CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
July 29, 2009 – 10:02 p.m.
Health Deal Ruffles Some Liberals
By Drew Armstrong and Alex Wayne, CQ Staff
House Democrats are pressing forward with a scaled-back goal of getting a health care overhaul out of committee by August after satisfying key moderates in their caucus — but they may have new troubles on their left flank.
Hours after Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman and four of his committee’s seven “Blue Dog” Democrats broke a deadlock that had stalled a markup of the bill (
The discontent signaled another possible setback for Democratic leaders, who no longer hope to move health care legislation to the floor of either the House or the Senate before the August recess. They had pointed to the agreement with members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and a new scoring of legislation under discussion in the Senate Finance Committee as evidence that health care legislation was gaining momentum.
“Congress is closer than ever before in history to passing comprehensive health insurance reform,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer , D-Md., declared in a Wednesday afternoon statement.
But instead of going ahead with a markup planned for later in the day, Waxman, D-Calif., postponed it to huddle with committee Democrats.
Of principal worry is a compromise that would weaken the government-run “public plan,” requiring that it negotiate rates with doctors, hospitals and other providers, rather than simply pay Medicare rates plus 5 percent.
“I think a lot of us are concerned . . . that the public option has been eroded in the bill,” said Eliot L. Engel , D-N.Y. “Each member is grappling with whether they feel they can support the bill.”
Committee Democrats are also worried about another change won by the Blue Dogs — a slight reduction in the subsidies that would be granted to help low-income people buy insurance coverage. “Members were very concerned by it,” Waxman said.
Markup to Resume Thursday
Waxman said Wednesday night that he would resume the markup Thursday morning and that he expected to finish Friday. “We’re going to do what we can in the committee to get the bill through,” he said.
“Members are thinking about it, but I believe we will,” he said, when asked if he had sufficient votes to move the bill out of committee before the weekend.
During Wednesday night’s meeting of panel Democrats, there was some “anger” and “angst” by members, Engel said.
“In a way, a number of us feel like we’ve been held hostage a bit,” he said of Waxman’s dealing with Mike Ross , D-Ark., and the other Blue Dogs. “I respect the Blue Dogs . . . [but] the tail shouldn’t wag the dog.”
Waxman will face a difficult task if the committee’s liberals vote their objections to the Blue Dog compromises. Because Democrats hold a 13-vote majority over panel Republicans, Waxman can afford to lose six votes on any measure. Eight Democrats on the committee are members of the liberal Progressive Caucus, including the chairman and two of his close allies — Health Subcommittee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. , D-N.J., and Edward J. Markey , D-Mass., chairman of the Energy and the Environment Subcommittee.
The agreement Waxman reached with the four Blue Dogs would reduce the bill’s cost by trimming eligibility for subsidies available to help the uninsured buy coverage; make it easier for private insurers to compete with a new, government-run “public plan”; and exempt more small businesses from requirements that employers cover their workers.
The Blue Dogs also won an agreement from Democratic leaders to wait until September before putting the legislation to a vote of the full House.
“That was very important to us,” said Ross, who has acted as a spokesman for the committee’s Blue Dogs, “and, we believe, a very significant, huge victory on not only our part, the Blue Dogs, but on behalf of every member of Congress so every member of Congress has the opportunity to spend the month of August at home, reading the bill and discussing it with their constituents.”
The Blue Dogs had stalled the markup since July 21, when they demanded changes to the legislation, threatening to vote with Republicans to kill the bill in committee otherwise. They have met with Waxman nearly every day since then. The often-heated negotiations were brokered in large part by Hoyer; top White House officials have also taken part.
The four Blue Dogs party to the agreement are Ross, Zack Space of Ohio, Bart Gordon of Tennessee and Baron P. Hill of Indiana. Three other Blue Dogs — Charlie Melancon of Louisiana, John Barrow of Georgia and Jim Matheson of Utah — were not part of the agreement and might still oppose the bill.
