Campaign for America’s Future
By Bill Scher
July 22, 2009 – 10:16am ET
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start the day.
Cost-Cutting Health Commission Wins Support
Blue Dogs give list of demands to WH. CQ Politics: “On Tuesday, members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition sent the committee’s chairman, Henry A. Waxman , D-Calif., a list of 10 changes they want to the bill. Mike Ross , D-Ark., who chairs the coalition’s health care task force, said top issues include greater cost containment, a more generous exemption for small businesses from requirements that they provide insurance, and changes to the government-run plan that Democrats want to create to compete with private insurers.”
Obama, Blue Dogs, Waxman agree on independent commission to cut costs. Politico: “Moderate House Democrats and a key committee chairman emerged from a three-hour meeting at the White House on Tuesday with a tentative agreement to give an outside panel — rather than Congress — the power to make cuts to government-financed health care programs. OMB Director Peter Orszag called it ‘probably the most important piece that can be added’ to the health care bill in the House…”
Swampland’s Karen Tumulty reports more deep presidential involvement to come: “One close Obama ally predicted to me: ‘He’s going to become increasingly specific–and increasingly persistent–about the things he does and doesn’t want’ in the health care bill. This afternoon found the President knee-deep in negotations with the conservative Democrats known as ‘Blue Dogs,’ … as a result, the President and the conservative Democrats are making common cause on one cost-containment measure that both would like to see added to the House bill … The [commission] idea has also won words of praise from the Mayo Clinic on the very blog where it criticized the House bill yesterday. And Obama’s engagement may be bringing the Blue Dogs aboard.”
Salon.com’s Mike Madden also reviews the strategy to hold the Blue Dogs: “…Democrats think they can turn the debate into Obama vs. the GOP, and wind up shocking Blue Dog-types into action. ‘You don’t want to get lumped in with Jim DeMint on this if you’re a moderate Democrat,’ one Democratic strategist said. Another benefit some Democrats see: The aggressive White House counterattack shows Obama is in the game, reassuring wavering allies who are afraid of taking lumps from the GOP. ‘People are like, “Is [reform] dead?”‘ the strategist said. ‘Fighting back on this gives us momentum points,’ which might help change the cable news narrative that healthcare is in need of, well, emergency medical attention.”
W. Post’s Harold Meyerson lambastes “The Can’t-Do Blue Dogs”
The Hill keeps tabs on the schedule: “The House Energy and Commerce Committee canceled a markup session Tuesday so that Obama could lobby seven centrist Democrats who are threatening to block the bill. Lawmakers said the markup will not resume on Wednesday.”
Tax on insurance companies when offering big benefits gaining traction. W. Post:
Orszag also said the White House is open to a proposal by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), a Finance Committee member, to tax insurers for very generous health policies. The idea is a variation on a provision that Baucus, Grassley and others on the committee had pushed: to tax beneficiaries who receive generous policies through their employers.
Obama staunchly opposed taxing beneficiaries as a candidate, and on Monday he threatened to veto a bill that targets individuals. But Orszag said that the White House is open to the Kerry alternative, noting that a fee on high-value policies would “create an incentive for companies to create more efficient plans.”
A senior House leadership aide said Democratic lawmakers there are keenly interested in the Kerry provision, along with other revenue measures with consensus support in the Finance Committee, to replace the wealth surtax that Baucus and others have already declared dead on arrival. “Our guys want to see some movement there,” the aide said. “They’re loath to vote on a tax increase if it is not going anywhere in the Senate.”
The Sentinel Effect’s RJ Eskow rebuts proponents of taxing benefits: “Their reasoning went something like this: Americans spend too much money on healthcare, but they’re insulated from the consequences of that expenditures by insurance. We’ll remove some of that insulation by taxing health benefits … [But t]ypical wage earners have little influence over their health care costs. Doctors make recommendations about care that patients are loathe to reject … Doctors, not patients, control health demand.”
W. Post notes an individual mandate is “one of the few common threads running through all three bills being considered in Congress, greatly increasing the likelihood it will survive the legislative process.”
Conservative Sen. Jim DeMint leads the obstructionists. Bloomberg: “DeMint defended his remark [about wanted to 'break' Obama] on Fox News, saying ‘the whole purpose of the Senate is to slow things down and debate them.’ Obama ‘wants to take over health care just as he’s taken over General Motors and Chrysler and our banking industry.’”
Corporate lobby backing obstruction efforts. The Hill: “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will launch a $2 million ad campaign this week meant to build opposition to a public insurance option in healthcare reform legislation.”
W. Post slaps insurance lobbyist for distorting poll data (How ironic!): “The poll [Karen] Ignagni was citing actually undercuts her position: By 72 to 20 percent, Americans favor the creation of a public plan, the June survey by the New York Times and CBS News found. People also said that they thought government would do a better job than private insurers of holding down health-care costs and providing coverage. In addition, data from a Kaiser Family Foundation poll last year, compiled at the request of The Washington Post, suggest that the people who like their health plans the most are the people who use them the least … The level of satisfaction expressed with private insurance was essentially the same as that with Medicare, the government program for the elderly and disabled.”
The Walker Report slaps W. Post for distorting Medicare’s impact on cost: “Medicare has done a much better job controlling cost than private insurance. The Congressional Budget Office determined that Medicare Advantage, which is insurance for the elderly run by private insurance companies, almost always cost the government more than traditional Medicare. The cost of Medicare has increased at a much slower rate than the private market.”
Change.org’s Tim Foley debunks the latest health care conspiracy theory: “Did you hear about how … President Obama, or the House Democrats, or the Romulans somehow snuck a clause onto page 16 of HR 3200 (America’s Affordable Health Choices Act) which would effectively outlaw private insurance? … It’s insidious – how did they think we wouldn’t notice? Well, for starters, because it ain’t there … Not only is private insurance not being outlawed, it’s receiving subsidies from the federal government.”
