Some Dems Feel Betrayed by Health Deal

(The Politico)  This story was written by Glenn Thrush.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent half of Wednesday finalizing a deal with the Blue Dogs - and the other half quelling a brewing rebellion among progressives who think conservatives have hijacked health care reform.

Liberals, Hispanics and African-American members - Pelosi's most loyal base of support - are feeling betrayed after House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) reached an agreement with four of seven Blue Dogs on his committee who had been bottling up the bill over concerns about cost.

The compromise, which still must be reconciled with competing House and Senate versions, would significantly weaken the public option favored by liberals by delinking reimbursement rates to Medicare.

"Waxman made a deal that is unacceptable," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), one of about 10 progressives who met repeatedly with Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Wednesday.

"We signed a pledge to reject any plan that doesn't include a robust public option, and this plan doesn't have a robust public option," he added.

By sundown Wednesday, the outcry from the left had become so loud that Waxman was forced to scrap a scheduled markup of the compromise measure. He rescheduled the meeting for Thursday morning and convened a mass question-and-answer session for a deeply divided Democratic Caucus - a meeting that is expected to be extremely contentious.

Two months ago, most of the 80-plus members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus signed a pledge that they would oppose any health care bill that didn't contain a bona fide public option that would compete with private insurers.

On Wednesday, they seemed willing to stick to their promise.

CPC Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) emerged from her meeting with Pelosi to tell reporters that the Blue Dog deal needed to be "much stronger to get our support."

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) predicted that House liberals, who believe they have compromised away several core issues to further President Barack Obama's agenda, might finally buck leadership if they are force-fed a weakened public option.

"I don't think it would pass the House - I wouldn't vote for it," Frank, a CPC member, told POLITICO.

He answered "yes" emphatically when asked if progressives were willing to delay the entire process as the Blue Dogs have done.

Frank said liberals are becoming increasingly leery of the clout wielded by Blue Dogs and are learning from the success they have had in leveraging their numbers - a fraction of the liberals' - into real power.

"If you allow one wing of the House to exercise all this influence, you have to do something or you lose all of your influence," he said.

Pelosi, recognizing the threat, huddled with 10 liberal members an hour after the Blue Dog deal was announced. The meeting, which included Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) - her emissary to progressives - became heated at times, according to an individual who was present.

At one point, Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), a former Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman, expressed outrage that conservatives would insist on significant cuts and a weakening of the public option, arguing that many of the Blue Dogs were letting down their black constituents, who make up 25 percent to 40 percent of their voters, in some instances.

The group was scheduled to meet with the speaker again Thursday afternoon, followed by members-only meetings of the CPC, the CBC and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The CPC has been circulating a strongly worded protest letter for members' signatures, similar to one sent to Pelosi by the Black Caucus last week, according to Democratic aides.

"In recent days, some within the Democratic Caucus have raised spurious claims that te cost of reforming health care in America is something our nation cannot afford," CBC Chairwoman Barbara Lee wrote in her letter to Pelosi and Obama - a swipe that sources said was directed at the Blue Dogs.

"I think there's a lot of resentment at the role [Blue Dogs] have played - that's where a lot of this anger is coming from," one CBC member said on condition of anonymity.

During her afternoon meeting with the liberals, Pelosi and her team downplayed the importance of the Blue Dog deal, a sharp contrast to how Democratic leaders were playing it in the media - as "a big breakthrough," according to Pelosi lieutenant Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

"Miller told them that the Energy and Commerce bill was only one of three health care bills passed by the House - and that it was the only one that has a public option plan we don't like," said a person who was at the meeting.

"He said they would have plenty of opportunities to change it back," said the source, who added that members left the meeting still agitated but "somewhat reassured."

CPC member Sam Farr (D-Calif.) emerged from the meeting a little confused and a tad annoyed but believing that his fellow liberals were not yet in open revolt.

"The progressives are in the room now," he said. "I think that's important."


By Glenn Thrush

[bondsman_dotmac]

If the health care program is so good for the American people then I expect those in government that put it through to be part of it as well or is it not good enough for our public servants but it is goo enough for the people?

[hungry1968-16]

by beaumuff July 30, 2009 4:24 PM EDT
Good post, let them keep on slinging the mud for awhile. Thanks blue dog Dems, you know you can't get reelected with the mess they got now. If this is so important forget about the August recess and keep working.
Let Pelosi and Reid go and maybe you will get something done.






You can be guaranteed that this will be the last congressional session with "blue dogs" in it.

The voters are going to see to that.

[hungry1968-16]

F the Blue Dogs.

They can go back to being neo con republicans, and quit pretending to care about America.

This whole "reform" measure is so watered down, they might as well just scrap it.

It's not going to do anything to solve the problems, and the big insurance companies are still going to be standing between people and their doctors, and determining which health care benefits they get - and which they don't.

[ubrew12]

The nation needs a robust public option. Blue Dogs are against it because the private insurers are terrified of the public competition, and pay well. Blue Dogs 'say' they are looking out for fiscal responsibility. But if private insurance were so fiscally responsible, why do we pay twice for healthcare what all the other developed nations pay, ALL of whom have robust public options? The Blue Dogs are looking out for their own personal bottom line, and soaking up campaign contributions from health lobbiests. America's healthcare is such a scandal, we can't let them scuttle real reform this time. We, as a country, have paid too much in real death and real bankruptcy, to let them profit by killing real reform, and a robust public option.

[jsd330]

Get it through your head there will be no competition with a public plan, according to page 16 of congress's current bill. So your freedom of choice is taken away. It will be the Government plan like it or not.

[saturn05]

Mt god the Democrats just love killing the party. I bet the repubs are just laughing. It just seems that the liberals are thier own worst enemy. How about thinking of the people and what's good for us, instead of your own agenda politicians.

