In an article today whose headline reminded me of Fox, the New York Times attempted to chronicle the recent debate on health care, or insurance, reform.
Howard Dean, DailyKos, and others are portrayed as leftist bill killers who have misjudged President Obama and his administration, and who will stand to be shown to be lacking if the bills pass.
This is wrongheaded in my view, and clearly does not describe accurately some of the recent debate history.
All in all, the story is a good summary, especially for those who have been out of the country for the past few weeks and want to catch up.
ADAM NAGOURNEY in Political Memo Dean’s Health Care Spat With Obama Shows Party Divisions may not have did written the title. But. Please. Whoever did? I mean, "Health Care Spat" in the New York fucking Times, the nation's newspaper of record. Disappointing. Hope its not about to go the way of WaPo.
To be honest, I was fine, after getting over the title, for the most part with his take on what has transpired.
...Howard Dean ran for president in 2004 as the outsider ready to battle an entrenched establishment in Washington. And so, four years later, did Barack Obama.
Now, one year into Mr. Obama’s presidency, a sharp dispute between the president and Mr. Dean over the health care bill the Senate approved Thursday — Mr. Dean denounced it as a sellout, while Mr. Obama heralded it as a historic breakthrough — is illustrating the roots of the ideological breach within the Democratic party....
What, this is a personal conflict between Mr. Dean and the President. Where is the proof of that?
Goes on to describe how dailyKos and others came out loudly in critique of the Senate Bill and the process. Has quotes from Rahm, Axlerod and others.
However, I especially agreed with this:
It is not just that the left wing of the party thinks that its centrists hold too much sway and are too quick to cave when faced with pressure from the right. It is also that this White House, stocked as it is with insiders, people whose view of politics is shaped by the compromises inherent in legislating, is confronting a liberal base made up largely of outsiders to the lawmaking process who are asking why they should accept politics as usual.
Where I ran into trouble with the story, and where I have also disagreed with some who post here, most depictions of Dean, MoveOn,DailyKos and others as bill killers have clearly taken part of what has been said out of context.
Of course there were perhaps a few times of the many that Markos and Dean spoke to the press where there was a little more emphasis on kill the bill than change the bill, but do not think they went this far. Others have a different view.
Nagourney seems to be of the mind that the "left" was naive and may have overstepped. Me, I don't think so.
Nagourney's frame of what the result might be:
.... Mr. Green said that Mr. Obama’s failure to push for the public option — or to enlist his network of grass-root supporters behind it — had sapped the energy out of the base and would have consequences for the 2010 elections. If Mr. Green is correct, that could be a real problem for Democrats, particularly given how energetic opposition to the health bill and the entire Obama agenda appears to be among Republicans.
But this could also prove to be a test of just how much power the outside voices in the left wing have over the insiders in the White House and on Capitol Hill. The stinging attack from Mr. Dean and organizations on the left calling for the defeat of the health care bill failed to dissuade a single Senate Democrat from voting for it. And Mr. Axelrod said he was not worried that would hurt the party come November....
Come on. The "stinging attack." And please, we did not call for the "defeat for the health care bill." Sure, some are convinced that the House and Senate bills should be renamed the insurance corporate welfare bills.
Whatever. Okay, 'he said, she said. '
Time now, though, to keep up the pressure to get changes in conference to make this a better bill. Many times the public option has been declared dead, but is it? Look at what Sanders was able to accomplish.
Remains to be seen how hard progressives will work for changes, and what the final outcome will be,both for the bill, and in the 2010 elections.
Hell, who knows, we might get this list if we work smart and hard:
this list
Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey said in a joint statement Wednesday. "For Congress to achieve true health care reform we must have a meaningful conference process that integrates both bills into the best possible piece of legislation for the American people."
Their top priorities:
"A public option — If the bill requires people to buy health insurance, there must be a public option to bring down costs by providing lower-cost competition to private insurers and choice to consumers."
"Affordability protections — The legislation must protect lower and middle-income individuals by ensuring that subsidies make coverage affordable and that Medicaid patients have access to primary care physicians."
"Tighter market regulations — New regulations must keep premiums reasonable and end abusive practices. Insurance companies should no longer be exempt from anti-trust laws and any premium increases must be reviewed before they take effect."
"Employer mandates — If individuals are required to buy insurance, employers should be required to provide it.
"Tax surcharges — Health care reform should be financed by tax surcharges on the wealthy not excise taxes on health insurance plans offered to many workers and union members.
Its been quite a ride.... And more drama to come before its over.
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Happy Holidays, and thanks for reading, commenting.
Update: Here is an article from yesterday that takes a diff view/frame on Dean's contribution to the debate Demonizing Dean won't absolve the health care sham by Robert Scheer