it works perfectly. Voters are not about to re-elect a President (or a Congress) that couldn't get anything done. Never mind that the game was unfair... voters expect you to do whatever it takes to overcome and win. And by "whatever it takes", I mean, change the goddamned rules, if necessary, but dammit, win!
Because the American psyche does not like "losers". Even if the "losers" are on the side of the angels. They want superheroes, fighters, badasses, Rambo. The cultural record is clear.
And Obama is no longer wearing that superhero's cape.
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philogratis
December 23, 2009 1:44 PM
They got to him. Maybe a microchip in his brain. Look for scars.
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gharlane
December 24, 2009 12:20 AM in reply to philogratis
Maybe a lump on the back in the next Presidential debates? ;)
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tytester
December 23, 2009 2:38 PM
It is pure B.S. that when signed into law, this bill will be "improved". What is more likely to happen is that the health insurance companies will lobby, and GET, changes to the law that fit their business goals. For example, the first thing that will happen will be to raise the mandate penalty to 3% or 4%. Why?, Because the 2.5% penalty in the Senate Bill is too low - when given the choice of paying 8% of her income in health premimums or 2.5% in taxes to the IRS, any sane person will choose to pay the 2.5% (especially if that person knowns that she can buy insurance when necessary). So, in effect, the 30 milion new customers for the health ins companies will not materialize, and so either the mandate penalty would need to be raised (to force more people to by health ins) or the health ins companies will continue to raise premiums to cover their asses for not being able to deny ins for pre-existing conditions.
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johnnyba
December 23, 2009 2:48 PM
"Maybe a microchip in his brain"
Funny, I've been thinking that Glenn Beck and friends have been putting anti-Obamsa hysteria microchips in the far left's brain.
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cseper
December 23, 2009 3:08 PM
I guess they got to Governor Howard Dean too! How sad!
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johnnyba
December 23, 2009 3:08 PM
"And Obama is no longer wearing that superhero's cape."
I never noticed that in the first place. It was in your imagination.
It looks to me like David Ehrenstein was right about the "magic negro" fantasy for the far left anyhow during the primary. It seems like a lot of people on the left where so busy with illusions of super hero status for Obama that they didn't actually listen to what he had to say.
Any of you who managed to delude yourselves enough to be pissed off now should go back and read "Dreams of my Father" and pay particular attention to that spot where his step father in Indonesia pulled him aside to explain the hard facts of life and what it means to be a man.
He got it. You don't.
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Barry Champlain
December 23, 2009 5:28 PM in reply to johnnyba
You mean, forget such naivete as having core values, and sell out your supporters, whenever pragmatic?
I must go out and make a male child, now. I gotta teach him all this good shit!
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Barry Champlain
December 23, 2009 5:35 PM in reply to Barry Champlain
Oh, and BTW... this heartwarming and inspirational fatherly advice, from some Kenyan bum who abandoned his family, skipped the country, and in return, got a glowing best-seller written by his abandoned son, about his fucking "dreams"?
Yepper, no psychological issues, there...
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gharlane
December 24, 2009 12:33 AM in reply to johnnyba
That was the problem: In fact, he had very little to say. Apparently. Other than: Bipartisanship. "Yes we can." "Change the way Washington works." (Yeah, right. Like that's happening.) "Change we can believe in." "Hope!"
And when pressed for specifics, "Go to my website."
Which contained, oh I don't know, just to pick one example, a detailed decription of "the new public [health insurance] plan" (as Point One, mind you) that now lies in smoking ruins due (in significant part) to a failure of leadership by the WH (look up the "Johnson Treatment" sometime if you want to see how it's really done) and a likely disinterest on the part of the POTUS and his pit bull Rahm in actually seeing it get done.
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TaosJohn
December 23, 2009 3:24 PM
TPM just hated to post this...
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