Health Care Reform

Frustration With Senate And GOP Parliamentary Maneuvers

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The anger among progressives over the apparent failure to promote a public option or Medicare for those 55-64, due to Joe Lieberman’s opposition, is now compounded by GOP conservatives using every parliamentary maneuver one can imagine to prevent progress on what is left of the proposed legislation.

Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, himself a physician, utilized the parliamentary maneuver of calling for an out loud reading of the proposed amendment to the bill calling for a single payer system that had been set forth by Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

If Sanders had not intervened and dropped his amendment being voted on, something assuredly to be rejected, it would have taken more than eight hours to read the amendment. That in itself is unbelievable, that the amendment was apparently some 767 pages in length! Why, oh why, does any legislation have to be so lengthy, and particularly just an amendment?

This reality, plus the ever present filibuster, where a minority of 41 senators can stop vote on a bill or a nomination, just adds to the total feeling of frustration with the US Senate, a body I much admire, but of course in theory a very anti-democratic institution where every state is equal, despite the vast differences in population of the fifty states.

But then again, the purpose of the Senate was to slow up legislation and give careful consideration to any move toward new laws. Over the long haul of history, the Senate has been very significant and has had many great members, but there is no doubt that it is a VERY frustrating body in so many ways! 🙁

Howard Dean Wrong To Call For Abandonment Of Health Care Reform

Ronald 1 Comment

Former Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean has denounced the health care legislation being considered by the Senate because of the likelihood that there will be no public option or Medicare alternative for 55-64 years old, in order to keep the support of Joe Lieberman and get a bill passed.

While I am very unhappy at the dominant role that Lieberman has, to abandon the whole idea of health care reform now would mean the likelihood of no reform at all during this presidential term, and possibly for a long time.

As I see it, it is better to get incremental reform than no reform at all, and to cover millions more of those who are not insured.

It is tough to say that compromise is necessary, but realistically it is the only alternative, and President Obama senses that, and in this, he is, I think, a realist and a practical man.

Once this legislation is passed, an effort can be made over time to strengthen the law, with the most important issue now being to accomplish the passage of legislation that, finally after nearly a century since Theodore Roosevelt first suggested it, will move toward the goal of universal health insurance coverage.

Senator Joe Lieberman: A Nightmare For The Democratic Caucus!

Ronald 3 Comments

Senator Joe Lieberman, Independent from Connecticut, has become a nightmare for the Democratic caucus that welcomed him back after his public support of John McCain in 2008, even making him Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Lieberman has been a constant thorn in the side of President Obama, and now has stated he will not support any public option or Medicare extension in the Health Care legislation being considered, and that he might join the filibuster of the Republicans, making it effective by his own vote.

The story of the year could be Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Vice Presidential nominee, preventing his party from enacting the major initiative of the Obama Administration. And this comes on top of news that his wife, Hadassah, works in the health care industry, and that Connecticut is the major center of health care insurance companies.

Apparently, Lieberman does not care about his public image, and is in bed with the insurance companies that rip off many Americans, and with the Republican party, which has no interest in health care reform.

Shame on Joe Lieberman! But also remember that when he ran for the Senate against liberal Republican Senator Lowell Weicker in 1988, that William F. Buckley, Jr, publisher of the conservative National Review, voted for him and said Lieberman was his “favorite Democrat!”

So maybe Lieberman was always not to be trusted as a true Democrat. Now the Democrats are paying the price! 🙁

Senate Democratic Caucus Meeting At White House: Is This The Last Opportunity To Gain Health Care Reform?

Ronald 2 Comments

For the first time since the health care debate began months ago, President Obama has invited the entire Senate Democratic caucus to visit the White House on Tuesday.

Obama needs to push for what he wants at this meeting, as he is often criticized for being too willing to let the Senate do its own thing without major intervention by the White House. He has to be much more assertive than he apparently has been up to this point.

He must act like Lyndon Johnson in overcoming the Senate filibuster over the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Remember that to overcome the opposition forty five years ago, Johnson needed two thirds of the Senate, sixty seven votes, while now only sixty votes, or three fifths of the Senate is needed.

This may be the last opportunity to accomplish the signature program that Obama wishes as his legacy for his Presidency, at least in the first term. The time for active assertiveness is NOW!

The “Gang Of Ten” And Health Care Reform

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A group of ten senators, five progressives and five moderates, is attempting to come up with a compromise health care reform bill that could be acceptable to the Democrats, and gain their full backing for major change.

The idea is to allow people to buy into Medicare at age 55, instead of 65, bringing millions more into that program, and to allow the Office of Personnel Management to offer alternative programs of health care to other Americans, as they do now to federal employees.

