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Obama's 100 Days Marked By Partisanship
Health Care Reform Could Tank Bipartisanship
By JOE MURRAY, The Bulletin
The White House sees the outcome Barack Obama’s first 100 days as being full of kept promises; however, it has come at the expense of the bipartisan spirit the president had promised.
It is promoting $787 billion stimulus package, the $3.5 trillion budget and the $410 billion plan to fund the government until September as evidence Mr. Obama has provided solid leadership. The administration also describes the president’s signing of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act as a down payment on its legislative agenda that stands to change the character of the nation’s economic and social institutions.
The president has collected a number of legislative victories since taking the oath of office but majority of his success stories have come at the expense of bipartisanship.
The controversial stimulus package twice failed to attract a single Republican vote in the House of Representatives and resulted in a few conservative Democrats jumping ship. The $787 billion stimulus only passed when three liberal Republicans broke with their party in the Senate.
The same pattern held during debate over the president’s budget plan, a plan that failed to earn one Republican vote in either the House or Senate.
The $410 billion omnibus spending plan to fund the government until September became a partisan battlefield after Democrats and some Republicans filled the legislation with political pork.
“The strides the president has made in stabilizing the economy, creating jobs, providing health care for children and ensuring equal pay in the workplace are just the beginning of a bold agenda for change the president has laid out and they are just the beginning of what the president is prepared to accomplish on behalf of the American people,” said DNC Chairman Tim Kaine.
Government health care, immigration reform and a global warming bill that could result in a $400 billion annual tax are just a few of the legislative ambitions Mr. Obama is eyeing in the wake of his first 100 days.
All of the legislative initiatives are opposed by Republicans, but the White House, with its large majorities in Congress, does not seem to be worried.
Democrats are attempting to find additional ways to render the Republican minority irrelevant, and health care is quickly becoming a test case of Mr. Obama’s commitment to bipartisanship.
Still lacking a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, Democrats are facing a tough battle selling the $634 billion government-run health-care plan that would completely overhaul the health insurance industry.
Republicans and conservative Democrats are concerned the plan moves the nation toward the inefficient socialized health-care systems found in Canada and the European Union.
The Democratic leadership is floating the idea of reconciliation — a parliamentary maneuver requiring a simple majority, 50 votes, to pass Mr. Obama’s health-care reform. This would negate the need to sway key swing Senate votes, and conservatives are charging reconciliation would be the death of bipartisanship.
“We have to wonder how often President Obama will resort to these tricks to get what he wants at the expense of hard-working American taxpayers who are forced to foot the bill,” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola.
“There is also the frightening possibility that the Democrats will use reconciliation to push through the president’s cap-and-trade program, imposing huge costs on consumers and businesses. It’s time for President Obama to put the American taxpayers ahead of his liberal political agenda.”
The debate over reconciliation has made a number of Democrats nervous. Senior Republican lawmakers view reconciliation as a “declaration of war,” and Democrats, with an eye to 2010, do not want to repeat the Clinton health-care mistakes of 1993.
“Sen. Baucus and Sen. Kennedy — and I agree with them — think that we have no desire to actually use reconciliation whatsoever,” U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said during a conference call with reporters. Other Democrats, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insist reconciliation should remain an option.
If Democrats use reconciliation to pass their health care agenda, it could be viewed as the end of bipartisanship and could undermine Mr. Obama’s credibility.
“We will not always agree on everything in the months to come and we will have our share of arguments and debates,” Mr. Obama said at a bipartisan dinner with John McCain in January.
“But let us strive always to find that common ground, and to defend together those common ideals, for it is the only way we can meet the very big and very serious challenges that we face right now.”
Reconciliation, conservatives say, is anything but “common ground.”
“Despite pledges of fiscal responsibility and bipartisanship, President Obama is quickly proving his determination to govern in the exact opposite way,” said Mr. Chocola.
