RNC ResearchMust reads for conservatives on healthcare

MATCH 1: SEN. MAX BAUCUS (MT) VS. SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (VT)

Sen. Baucus’ “Coalition Of The Willing” Aims For Bipartisan Discussion On Health Care.  ”Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) calls them the ‘coalition of the willing,’ a group of four Republican and three Democratic senators, including himself, that may well determine health care reform in the Senate… ‘As we have been for the last several weeks, we are committed to continuing our work toward a bipartisan bill that will lower costs and ensure quality, affordable care for every American,’ the group said in a widely-quoted statement.” (Carrie Budoff Brown, “Baucus’s ‘coalition of the willin g,’” Politico, 6/26/09)

Sen. Sanders Wants “Unwilling” Dems To Stand Strong For Government Takeover Of Health Care.  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): “Max calls his group the Coalition of the Willing. We’ll try and form a Coalition of the Unwilling. People prepared to stay strong for a strong public option. You know my view, which is that single payer is the way to go. But if we can’t do that, at the very very very least you need to have a strong, simple, Medicare-like option that every American can use.”  (Ezra Klein, “Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Coalition of the Unwilling,” The Washington Post’s “Ezra Klein” Blog, 6/30/09)

MATCH 2: SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (NY) VS. SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (CT)

Sen. Schumer Pushes Finance Committee For Government-Run Health Care Plan. ”Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., announced Wednesday that he would seek to amend the Senate Finance Committee’s emerging health care overhaul bill to include the sort of government-run insurance plan desired by liberals, potentially driving a wedge between Democrats on the panel.” (Alex Wayne, “Schumer Will Press Public Plan Option In Senate Finance Health Care Markup,” CQ Today, 7/1/09)

Sen. Lieberman Opposes Government-Run Health Care Plan, Doesn’t Believe It Will Pass Senate. ”‘If we create a public option, the public is going to end up paying for it,’ Lieberman said following an hour-long confab with public-health experts at the Ashmun Street community center of the Monterey Homes public housing complex. ‘That’s a cost we can’t take on.’… ‘We’re not going to get the votes to pass the overall bill if [the public option] becomes a condition of it,’ Lieberman claimed. He said he also has philosophical objections to a public option. He said he doesn’t have an opinion on the most popular criticism, that insurance companies wouldn’t be able to compete with a public plan. Rather, he said he fears both the cost as well as th e impact on doctors. A public plan could drive down reimbursements to the levels paid by Medicaid, he claimed, which pays doctors only ‘70 percent of their costs.’” (Paul Bass, “Joe: No Go On ‘Public Option,’” New Haven Independent, 7/1/09)

MATCH 3: OBAMA’S CHIEF-OF-STAFF RAHM EMANUEL VS. SEN. KENT CONRAD (ND)

Rahm Emanuel Considering Using Reconciliation To Overcome Democratic Opposition. ”Liberal health reform advocates have talked about ramming a reform plan — including a Medicare-like public insurance option — through the Senate with only 51 Democratic votes. … The difficulty of getting to 60 is what has inspired liberals — and the Obama administration — to contemplate using budget reconciliation rules to pass health reform with just 51 Democratic votes. Last week, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel reiterated, ‘We want to pass health reform under regular order … but reconciliation is in reserve.’” (Morton M. Kondracke, ‘Reco nciliation’ To Pass Health Bill Won’t Work,” Roll Call, 7/1/09)

Sen. Conrad Says Reconciliation Process Would Lead To Health Care Legislation Looking Like “Swiss Cheese.” ”If an attempt is made to pass health reform under ‘reconciliation’ rules — requiring just a simple majority vote — Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) told me, the bill would be so pared down, ‘you’d be left with Swiss cheese.’ The result, said Conrad, is that ‘you’d be left with a dramatically reduced package’ that would fall short of comprehensive health reform.” (Morton M. Kondracke, ‘Reconciliation’ To Pass Health Bill Won’t Work,” Roll Call, 7/1/09)

• Parliamentary Rules Would Wreak Havoc On The Bill. ”‘The problems are two-fold,’ he said. ‘Number one, everything has to be deficit-neutral — and actually have to produce $1billion in deficit reduction over six years. Since one of the six years is this year, and this year will almost be over by the time we do it, it’ll have to reduce the deficit over five years and every year thereafter,’ he said. ‘In the alternative, using regular order, it only has to be deficit-neutral over 10 years. That’s a big difference in what kind of reform you write.’ The second problem with reconciliation rules, he noted, is the Byrd Rule, named for former Senate Appropriations Chairman Byrd, making any provision in the bill subject to being removed if it does not have a budget effect — and requiring 60 votes to sustain it. ‘When reconciliation was developed, it was solely for the purpose of deficit reduction. It was never intended for substantive legislation.’ Conrad said that ‘all kinds of things would be vulnerable to striking, including insurance market reforms, all the changes designed to encourage wellness and prevention — all those kinds of things.”(Morton M. Kondracke, ‘Reconciliation’ To Pass Health Bill Won’t Wor k,” Roll Call, 7/1/09)

Tags: Cost, Health Care Reform, Obama

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