Tom Daschhle was President Obama’s first choice to lead the effort for bipartisan healthcare reform in America and has been the Democrat point man on healthcare reform since the early days of the Clinton Administration and HillaryCare. So, when Senator Daschle announced a bipartisan approach to healthcare reform alongside former adversary Bob Dole, Democrats and Republicans alike took notice and in hopes that new hope would be breathed into the reform effort just days after the Congressional Budget Office had declared it dead on arrival. Not so fast.
Daschle seemingly came out publicly against Democrat plans for a federal public option insurance plan setting off a furor on the left and a backlash from liberal attack dogs at The Huffington Post. In a piece titled Daschle Is Dead Wrong About The Public Option, liberal commentator Mike Lux called out the former Senate Majority Leader.
This kind of politics - trying to avoid a fight with the big special interests by walking away from the most important piece of the puzzle - is exactly what has gotten Democrats into political trouble time and again over the last 40 years.
In Lux’s opinion, Daschle’s attempt at building bipartisan support for healthcare reform is far from an exercise in political courage. He believes it is akin to political cowardice.
Beyond the importance of the issue, the politics of once again caving to the insurance industry don’t work to get health care reform passed. I work closely with all of the progressive groups pushing for health care reform, the ones who have been putting money and ads and activist power and email lists into the fray. And I think I can say with a fair amount of certainty that they would pull the plug on this bill if there’s no public option -just walk away from the fight, maybe actually actively lobby to kill the bill.
Daschle has the political equation wrong: it’s possible you might not be able to beat the mighty insurance industry if you fight them on this issue, but you are dead as doornails before the fight even starts if you don’t take them on. And I happen to believe insurers can be beaten, since Democrats need only 50 votes in the Senate rather than 60. A popular President with a great political apparatus and about 13,000,000 email addresses, and energized grassroots knowing they have the fight of their lives to work on: it ought to be enough to deliver 83% of Democratic Senators.
At least one Daschel spokesperson reached out to The Huffington Post after the negative stories began to run.
“He was saying that we shouldn’t let any issue derail what would be health care reform,” said Eileen McMenamin, Director of Communications at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “He definitely did not say there should be no public plan.”
Daschle, said McMenamin, did believe that a public plan could be administered by the states. And his chief concern with Obama’a approach was not the policy basis but the politics of getting it through Congress.
While Daschle’s support - or lack thereof - for a public option remains in question, The Huffington Post’s agenda is all too clear.
Tags: Barack Obama, bipartisan, Bob Dole, Congressional Budget Office, healthcare reform, HillaryCare, Huffington Post, Mike Lux, Tom Daschle
