Health Care's Second Wind
By E.J. Dionne, Jr.
Truthdig: October 5, 2010
Here is another piece of conventional wisdom about this year's election that
is being rendered patently false. It's been said over and over that no
Democrats are running on the health care bill. Actually, more and more of
them are proudly campaigning on what the plan has achieved-and they should.
In a fight for his political life in Wisconsin, Sen. Russ Feingold went on
the air last week with an advertisement that explicitly defends provisions
in the bill and attacks his opponent, Republican Ron Johnson, for wanting to
repeal it.
The ad portrays two different Wisconsin citizens telling Johnson: "Hands off
my health care." Their message is that repealing the health care law would,
as another voter says, "put insurance companies back in control."
Feingold's is one of the more powerful ads about the bill, but the senator
is not alone. In an ad that focuses on holding corporations accountable,
Rep. Steve Israel of New York touts the bill for stopping insurance
companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions. In
Nevada, Rep. Dina Titus has a TV ad praising the same provision.
And in his effort to win back a traditionally Democratic congressional seat
in New Orleans, state Rep. Cedric Richmond has made incumbent Republican
Joseph Cao's vote against the health care bill a central issue in the
campaign.
Why the sudden willingness to run on health care? The key reason is that the
law didn't even begin to take effect until Sept. 23, and the first elements
to kick in are very popular. They include the guarantee that children cannot
be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions, a requirement that
insurance companies allow kids to stay on their parents' health plans until
age 26, and a ban on "rescissions" through which insurance companies could
abruptly drop sick people from coverage.
Around the country, Democratic candidates are calling these parts of the
bill a "Patient's Bill of Rights," as Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., put it
in a column in The Huffington Post.
The standard Republican account was nicely summarized by Karl Rove in an
Op-Ed piece in last Thursday's Wall Street Journal. Rove argued that for
Democrats, the health care bill "has become a reef on which many of their
electoral hopes will founder." He called the bill "a fiscal disaster of epic
proportions" and declared that because of it, Democrats are "going to get an
electoral defeat they won't easily forget."
Not so fast, Karl. In fact, there are two "health care bills" competing in
this election. One is the parody Republicans have lovingly created that
casts the health care bill as a big government monstrosity with no redeeming
features. The other is the law itself, an admittedly sprawling legislative
compromise that nonetheless moves things in the right direction-and most of
whose individual elements voters support.
If Democrats say nothing about what the actual health care law does, the
parody is all that will stick in the voters' minds. The law's champions
rarely talk about the measure as a whole because it will take longer than a
brief election campaign to clean off all the mud that's now splattered on
this baby, which is still tainted by the ugly, drawn-out process that
produced it. Instead, like Feingold, Israel and Titus, the bill's backers
break it apart to extol the specific things it does that few voters want to
repeal.
And they had better stay on the offensive long after the election, because
many Republican candidates for governor and state legislative seats are
already promising to undermine the law. This would have the effect of
blocking efforts to extend insurance to some 30 million people. Honestly, do
we really want to back away from that? Shouldn't this be an issue, too?
The truth is that this bill was a first step. There are many health care
battles ahead. If supporters of reform cave during the first round, as Rove
is hoping they will, further progress will be impossible.
Yes, some Democrats in conservative districts voted against the bill and
display this as a badge of their independence. But is that any surprise?
This is exactly the sort of position moderate Republicans (when they
actually existed) would take to survive in more liberal districts.
The real test is whether Democrats who supported the bill think they have an
interest in defending what is a genuinely historic accomplishment. More and
more, they are deciding that they do.
E.J. Dionne's e-mail address is ejdionne@)washpost.com.
© 2010, Washington Post Writers Group
***
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/opinion/05herbert.html?th&emc=th
That's Where the Money Is
By Bob Herbert
NY Times Op-Ed: October 05, 2010
It's beyond astonishing to me that John Boehner has a real chance to be
speaker of the House of Representatives.
