Political Snapshot: Healthcare Proposal Faces Critical Deadline

In the face of eroding public support, President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hope to have their controversial healthcare reform bill through the House before the August Congressional recess. They now have just five days to do so. Failure to pass the legislation before August would be President Obama’s first major Congressional loss.

Right: President Obama’s proposal has been widely criticized by Republicans for its high cost, tax hikes, and social welfare undertones. Republicans hope to postpone the vote on the bill in order to rally public opposition to what they see as a sharp move left in domestic policy. The postponement would also be a major political victory for Republicans, who have thus far been steamrolled by the new president. Facing a 256-178 minority in the House, and lacking the ability to filibuster in the Senate, Republicans have been unable to dent the president’s aggressive agenda. On healthcare, it seems President Obama may have overstepped his bounds, and Republicans are hoping to use August to demonstrate that Americans oppose the radical change.

Left: While the majority of Democrats favor President Obama’s proposal, two key contingents within the party are holding up the vote. The first is that of the 52 “Blue Dog” Democrats (fiscal conservatives), who are concerned with the CBO’s projection that the bill will expand the deficit by nearly $300 billion. The second is a group of 20 freshman and sophomore Democrats from moderate districts who worry that the proposed surtax will place an undue burden on small businesses. Most analysts believe Democrats will need the support of both groups in order to pass the bill. Ms. Pelosi has said she remains confident the bill will be passed.

TruPolitics: The healthcare proposition before Congress, if passed in its current form, will be one of the largest, most dramatic reforms in U.S. history. It will change the face of healthcare, which accounts for close to 17% of GDP, creating a domestic policy more in line with European socialism than American libertarianism. In light of such monumental change, Americans deserve the time it takes to fully understand the substance of the proposal (over 1,000 pages long). They deserve legislation refined through rigorous debate, careful study, and bipartisan discourse. This will take time, and August provides that window.

President Obama and Speaker Pelosi are worried that postponement of the vote will give Republicans time to rally resistance to the bill. They see the growing tide of opposition to a socialist system that Americans will flatly reject if they understand its implications. They are afraid, and they should be.

A Washington Post/ABC poll reported last week that 33% of Americans strongly disapprove of the president’s approach on healthcare, versus just 25% who strongly approve. The poll also notes that opposition to President Obama’s healthcare proposal among independents has jumped from 30% in April to 49% in July. The Lewin Group recently issued a report stating that if the House bill becomes law, 83.4 million Americans, almost half of those with private coverage, will lose their private insurance as employers drop it to push them to the public plan. Over 170 million Americans have health insurance (80% of the population under 65), and according to the Wall Street Journal, 89% of this group like the care they are currently receiving. The president knows he is quickly losing ground as Americans understand the full implications of universal healthcare, and he knows he must act quickly.

There is no rational reason to push the vote through before August, other than the purely political desire to ram through a key Democratic agenda item. Americans should have the chance to understand what they are facing–for something this drastic, Americans simply deserve better.

-Matt Benchener from TruPolitics.net