[velma179]

"How about thinking of the people and what's good for us, instead of your own agenda politicians."

The "your own agenda politicians" you speak of are Democrat AND Republican -- you do know that don't you?

[thusspokezara]

A couple of demonstrations on these blue dogs home turf on Labor Day and the threat of investigations by the Attorney General should do the trick. If Obama does not bring the blue dogs under his thumb, then one of the blue dogs is gonna take him on next Election. We don't want that.

[wrangler73]

Dr. Marcia Angell (Harvard Medical School) said recently on Bill Moyer's Journal, one of the problems with the Obama Health Plan is that "it leaves the bad guys in place." And that is a Democrat-friendly forum. Obama has betrayed those who voted for him, those who voted for CHANGE. Since Obama apparently is poorly informed, "The Bad Guys" are the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Insurance Industry, both of which have rendered the current Health Care System utterly broken and unworkable. So Obama is now trying to perpetrate a stealth "Bait & Switch" scam by suddenly reversing his position and siding with "The Bad Guys" while betraying the "Good Guys" who voted for him and voted for CHANGE, all while refusing to disclose these ugly details in his plan. We need a plan that includes protection for those who cannot afford it. And a plan like Obama's that keeps the greed of the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Insurance Industry IN THE GAME is never going to achieve such a goal. By betraying those who voted for Obama, those who voted for CHANGE, Obama & the Democrats have, once again, sabotaged their own Health Care Plan. Dr. Marcia Angell articulated the predicament perfectly when she said Obama is trying to -- tweak and keep -- a broken system, when in reality, that corrupt, broken system is beyond rehabilitation. We need to start over from scratch with a single payer system that dumps "The Bad Guys" from the gravy train.

[velma179]

Please read what I posted above.

And then -- please tell us here just how we are going to "start from scratch" and "get to single payer" when we have a Congress that can't agree on much lesser changes AND who -- as we all know MAKE THE LAWS?

PS - I voted for Obama and I do not feel betrayed at all. He had a broad range coalition that supported his election ... this is one reason he just isn't going to satisfy us all, one will approve while another will disapprove on specific issues. But he does deserve our continued support for the fact he IS doing his part to effect change. Are you trying to say that change is EASY?

By the way -- I would love to be able to ditch the entire broken system and I like the idea of single payer, but I am a realist and will be grateful for the door being opened with the public option.

[rank_n_file]

Any Health Care Plan exception that "exempts businesses with payrolls below $500,000 from having to provide health coverage for workers" as the recent compromise would do, can only be described as AN EXCEPTION THAT EATS UP THE RULE. In all of my 50 working years, nearly all of the larger businesses and corporations had Health Care coverage plans. It has always been the smaller businesses that DO NOT. This exemption leaves us with a Health Care Plan that completely ignores the core problem and the bedrock cause of that problem. It's like having a 'robbery' criminal statute that exempts all "robbers" from its application.

[truth_police]

Those of us who cannot afford health care, cannot afford health care under the Obama Plan either. Nothing in the Obama Plan changes that. In fact, the Obama Plan exacerbates the problem by forcing those of us who cannot afford health care to buy it regardless, under severe tax penalties for failure to do so. As the very wise and honest Dr. Marcia Angell (Harvard Medical School) said recently on Bill Moyer's Journal, one of the problems with the Obama Health Plan is that "it leaves the bad guys in place." And that is a Democrat-friendly forum. Obama has betrayed those who voted for him, those who voted for CHANGE. Since Obama apparently is poorly informed, "The Bad Guys" are the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Insurance Industry, both of which have rendered the current Health Care System utterly broken and unworkable. So Obama is now trying to perpetrate a stealth "Bait & Switch" scam by suddenly reversing his position and siding with "The Bad Guys" while betraying the "Good Guys" who voted for him and voted for CHANGE, all while refusing to disclose these ugly details in his plan. We need a plan that includes protection for those who cannot afford it. And a plan like Obama's that keeps the enormous greed of the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Insurance Industry IN THE GAME is never going to achieve such a goal.

[velma179]

You clearly don't have a handle on the whole issue.

Quoting one person's OPINION is simply that -- ONE opinion, nothing more and just because the opinion was stated on what you call a "Democrat-friendly forum" doesn't give it any greater validity than if it was stated on a "Republican-friendly" forum... or anywhere, really.

Then, of course -- is the fact that you obviously haven't been listening to the words President Obama has actually said -- himself, with his own voice. Recently -- he has even changed his wording to better address a core part of his idea; he stresses "health insurance reform".

Please get some better information before you rant against someone who clearly you just want to bash because he wasn't your choice for the job.

Be against his policies, that is your right -- for sure -- but please at least be informed what those policies are before you denigrate them.
Thanks...
another American

[jt92202]

To the Dems and the Repubs:

For once do whats right for the PEOPLE and the US not your PARTY!!!!!!! Read what your signing and if you think its what is best then sign it but make sure all t's are crossed and i's are dotted because in the land of Washington DC you never know what one might slide in at the end.

Common Sense NOT what can you do for me today!!! I'm tired of the same old same old I thought all was suppose to change! As long as we have the same people in the Senate and the House NOTHING will change no matter what President is in office.

AGAIN DO WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE PEOPLE AND YOUR COUNTRY! STOP WORRING WHAT IS GOOD FOR YOU!

[John_Merritt]

'Some Dems Feel Betrayed by Health Deal'. Well stated JT.

If this bill is passed without academia reviewing every aspect of it for a final grade, all of America will be betrayed.

Our health care system needs to be retrofitted like any old structure. It served its purpose and now it needs to be stripped and buttressed. It is long overdue and health insurance companies need to find a home in another country where they can wreak havoc on their people.