I've always thought of Mr. Boehner as one of the especially sleazy figures
in a capital seething with sleaze. I remember writing about that day back in
the mid-'90s when this slick, chain-smoking, quintessential
influence-peddler decided to play Santa Claus by handing out checks from
tobacco lobbyists to fellow Congressional sleazes right on the floor of the
House.
It was incredible, even to some Republicans. The House was in session, and
here was a congressman actually distributing money on the floor. Other, more
serious, representatives were engaged in debates that day on such matters as
financing for foreign operations and a proposed amendment to the
Constitution to outlaw desecration of the flag. Mr. Boehner was busy
desecrating the House itself by doing the bidding of big tobacco.
Embarrassed members of the G.O.P. tried to hush up the matter, but I got a
tip and called Mr. Boehner's office. His chief of staff, Barry Jackson, was
hardly contrite. "They were contributions from tobacco P.A.C.'s," he said.
When I asked why the congressman would hand the money out on the floor of
the House, Mr. Jackson's answer seemed an echo of Willie Sutton's
observation about banks. "The floor," he said, "is where the members meet
with each other."
Mr. Boehner is the minority leader in the House and would most likely become
speaker if the Republicans win control in next month's elections. He has
stopped funneling corporate money to his colleagues on the House floor. (It
is now illegal.) But nothing else has changed, except that his already
outsized influence-peddling has grown. The amount of democracy-destroying
money that manages to make its way into the sleazy environs of what is now
known as Boehner Land has increased to a staggering degree.
The Times's Eric Lipton, in an article last month, noted that Mr. Boehner
"maintains especially tight ties with a circle of lobbyists and former aides
representing some of the nation's biggest businesses, including Goldman
Sachs, Google, Citigroup, R.J. Reynolds, MillerCoors and UPS.
"They have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaigns,
provided him with rides on their corporate jets, socialized with him at
luxury golf resorts and waterfront bashes and are now leading fund-raising
efforts for his Boehner for Speaker campaign, which is soliciting checks of
up to $37,800 each, the maximum allowed."
The hack who once handed out checks on the House floor is now a coddled,
gilded flunky of the nation's big-time corporate elite.
When House Democrats were preparing for the first floor vote on financial
regulatory reform, Mr. Boehner and other Republican leaders summoned more
than 100 industry lobbyists and conservative activists to a private strategy
session. One could be forgiven for thinking that behind those closed doors
they may not have had the public's best interests in mind. According to Mr.
Lipton, Mr. Boehner told the gathering, "We need you to get out there and
speak up against this."
Both major parties have, with great enthusiasm, turned more and more of the
government over to corporate and banking interests. But the G.O.P., with Mr.
Boehner currently the point person, is fanatical about it, has barely tried
to hide its willingness to offer up the government wholesale, no questions
asked.
Just this past July, Mr. Boehner called for a moratorium on new federal
regulations, saying it would be "a wonderful signal to the private sector
that they're going to have some breathing room." Talk about an invitation to
a nightmare. Try imagining how the public would be treated by banks, energy
companies, food processors and myriad other powerful entities if the federal
government were forced by law to ignore even more of their predations.
That's Mr. Boehner, for you - always willing to stick his neck out for the
elite. When it comes to policies of particular concern to ordinary
individuals and families, however, his generosity of spirit and passionate
willingness to help vanishes. He believes, for example, that Americans who
are at least 20 years away from retirement should be unable to receive
Social Security before they are 70, and that Social Security benefits should
be means-tested.
Mr. Boehner and his pals also opposed the Bureau of Consumer Financial
Protection created by the Wall Street financial overhaul. Protect the
public? You must be kidding.
The U.S. is in terrible shape right now because far too much influence has
been ceded to the financial and corporate elites who have used that
influence to game the system and reap rewards that are almost unimaginable.
Ordinary working Americans have been left far behind, gasping and on their
knees.
John Boehner has been one of the leaders of the army of enablers responsible
for this abominable state of affairs.
No comments:
Post a Comment