“There is nothing fiscally responsible or bipartisan about pushing a $634 billion, long-term healthcare package through Congress with little to no input from the minority party.”
Joe Murray can be reached at jmurray@thebulletin.us
It is promoting $787 billion stimulus package, the $3.5 trillion budget and the $410 billion plan to fund the government until September as evidence Mr. Obama has provided solid leadership. The administration also describes the president’s signing of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act as a down payment on its legislative agenda that stands to change the character of the nation’s economic and social institutions.
The president has collected a number of legislative victories since taking the oath of office but majority of his success stories have come at the expense of bipartisanship.
The controversial stimulus package twice failed to attract a single Republican vote in the House of Representatives and resulted in a few conservative Democrats jumping ship. The $787 billion stimulus only passed when three liberal Republicans broke with their party in the Senate.
The same pattern held during debate over the president’s budget plan, a plan that failed to earn one Republican vote in either the House or Senate.
The $410 billion omnibus spending plan to fund the government until September became a partisan battlefield after Democrats and some Republicans filled the legislation with political pork.
“The strides the president has made in stabilizing the economy, creating jobs, providing health care for children and ensuring equal pay in the workplace are just the beginning of a bold agenda for change the president has laid out and they are just the beginning of what the president is prepared to accomplish on behalf of the American people,” said DNC Chairman Tim Kaine.
Government health care, immigration reform and a global warming bill that could result in a $400 billion annual tax are just a few of the legislative ambitions Mr. Obama is eyeing in the wake of his first 100 days.
All of the legislative initiatives are opposed by Republicans, but the White House, with its large majorities in Congress, does not seem to be worried.
Democrats are attempting to find additional ways to render the Republican minority irrelevant, and health care is quickly becoming a test case of Mr. Obama’s commitment to bipartisanship.
Still lacking a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, Democrats are facing a tough battle selling the $634 billion government-run health-care plan that would completely overhaul the health insurance industry.
Republicans and conservative Democrats are concerned the plan moves the nation toward the inefficient socialized health-care systems found in Canada and the European Union.
The Democratic leadership is floating the idea of reconciliation — a parliamentary maneuver requiring a simple majority, 50 votes, to pass Mr. Obama’s health-care reform. This would negate the need to sway key swing Senate votes, and conservatives are charging reconciliation would be the death of bipartisanship.
“We have to wonder how often President Obama will resort to these tricks to get what he wants at the expense of hard-working American taxpayers who are forced to foot the bill,” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola.
“There is also the frightening possibility that the Democrats will use reconciliation to push through the president’s cap-and-trade program, imposing huge costs on consumers and businesses. It’s time for President Obama to put the American taxpayers ahead of his liberal political agenda.”
The debate over reconciliation has made a number of Democrats nervous. Senior Republican lawmakers view reconciliation as a “declaration of war,” and Democrats, with an eye to 2010, do not want to repeat the Clinton health-care mistakes of 1993.
“Sen. Baucus and Sen. Kennedy — and I agree with them — think that we have no desire to actually use reconciliation whatsoever,” U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said during a conference call with reporters. Other Democrats, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insist reconciliation should remain an option.
If Democrats use reconciliation to pass their health care agenda, it could be viewed as the end of bipartisanship and could undermine Mr. Obama’s credibility.
“We will not always agree on everything in the months to come and we will have our share of arguments and debates,” Mr. Obama said at a bipartisan dinner with John McCain in January.
“But let us strive always to find that common ground, and to defend together those common ideals, for it is the only way we can meet the very big and very serious challenges that we face right now.”
Reconciliation, conservatives say, is anything but “common ground.”
“Despite pledges of fiscal responsibility and bipartisanship, President Obama is quickly proving his determination to govern in the exact opposite way,” said Mr. Chocola.
“There is nothing fiscally responsible or bipartisan about pushing a $634 billion, long-term healthcare package through Congress with little to no input from the minority party.”
Joe Murray can be reached at jmurray@thebulletin.us
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