Today in Washington D. C. - Oct 27, 2009 - Reid Placates Liberals & Hopes Other Senators Will Ignore Their Constituents

Update: Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) said today she is still waiting to see a compromise health care bill headed for the Senate floor, but she would have difficulty supporting any legislation that includes a government-funded insurance option.

The Senate voted 87-13 to bring the unemployment insurance benefits bill to the floor which may give people running out of unemployment insurance up to 20 more weeks of federal aid.

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The Senate will begin consideration of Irene Cornelia Berger to be District Judge for the Southern District of West Virginia. Will vote at 2:20 PM on the nomination.

Negotiations continue over an agreement on amendments to the unemployment insurance extension bill, H.R. 3548. If an agreement is not reached, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to the bill at 5:30 and vote on cloture on the motion at 6 PM.

The Washington Post: “Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid announced Monday that he will include a government-backed insurance plan in the chamber’s health-care reform legislation, a key concession to liberals who have threatened to oppose a bill without such a public option. Reid’s decision was a reversal from two weeks ago, when the Nevada Democrat appeared inclined to set aside the idea -- among the most divisive in the reform debate -- in an attempt to avoid alienating party moderates.”

Also. in the Post, Dana Milbank takes Reid to task for this decision. “For Reid, it was an admission of the formidable power of liberal interest groups. He had been the target of a petition drive and other forms of pressure to bring the public option to the floor, and Monday’s move made him an instant hero on the left. . . . Reid, facing a difficult reelection contest next year at home in Nevada, will need such groups to bring Democrats to the polls if he is to survive. . . . As Democratic aides described it, the moment had less to do with health-care policy than with Nevada politics -- and one vulnerable senator’s justifiable fear of liberal anger. . . . “But, there were a few problems with the leader’s solo move. He shifted the public pressure from himself to half a dozen moderates in his caucus. And he defied the Obama White House, which had hoped to keep a bipartisan patina on health-care reform by maintaining the support of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).”

Indeed, The New York Times notes, “Mr. Reid lost the one Republican who had given Democratic efforts a tinge of bipartisanship, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine. . . . ‘I am deeply disappointed with the majority leader’s decision to include a public option as the focus of the legislation,’ Ms. Snowe said.”

“Then there was the small matter of lacking the votes to pass the public option,” Milbank observes. “‘Do you feel 100 percent sure right now that you have the 60 votes?’ CNN’s Dana Bash inquired.” Well, according to The New York Times, “Aides said Monday that he appeared to be short of that goal, lacking firm commitments from several members of the caucus.” And The Washington Post points out that “[d]oubts remain about whether he has the votes to guarantee passage . . . .”

Certainly, prior statements from a number of more moderate Democrat senators would lead one to believe that Reid would have difficulty rounding up votes for a government-run insurance plan. And, the AP reports today that Arkansas Democrat Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor are “undecided” on Reid’s proposal.

However, Democrat senators have been back in the Beltway for 8 weeks now. When they were last at home, constituents made their dislike for a government-run insurance plan known. With Democrat leaders pushing for one anyway, Americans must be wondering if Democrats have forgotten their previous assurances that they don’t favor such a plan. Will Democrat senators stand with the liberal groups that Harry Reid is trying to placate, or with their constituents?

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