Is Healthcare Reform Finally Starting to Come Together?
Source: Politico
When Washington began to work on healthcare, most progressives couldn’t have been happier: President Obama’s approval ratings were up, Republicans looked dazed and confused in the face of a massive wave of progressivism nationwide, and meaningful reform looked likely to pass.
Then came August, when members of Congress began to hold their now infamous town hall meetings. I don’t have to go into any great detail about happened there, we all witnessed it and I think would very happily be spared this flashback. In any case, when the dust of the summer recess began to settle, things looked grim. The tea-partiers were getting national attention again, the words “public option” were suddenly offensive on the political stage, the Republicans were winning news cycle after news cycle, and meaningful reform had gone from being a real probability to little more than a pipe dream.
Source: Politico
And then, Republicans started to run out of steam: the usual big government arguments stopped resonating as well with the average american, the tea-party organizers got tired and went back home to their penthouses, and believe it or not, public opinion started to shift. Did the GOP simply peak too early?
It sure looks like it, because for the last two weeks or so, Democrats in Washington have begun to win back the message war. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) is now calling the plan Medicare for Everybody (also being referred to as Medicare Part E), prominent Republicans such as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), former Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole (R-KS) and Bill Frist (R-TN), as well as two former Bush 43 officials, HHS Sec. Tommy Thompson, and FDA commissioner Mark McClellan, all have expressed their support for reform. Granted, none of them have a vote in the U.S. Senate, but this could potentially give cover to conservadems such as Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), or even to moderate Republican Senators such as Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME), to cast their vote in favor of a final version containing a public option. It is also importrant to keep in mind that Olympia Snowe did vote in favor of the less-than-stellar “Baucus Bill” in committee, and while this is by no means a sure indication that she will vote for the final product, it’s a good sign. Finally, to top it off, efforts such as OFA‘s recent healthcare “Day of Action” have been quite powerful in getting elected officials to listen: OFA reports that over 300,000 calls have been made to elected officials. Even efforts such as our own phone bank to Sen. Feinstein (D-CA) have yielded results, as Robbie mentioned in an earlier post.
Source: Politico
Does this mean that meaningful reform will pass? Not for sure, but what it does mean is that real progress is being made, and that we should not give up our efforts to pressure congress into doing whats right. But in my opinion, if and when push comes to shove, and the full Senate votes on a final version of the bill containing a public option, any Democratic senator would be hard pressed not to vote for it, even if your name is Blanche Lincoln.
UPDATE (10/23/09 15:23 PT): Harry Reid is now seriously considering putting a public option in the Senate Bill:
NY Times: Senate Leader Takes Risk Pushing Public Insurance Plan
This is a good synthesis of what I’ve been reading lately. The momentum has shifted back in our direction, and there’s an air of inevitability about something getting passed. The question is: how good can we make that thing that eventually gets passed? I think there’s real room for us to make an impact.
By the way, I wanted to clarify that the 300,000 calls to Washington lawmakers you mentioned were all made on just one day. I’m pretty sure that’s what you were saying, but because I was involved in organizing the East Bay to do its part in that huge number of calls yesterday, I guess I just want to restate it. I’m proud.