In case you have missed it, there has been a battle royal over health care reform in the House of Representatives, but the main one has taken place within the Democratic Party between the 80-member Progressive Caucus and the 50 member Blue Dog conservative Democratic caucus.
An example of that was when Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee negotiated with the Blue Dogs’ to take the financial reimbursement rates to doctors and Hospitals earned allowed by the government away from the Medicare Program. That would allow them to raise rates free from government interference.
The Black Congressional Caucus first sounded the alarm with a letter from its Chair, Rep. Barbara Lee, saying they would not be inclined to vote for a bill with that measure in it. Then, the Progressive Caucus – which constitutes the CBS plus Hispanics and White progressives – weighed in and the deal seemed to fall apart. In the end, it was eliminated and the only thing the Blue Dogs won was delaying final passage of the bill.
This is the kind of political problem that has plagued the leadership of the Democratic Party, confused the public and lowered the President’s poll numbers. President Barack Obama gave the initiative to the Congress on crafting the health care reform legislation wanting to avoid the problem that Bill Clinton had by crafting his own bill and setting up a target for opposition groups to shoot it down.
The problem with this is that the issue of who is leading the show and what specifically constitutes reform has been difficult to find in the morass of committees who have had jurisdiction over the issue in both the House and Senate. Consequently, the President’s poll numbers have declined an average of seven percent in the past month.
Ultimately, the Democratic Party will have to exercise more Republican-like discipline in order achieve, not only this agenda item, but others. What continues to interest me is how conservative Democrats are allowed by their constituents to privilege issues like the cost of health care over their own access to it.
I did a little research on the issue and found that about half of the Blue Dogs represent Congressional Districts that are above the national average (15%) of people who have no health insurance. Moreover, 55 percent represent districts that are higher than the 2006 national average poverty rate.
If you look at a map of the US, they are mostly in the bottom arc of the country from California, down through Texas and into the South where Hispanics and African Americans reside, with others in traditionally conservative Mid-west. So, if it were merely a matter of serving constituents, about half of the Blue Dogs shouldn’t be blue.
Weakening the power of the Blue Dogs constitutes a legitimate political objective by the President’s supporters, so that the Democratic caucus has the discipline it needs on other issues along with the numbers. This constitutes a reasonable target for organizing during the August recess, but also in the 2010 and 2012 elections.
If these conservative Democrats can get elected having opposed the President and the party’s programs, something will be seriously wrong. The challenge of the Democratic Party and, therefore, the message should be how the party’s program has, or will benefit people in their districts.
The numbers reflecting the President’s personal popularity are still strong, but it would be naive for his advisers to think that Obama’s leadership alone can carry the day in pushing his key issues. The logic here is that if he gives the initiative to the Congress, it will also take a far more disciplined party in control to enact measures that are close to what the President wants and not have them negotiated away.
In order to achieve that discipline, the conclusion I reach is that, going forward, the President must have a far more vigorous media strategy that more effectively counters Republican messaging to the people that doubles-back and is reflected in public opinion polls.
The decline of the President’s poll numbers on health care is not only a function of the confusion of leadership, but the strong access of Republicans to talk shows and to media ads that express American resentment more effectively than optimism and change.
I’ve just read a local Virginia paper where a conservative Democrat who represents that district is raising issues about the cost of health care, but the local message of how it would help people is missing. That is the challenge.
Be the first to comment