In a Tuesday afternoon conference call with Campaign for America’s Future, a progressive political organization that serves as a counterweight to the more centrist Democratic Leadership Countil (DLC), West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller said, after much emotional wrangling, that he would not vote for the present health care reform bill “unless it changes during the amendment process by vast amounts.”
Although the Democratic senator has been a strong proponent of health care reform in this country for many years, he cited four main areas of concern that have led him to oppose the health care proposal as it stands now – the lack of a public insurance option (public-option), changes to Medicaid, changes to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and overall affordability provisions. Senator Rockefeller did say, however, “he reserved the right to change judgments once the final bill comes out.” But given the fact that his fellow Senate Finance Committee colleague, Max Baucus, has gone to extraordinary lengths to make a compromise with both Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans, there is very little chance this will happen. Also during the call he added that at least four of the six other Democrats on the Senate Committee on Finance shared similar reservations about the present health care reform bill, although he could not say whether any of them felt as strongly about them as he did.
Senator Jay Rockefeller is a prominent example of the hypocritical Democrat. As the New Republic notes, there are few, if any, avid advocates of health care reform in Congress as Senator Rockefeller. He would like to say that he is so adamant about this issue because he believes it is what is in the best interest of the American public. And yet when the goal is finally within reach, although admittedly not as socialist-oriented as many of the Congressional progressives would care for it to be, he says screw the millions of American citizens dying under the current health care system as other Democrats, particularly the White House, have argued. You can’t say the progressive legislators don’t have principles. But, then again, neither can you argue that these principles are in sync with the interests and concerns of their constituents, the people who they were elected to represent.
Tags: Blue Dog Democrats, Campaign for America’s Future, Democratic Leadership Council, DLC, Medicaid, public insurance option, public-option, Senate Committee on Finance, Senate Finance Committee, Senator Jay Rockefeller, Senator Max Baucus, State Children's Health Insurance Program, top, West Virginia
