The Political Whore

By Mitch Perry
PoHo contributor
Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio.

Last Friday afternoon’s soaring (and dizzying) deficit numbers produced by the Congressional Budget Office were the last thing the Obama administration needed.  Between that and what can only be labeled bailout fatigue that has exploded after the AIG debacle, there is a fear that one of the President’s most ambitious and far reaching goals of his presidency – reforming health care – could be on life support before the specifics of the plan are already announced.

Tampa Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor thinks not. On a conference call with Florida reporters last week, she responded to my question that Obama’s ambitious plan to spend $644 billion on health care in his budget could be thwarted already by fears of too much government money being spent:

“I don’t know anyone who is not concerned with the long term trend for greater deficits…But let’s remember that President Obama has inherited a complete mess and disaster…one reason is the failure to address health care reform over the past few years…part of the solution to fix the economy is to fix the very dysfunctional health care system.

We’re going to have a tussle over this budget, but I believe the health care reform piece will have less controversy than other pieces…But we simply must address it now…access is simply not affordable right now…”

And there are many others not nearly so deep into Obama’s vision who agree.

But the confluence of massive numbers being posted are frightening mainstream Democrats in Congress who Obama absolutely must have on his side, in order to pass his $3.55 trillion dollar budget proposal later this year. (Not to mention Republicans like New Hampshire’s Judd Gregg, who said flat out Sunday that the President’s budget would “bankrupt America.”)

Energy and education are the two other big spending items in the budget.  But it’s the promise of health care reform that a lot of people are hoping he can deliver on — and many think it must happen by the end of this summer if it’s going to happen at all in his time in office.

He may be able to bring some Republicans with him — but it’s moderate Democrats in the Senate that he’ll have to drag over the goal line if he’s going to be successful.

Indiana’s Evan Bayh was the first of his kind out of the gate earlier this month, balking at what the administration tagged “last year’s business,” the $410 billion dollar Omnibus bill that contained enough of the much ridiculed earmarks to make Obama look a tad hypocritical when he campaigned on reforming that maligned prerogative by members from both parties.

Then Bayh announced (to very little fanfare), that his “practicality caucus” consisting of 16 fellow Senate moderates (all Democrats save Joe Lieberman, and including Florida’s own raging moderate, Bill Nelson) was now ready to make their presence felt.

But the Obama team may already be prepared for that. As reported by the Washington Post last week, administration officials are discussing with Senate Democrats a way to push through his health proposal by rolling it into a bill that cannot be filibustered, meaning Democrats can pass the legislation through the Senate with just 51 votes, instead of 60 .

They’re calling it “reconciliation,” and it’s freaking out some Senate moderates. Arkansas’s Blanche Lincoln said it would send a bad message about working across the aisle, and create a ‘divisive atmosphere’’.

And what does Sen. Nelson, think of this? I can’t tell you, because though I contacted his office last to get his thoughts on reconciliation, I never heard back from him or his spokespeople..

Nevertheless, it’s a shrew idea to propose to try to shatter the idea that you need 60 votes in the Senate.Can you blame the Dems for thinking this way? At the rate the court system is moving in Minnesota, Al Franken will be sworn in during inauguration 2012. Depending on the specifics, Obama may very well get more Republicans to sign on to his health care bill than he did on the stimulus bill.

Of course, if he does decide to go with reconciliation, there goes a significant amount of good will from Republicans.

Progressives have been agitated about many of Obama’s centrist moves, both during the campaign (such as on FISA), the transition (Rick Warren), and even in his first 2 months of office (faith based initiatives).But it’s been an effective strategy in terms of winning independent voters, the keys to electoral success.Busting the veneer of bi(or post) partisanship could come at a heavy cost.

To pass heath care reform, the President needs every vote he can get – but the populist outrage that blew over last week regarding bailouts could also make it more difficult for him

As Walter Shapiro wrote in the New Republican last week in previewing the administration’s attempts to rescue the banking system:

.. the contours of Tim Geithner’s rescue scheme may not matter, though recent history suggests that the details will only be comprehensible to those with Ph.D.s in Rube Goldberg Studies. Rahm Emanuel’s ability to browbeat recalcitrant House Democrats may not matter. Nor will Harry Reid’s likely fecklessness in the face of a Republican filibuster.

Of course, some progressives are already unhappy about Obama’s health care plan, because it will probably not be single payer, but a public/private mix.

But it will be better than it is now, won’t it?

Lord knows, the health care system needed reform the last time it was seriously attempted, 15 years ago.

As Ron Pollock, with the group Families USA said last week, “The pharmaceuticals spent a lot of money in 93 and 94 (estimates say $300 million). I think we have a very different context….we strongly supported that plan…we have strange bedfellows…the pharmaceutical lobby, insurance lobby, Business Roundtable, Chamber of Commerce, along with AARP, the American Public Health Association….what’s different this time is all of the groups, and the blockers are saying we cannot simply walk away from health care reform…there may be some differences….these strange bedfellows are coming up with a united report with common ground…it’s a different dynamic this time, and I don’t think it’s wishful thinking.”

And hell, even the ad executive who created the infamous “Harry and Louise “ ads that are considered to be a powerful antidote in nuking support for Hillary and Bill Clinton’s goals says things are different today.

When I asked Congresswoman Castor if the country could afford to reform health care to the tune that the President has offered, the host of the call, Ron Pollock from Families USA angrily interjected, “it’s a question whether we can Afford NOT to do it.”

The President and his supporters, both grass roots activists and members of Congress, always had a hard sell in the upcoming months in convincing skeptics that it’s in the country’s best interests to change the current system. Bailouts and sky high deficits just made it harder.

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