Today in Washington D. C. - July 24, 2009 - The Caboose is Pulling the Train

Last night, the Senate voted 87-7 to pass the fiscal 2010 Defense authorization bill, S. 1390. The bill would authorize $679.8 billion in military funding. The bill will now face a conference with the House bill (H.R. 2647) that is likely to center around the Senate’s controversial hate crimes amendment and the F-22 and F-35 programs. The House bill continues funds for the F-22 and an alternative engine for the F-35, while the Senate’s does not. Yesterday the Senate passed by unanimous consent a joint resolution to extend trade sanctions against Burma, H. J. Res. 56. The bill was sponsored by Sen, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

In his column today, Charles Krauthammer gets at the key issue facing President Obama and Democrats’ push for a massive government intervention in health care. Krauthammer writes, “What happened to Obamacare? Rhetoric met reality. As both candidate and president, the master rhetorician could conjure a world in which he bestows upon you health-care nirvana: more coverage, less cost. But you can't fake it in legislation. Once you commit your fantasies to words and numbers, the Congressional Budget Office comes along and declares that the emperor has no clothes.”

And it’s precisely the realities of health care legislation, especially the costs, that have Americans concerned and skeptical. The New York Times interviewed several people for their reactions to President Obama’s press conference and claims about health care this week and found broad skepticism. “An affluent small-business owner from near Chicago, a middle-class manager from Denver, and an uninsured worker from Cleveland each expressed skepticism that change would improve their lots.” It was the same with the main interviewee, a middle-class father of four from the Atlanta suburbs who immigrated to America some years ago. He told The Times, “I know the [health care] system is not perfect, but I’m not completely convinced it’s broken. . . . And even if it’s broken, I’m not sure the government is the solution.”

The NYT further reports, “Although she may well benefit from Mr. Obama’s plan to subsidize health insurance for the working poor, Rowena Ventura, the uninsured worker from Cleveland, wondered whether she could afford it. ‘I’m worried because they’re talking about forcing people to buy insurance,’ said Ms. Ventura, a registered Democrat and part-time health care worker. ‘You just can’t ask any more of me. You just can’t.’” And an Obama voter from Denver said, “My only concern is that this comes on the heels of the stimulus package. . . . Where is this money supposed to be coming from? I’m not sure if this is the best time to fix another enormous problem.” The NYT story continues, “‘I think the press conference was more convincing people of his motives than it was to actually explain the program . . . I expected it to be more.’”

Politico reports today that “Obama suggested the debate was discouraging to him. He took a shot at the media for ‘a lack of sustained focus on the facts,’ saying it ‘makes it very difficult.’” Yet it is precisely the facts, as Krauthammer says, that are making things so difficult in Congress: “These blindingly obvious contradictions are why the Democratic health plans are collapsing under their own weight -- at the hands of Democrats.” Indeed, Politico writes, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision Thursday not to seek a Senate vote on health reform before the recess means the House most likely won’t act either — putting the votes off until September.” The Politico story also notes that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was unable to break an impasse between House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and seven blue Dog Democrats on his committee. In the Senate, Democrats on the Finance Committee took shots at chairman Max Baucus’ (D-MT) negotiations with Republicans. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said, “I’m not allowed into the meetings, the real meetings they have, what they call the coalition of the willing. It is a really, really bad way to try and develop support and ideas.”

As Washington closes in on Congress’ August recess, Politico notes, “Democrats will head home without a single plan to promote, complicating efforts to counter a suddenly more cohesive Republican opposition built around the plan’s trillion-dollar price tag.” Mark Merritt, president of the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, summed up the challenge for Politico, saying, “The caboose is pulling the train. The message can’t pull the policy. It’s awfully hard to rally public support around policy that doesn’t exist yet. . . . What people have heard are the aspirations of health reform, and what they haven’t heard is what health reform is really going to look like and who’s going to pay for it.”

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