Campaigne for America’s Future
By Bill Scher
July 14, 2009 – 10:05am ET
House Dems To Release Detailed Health Care Bill Today
The Hill: Pelosi said a more detailed House bill will now be made public on Tuesday, but added it will still need to be changed to win over skeptical voters in her own caucus. Committee action on the bill could kick off before week’s end, which would set up a vote by July 31 as promised. Pelosi described the bill to be unveiled Tuesday as just another draft. ‘It won’t be the finished product,’ Pelosi said. ‘In order for us to be on schedule, we have to roll out legislation this week.’”
Politico reports on presidential meeting with congressional leaders: “During the meeting, Rangel promised to mark up the bill this week, and Baucus told the assembled lawmakers and the president that he would mark it up next week — something that Rangel thinks will help him reassure House Democrats that the Senate will act. The Ways and Means Committee chairman also said the president didn’t give him an explicit signal to abandon an idea to impose a surtax on the wealthy.”
Change.org’s Tim Foley defends progressive tax on the wealthiest: “There’s no question the richest 2-3% benefited well under a tax cut system that we simply couldn’t pay for and has been rendered unsustainable. They’re traditionally more likely to take advantage of deductions and giveaways in our tax code, making fewer of them likely to pay the full percentage. It’s a demographic that has benefited disproportionately to the billions of dollars spent bailing out the economy. And, not to put too fine a point on it, they’re paying for the uninsured and the high costs of preventable chronic diseases already in taxes and premiums – they’re just not getting value. It’s easy to demagogue in patently false ways. Republicans will say it will hurt most small business owners. It won’t. They’ll say it’s socialism. It’s not. It’s the same progressive tax structure used by Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II. Looks like the first choice was the best one we’ve seen so far.”
LA TImes explains WH logic in leaving details to Congress: “The president’s decision not to spell out what he wants can be frustrating for rank-and-file members of Congress, said Chris Jennings, a senior healthcare advisor in the Clinton administration who also worked on Capitol Hill for 10 years. ‘There is always pressure to get more involved.’ But Jennings and other veterans of past healthcare battles said choosing sides too early can be risky. ‘The president can only be used so many times,’ said Harold M. Ickes, who was a senior aide to Clinton. ‘And they [the White House] have to be careful so that when he really lays down the law, or tries to break a deadlock on any particular issue, that it’s done at the right time. Otherwise, he runs the risk of looking impotent.’”
The Treatment’s Elise Foley on why Surgeon General Regina Benjamin beats Sanjay Gupta: “Benjamin has something he doesn’t: a record of working with the poor and uninsured. Not coincidentally, these are among the people whom Obama’s health care reform plans will help the most … no coincidence that Obama spent the first half of his press conference reaffirming his commitment to passing health care reform legislation, then moved on to discussing an appointee who worked with the same types of people his plans are meant to protect.”
OurFuture.org’s Bill Scher: USA Today Can’t Read Its Own Health Care Poll.
Conservative strategy: delay. Politico: “In a memo to Republicans, GOP consultant Alex Castellanos said that time is on his party’s side. ‘If we slow this sausage-making process down,’ Castellanos said, ‘we can defeat it…’.”
Ezra Klein notes the powerful grassroots mobilization on the Left: “Talk to veterans of the 1994 effort and they will invariably lament the total absence of a liberal ground game. The grassroots energy came primarily from conservative groups and trade organizations. The National Federation of Independent Business was, for instance, very effective at influencing legislators. So too was the Chamber of Commerce. There was no analogue on the left. … All-purpose progressive organizations like MoveOn.org and Campaign for America’s Future were largely non-existent … This year, the legislators flipping their positions under activist pressure are centrist Democrats who have been targeted by HCAN and its allies. The news stories about rallies and letter-writing campaigns and grassroots efforts tend to feature liberals organizing in support of the public option…”
Kennedy and Dodd seek to defuse abortion concens. CQ: “After the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee rejected several Republican measures at its Monday markup, the panel adopted by voice vote an abortion-related amendment offered by Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., on behalf of ailing Chairman Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. Under the amendment, health care providers could not be excluded from contracting with a health insurance plan on the basis that the provider performs abortions — or refuses to perform abortions except in an emergency — if ‘performing abortions is contrary to the religious or moral beliefs of the provider or entity.’ Dodd said the language was intended to address GOP worries that doctors and nurses who object to abortion would be forced into providing them under the health care overhaul.”
Big Pharma wins one in Senate cmte. AP: “Senators agreed Monday to give high-tech biologic drugs 12 years of market protection before generic versions can compete. The vote in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was a victory for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries but a defeat for the Obama administration and AARP. The Obama administration had pushed for a seven-year exclusivity period so that patients could get quicker access to cheaper versions of costly medicine … The powerful senior citizens’ lobby AARP expressed disappointment, suggesting it might oppose the underlying bill over the issue.”
