Entries for September 2009

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

It's too soon to tell but September 29, 2009, just may be the day that healthcare reform died.

On a bi-partisan basis the Senate Finance Committee rejected Tuesday two amendments, one by West Virginia Democratic Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, and a more modest proposal by Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, to add the so-called "public option" to the healthcare reform legislation currently being written.

Congressional cynics are already describing the votes as "fig leaves," intended to give vulnerable Democrats a "No" vote on the unpopular public option they can point to during their re-election campaigns. And they further predict that, regardless of whatever the Finance Committee produces, the legislation the Senate will finally vote on will either include some type of public option or will lay the groundwork for one in the future.

Taking the members of the committee at their word, or at least at their votes, means the public campaign against public option has had the desired effect—as least as far as the Senate is concerned—setting up a direct conflict with the House of Representatives.

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

The recent death of Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, hit the nation hard. "The last lion of the Senate," as more than one approving memorial essay described him was, in the secular sense, canonized for the many good works he accomplished during his lifetime. It was, in a collective sense, considered bad taste to dwell upon his more public failings—which I will not recap in this space—as anything more than a part of the overall narrative of his life.

As a matter of decorum, it is more than appropriate to consider the balance of a public figure's life in determining their place in history. Very few people are all good or all bad; their lives are the sum of their failings as well as their accomplishments and it is a mistake, in my judgment, to dwell too much on either.

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

A quick review of the headlines across the Internet reminds us that the world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place. The New York Times: "Iran Conducts New Test of Mid-Range Missiles." The Associated Press: "Venezuela Exploring Uranium Deposits with Russia." Reuters: "China to Display Upgraded Missiles in Oct. 1 Parade." The Financial Times: "India Raises Nuclear Stakes."

The news at home is hardly more reassuring. Reports of increased unemployment, especially among young people, tightened belts in the private and public sectors and racially charged beatings of students by students at America's public schools abound. It is clearly an unstable time, with lots of balls in the air.

And what is our president doing? Is he heading back to the United Nations to rally the civilized world in opposition to the Iranian missile and nuclear development program? Is he laying down markers emphasizing the Monroe Doctrine in an effort to keep Russian adventurism in South America in check? Is he taking to the Internet to address teen-on-teen race violence?

No to all of the above. The latest White House initiative has President and Mrs. Obama heading to Copenhagen, Denmark to pitch the International Olympic Committee on the merits of awarding the 2016 Summer Olympic Games to the city of Chicago.

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Ever since President Barack Obama spoke to a joint session of Congress about healthcare reform, his administration and its allies on Capitol Hill have been trying to refocus the debate. They want to move attention off their plan for reform and put it back on the insurance companies, which their pollsters tell them are about as popular with the American people as, well, Congress.

It's an interesting strategy—and one that might have worked if the Democrats were not so heavy handed.

Early this week, acting at the request of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Democrat from Montana, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services imposed a "gag rule" on the nation's health insurers to block them from telling seniors how Obama's proposed reforms might affect their healthcare and their coverage.

Unfortunately this latest gag rule fits in all too easily alongside the Democrats' other efforts to muzzle the opposition in the healthcare debate. Telling the insurance companies they can't talk to their customers is just like telling members of Congress they can't mail out the chart explaining how the new healthcare system would work to their constituents. Or trying to control access to town hall meetings on healthcare by requiring folks to show picture ids or letting Obamacare supporters fill the room an hour before everyone else is allowed in.

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Lest there be any doubt, congressional supporters of healthcare reform have joined the White House in playing "hard ball" against its opponents. Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee and is currently preoccupied with writing a healthcare bill of his own, recently asked the U.S. government's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to investigate a mailer sent by the Humana healthcare company to senior citizens that it insures.

Baucus's complaint was that the mailer, which warned that efforts under way by Democrats to change healthcare in America could result in cuts to their benefits, constituted a disingenuous effort to frighten seniors. And CMS, as Roll Call reported Wednesday, was more than happy to oblige, launching an investigation at the "direction" of Jonathan Blum, a former Baucus Senate aide whom President Obama recently appointed to be acting director of CMS' Center for Drug and Health Plan Choices.

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

The ongoing public debate over healthcare reform is actually an exercise in self-government. Given the importance of the issue to each and every American it is not surprising to see Middle America insert itself into the debate in an informed if not always thoughtful manner.

Congressional supporters of Obamacare probably expected an easy public relations hit when they scheduled their healthcare forums during the August recess. They expected, no doubt, to interface with constituents, explain the bill, explain why their constituents needed to support it and gain some favorable coverage in the newspapers back home.

What they found was something quite different. Unlike many in Congress, the folks who turned out for the these events had actually read the bill—in this case H.R. 3200, the healthcare reform package pushed forward by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her leadership team. And, having read the bill, the critics of Obamacare were able to slice through the arguments in favor of it like a chain saw slicing through a barrel of fish.

Democrats in the United States Senate, however, are apparently not as naïve as their colleagues on the other side of the Capitol. They are pushing ahead with reform legislation fully intent on keeping it away from the prying eyes of the American people, if that's what it takes.

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Sometimes a small person possessed of a little bit of authority misuses it and gives everyone concerned a big black eye.

Several weeks ago, in an exchange posted on You Tube, a police officer working for the Fairfax County, Va., public schools threatened to arrest a person holding a sign expressing a sentiment with which the officer apparently did not agree. According to witnesses, when the demonstrator challenged the officer's command by saying "This used to be America," the officer replied, "It ain't no more, okay?"