Bart Stupak , D-Mich, has opposed the bill on abortion-related grounds. Asked Wednesday how he would vote, he said, “Still ‘no.’ ”
Other Democrats on the panel had not formally signed off on the agreement, but some indicated they would agree to it. “We need to get [the bill] out of committee. That is the goal,” said Gene Green , D-Texas.
Pelosi said that over the August recess, the Energy and Commerce version of the bill will be melded with versions reported earlier this month by the Ways and Means and Education and Labor committees.
Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a Democratic-aligned consumer group supporting a health care overhaul, said he was encouraged. “I think this augurs well for getting health care reform achieved this year,” he said.
Progress in the Senate
In the Senate, long and desultory talks among a bipartisan group of Finance Committee members showed signs of progress Wednesday. Chairman Max Baucus , D‑Mont., said a preliminary Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of the bill the group is developing showed it would cost less than $900 billion over 10 years while covering 95 percent of Americans by 2015 and adding nothing to the deficit.
He called the assessment “encouraging,” but other senators in the small group negotiating with Baucus said there was no deal at hand, contrary to some news reports. One of them, Michael B. Enzi , R-Wyo., was particularly vehement.
“There are a number of us on both sides of the aisle who are insisting that there be exact language and a true CBO score,” Enzi said. “They’re not even close to having exact language, much less a true CBO score.”
Enzi and others in what Baucus calls a “coalition of the willing” have been negotiating the measure since mid-June.
The Finance bill is shaping up to be significantly different from other Democratic measures, to the chagrin of some liberals: It is expected to lack both a government-run insurance plan and a mandate that employers cover their workers. Additionally, Finance members are leaning toward a tax on generous insurance plans to fund their bill, instead of the surtax on wealthy Americans included in the House measure.
Kent Conrad , D-N.D., said that a major issue the group negotiating with Baucus must yet resolve is how to design a large expansion of Medicaid to avoid opposition from governors, whose states may have to pick up some of the cost.
Kathleen Hunter, Bart Jansen, Jane Norman, Bennett Roth and Richard Rubin contributed to this story.
Comments
If no most people aren't going to be covered before 2015 then just forget it and give us the chance to vote out all the Republicans Light and get someone in there who cares more for the people than their "idiology" and their campaign chests. On December 10, 1948 our leaders signed The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 25 reads, (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. Maybe they should all read this. All the other countries who signed this have health care for all their people and we send billions to other countries every year. Plus billions to war profiteers. But when it comes to Americans Congress is AWOL.
Is Mike Enzi the only one in Congress with an Accounting Degree and business background? "Less than 900 Billion?" What about cost over runs and "Oh, we forgot!" Even simple math by us poor suckers will expose this Communist Health Plan takeover: Spend one million dollars a day for 2009 years and you will have another 600 years to spend to reach ONE TRILLION DOLLARS! Hello sick Americans!!
Please stop referring to the Blue Dogs as moderates and the advocates for the public option as liberals. The Blue Dogs are Conservative Democrats and Liberal Democrats support a single payer health plan. The moderates or mainstream pragmatic Democrats are the Democrats who are crafting these compromise health and climate plans. Your misuse of the language refering to these groups is neither fair to those groups nor to readers who rely on CQ for accurate reporting.
The lack of discipline among the house dems makes it more and more likely that health care reform is going to be written by the Senate or in conference. What should health care reform look like? * Maintain private non-governmental funding streams to preserve independence, confidentiality and personalization in medical decision making. * Decrease the cost increases of medical care through aggressive anti-fraud and cost containment measures * Maintain adequate levels of compensation for providers * Provide larger pools of coverage to push down premiums * Ensure that all receive the care and medical attendance required for efficacious treatment and dignity. Single-payor, the public option, co-ops and everything are means to these ends and should not become the end goals. Politicizing the process by confusing the means with ends has already pushed the debate past the August recess. Let's start working on a plan that meets our health care needs and stop calling each other names.
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