The ten senators involved include progressives Tom Harkin of Iowa, Chuck Schumer of New York, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. The five moderates include Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, David Pryor of Arkansas, and Tom Carper of Delaware.

This new development is a promising possible alternative that would allow health care reform and avoid the controversial “pubic option” opposed by some of the moderates and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who also is thought to be a possible part of this new initiative.

Whether this idea of the “Gang of Ten” bears fruit should be known in a very short time, and may produce progress in the ongoing Senate debate that has been occurring day after day, including on the weekend, in the US Senate!

Barack Obama, The Senate Democrats, And Health Care

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President Obama is scheduled to go up to Capitol Hill for a meeting with Senate Democrats at 2 pm on Sunday.

This may be the most crucial meeting and moment in the fight for health care, but it does not loom well for the President or the health care legislation, which has been a controversy for many months.

How is the President going to rally the forces in the Senate, a notoriously egotistical body of men and women who all love the sound of their own voices and have complete belief in their own virtues, to overcome their differences, particularly in relation to the “public option”, abortion, and their own individual re-election campaigns that they will face in 2010 or 2012?

This is the time to be the so called “fly on the wall”, able to observe the body language and the verbal interaction between the President and his colleagues in the Democratic party.

Barack Obama has many skills, but it is not clear yet that he is the successor to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson in the ability to win over support by whatever means necessary.

At this point in the debate over health care, that is what is required! Unfortunately, don’t bet on it! 🙁

The Democrats Who Stand In The Way Of Health Care Reform

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As things now stand, the health care legislation being debated in the Senate has four Democrats preventing a real reform package, and we could call them the “N and Three L’s”–Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, and Blanche Lincoln of Nebraska.

Without these four votes for the “public option”, the only way conceivable that the Democrats can overcome a filibuster is to utilize “reconciliation”, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would prefer to avoid, but can use if necessary, just as it was under the GOP control of the Senate during the Bush Administration.

This means 51 votes, or even 50 plus the Vice President, would be enough to accomplish health care reform. This has been broached before by myself and others, and certainly is not preferable, but we have reached a point where we cannot allow a few rebellious Democrats to block necessary reform that has never reached this stage legislatively.

To allow health care reform to fail at this point would be a tragedy on the level of the Afghan War escalation about to begin! 🙁

The Senate Health Care Debate Begins!

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With the courageous decision of Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu and Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln to support the beginning of debate on health care, the Democrats have succeeded in keeping their party caucus united, including independents Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders.

Now a long period of weeks of debate begins, and there are many torturous steps to go before a final vote, including the debate over abortion and over the “public option”. Votes in the Democratic caucus will be lost on these issues, including Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Landrieu and Lincoln among others.

So the question is whether it will be possible to pass a substantial health care bill without causing a filibuster. Since that seems unlikely, the concept of “reconciliation”, requiring only 51 votes to pass legislation, may have to be put into play.

While it would be preferable to avoid “reconciliation”, the likelihood is that it will have to be utilized in order to bring about the most significant legislation since 1965 when Medicare passed into law.

Senate Democrats And Health Care: Major Lack Of Courage By Some

Ronald 2 Comments

As the Senate is about to begin debate on the health care bill, the Democrats are divided on the public option and on the abortion issue.

Already, independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut has said he will block any bill with a public option.

But it is not just Joe Lieberman who presents a problem. There are also the difficulties that moderate Democrats have with the legislation, and the danger that a few of them will block any action on health care.

These include Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska in particular. But what many do not understand is that their home states are among the poorest in the country, particularly the states of the two women senators, and there is such a dire need for a public option, and yet all three seem reluctant to do what is best for their states.

Basically, they all lack the courage to do what is right, and that is very disturbing, as the failure to bring about health care reform, if that occurs, will do great harm to the Democratic party in Congress, and also to President Obama, as this is his biggest issue, and it requires success for him to be in a strong position for 2010 and beyond!

Congressman Joseph Cao: A Profile In Courage

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Louisiana Republican Congressman Joseph Cao, the first Vietnamese ethnic Congressman in history, showed he was a profile in courage when he was the only Republican to vote for the House bill on health care last Saturday night.

Representing one of the poorest districts in the nation, a large section of New Orleans, which has still not recovered from Hurricane Katrina, Cao knew that a large portion of his constituents had no access to health care, and therefore voted his conscience and did what was right for his district, forsaking his party affiliations.

For this, some donors to his congressional reelection campaign have asked for refunds, and it is obvious that the Republican party is not happy with his “rebellion”. He may, very likely, not win reelection, but at least he knows in his heart that he did the proper thing. And for the Republicans to condemn him for his courage is a sign of the bankruptcy of the Republican party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Reagan!