Health Care -- Don't Withdraw Health Care Reform

February 4, 2009

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers

HEALTH CARE

Don't Withdraw Health Care Reform

Yesterday, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the face of lingering questions about unpaid taxes and "problematic ties to wealthy private interests." Once regarded as a "shoo-in" for the nomination, Daschle's "undoing came with the release of his financial disclosure forms last Friday and information that he had paid $146,000 in back taxes and interest to resolve problems flagged by [President] Obama's vetters." Obama chose Daschle specifically for what were perceived to be his unique set of skills and connections that could drive real health care reform and bring nearly 50 million Americans under the umbrella of the insured. Yet, because of the storm surrounding his financial discretions, Daschle offered concern "that he would not have been able to lead an overhaul of the nation's health care system 'with the full faith of the Congress and the American people.'" "I am not that leader," Daschle said in a statement released by the White House, "and will not be a distraction." "I'm frustrated with myself, with our team. ... I'm here on television saying I screwed up," Obama said last night during an interview with NBC's Brian Williams. Meanwhile, policy makers continue to wrestle with our health care system. Obama is expected to sign a bill today expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and Congress and the Obama adminstration remain committed to moving forward with much needed health care reform.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON: During his campaign for president and since his election, Obama has consistently said that health care reform is one of his top priorities. "The time has come -- this year, in this new administration -- to modernize our health care system for the 21st century; to reduce costs for families and businesses; and to finally provide affordable, accessible health care for every American," Obama said last December. Noting that Daschle "had a combination of talents not easy to find in one person," The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn argued that health care reform can "go ahead, this year." However, he added, "It'd be foolish to think this development doesn't set things back. But, as one senior administration official just told me, 'the most passionate advocate for health reform in the administration is staying put -- right in the Oval Office.'" Reform has strong advocates on Capitol Hill as well. Yesterday, during a speech just before Daschle's announcement, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D- MT) said, "Getting health care reform legislation enacted this year is my top priority." Baucus later said he did not think Daschle's withdrawal would affect health reform. "The committees are going full speed ahead...and President Obama is totally committed to health care reform." Indeed, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, "We intend to move forward with the issue."

REFORM IN RECOVERY BILL: If the economic recovery bill the House passed last week -- and the Senate is now debating -- becomes law, it would "create a temporary new entitlement allowing workers getting unemployment checks to qualify for Medicaid, the health program for low-income people. Spouses and children could also receive benefits, no matter how much money the family had." The bill contains over $100 billion in new spending for health care ranging from easing state burdens related to increasing Medicaid costs to improving health care quality and efficiency through increased use of electronic health records and other health information technology. The bill also contains a measure to help newly unemployed workers pay for private insurance. For decades, these workers have been allowed under COBRA to continue to purchase their employer's health care plan for up to 18 months, but at 102 percent of the cost of the premium. Unemployment benefits don't come close to helping pay those costs, resulting in more uninsured which ultimately drives costs higher. The recovery bill addresses this problem by providing "newly unemployed workers a 65 percent subsidy to help pay their COBRA coverage for up to a year." In fact, helping the newly uninsured may be one of the most popular elements of the recovery plan. A Harvard School of Public Health and the Kaiser Family Foundation poll last week found that "helping the newly unemployed pay for health insurance ranked second only to helping businesses keep or create jobs as the top priorities for President Obama and Congress."

REFORM HELPS THE ECONOMY: With Congress and the White House currently embroiled in the debate over Obama's economic recovery plan, it is important to point out that, as Baucus noted in a "Call to Action" last November, "the link between health care costs and the economy is incontrovertible." "Health care reform is not a distraction from addressing our economic challenges; health care reform is an essential part of restoring America's overall economy and the finances of our working families," he said. Just this week, Jeanne Lambrew, deputy director of the White House Office of Health Reform, framed the need for health care reform "as a response to the fiscal crisis," noting that "[e]very one percent drop in employment means 1.1 million more uninsured, larger Medicaid rolls, more people relying on COBRA as transitional insurance." She also pointed to a study "showing that half of families in foreclosure pointed to medical debt as a partial cause." Indeed, premiums have skyrocketed over the last decade, hurting both families and employers financially. As a recent New America Foundation study concluded, "We must reform our struggling health system not in spite of our economic crisis, but rather because of the impact health care has on the American economy. The economic and social impact of inaction is high and it will only rise over time." In fact, the growing health care burden has contributed significantly to U.S. automakers' dwindling profits while states are struggling to finance their health care programs as unemployment increases and tax revenues falter. Not only have health care costs contributed to the current economic crisis, the crisis threatens Americans' health. Doctors are seeing "growing evidence that the ill economy is making patients sick, spawning headaches and churning stomachs, and even causing bouts of anxiety and depression among people who never before sought psychiatric help."

CIVIL RIGHTS -- OBAMA JUSTICE DEPARTMENT RE-HIRES ATTORNEY FIRED BY BUSH DOJ BECAUSE OF DISCRIMINATION: In April 2008, NPR reported that the Bush Justice Department was investigating whether Leslie Hagen, who was the liaison between the DOJ and the U.S. attorneys committee on Native American issues, was fired after a rumor reached former DOJ official Monica Goodling that Hagen was a lesbian. Indeed, in July 2008, a DOJ Inspector General report concluded "that Goodling's actions violated Department policy and federal law, and constituted misconduct." On Monday, however, NPR reported the good news that the Obama DOJ had re-hired Hagen for her old position, but with one difference: "Now, the job is permanent." NPR noted that "it is not a perfectly happy ending for Hagen" because "nobody official from the department ever apologized to her for what happened," and she still owes thousands of dollars in attorney fees that the Bush DOJ refused to pay. As the new Attorney General, Eric Holder is expected to embark on "a broad doctrinal shift in policies" from the Bush administration. He received great applause from DOJ staffers yesterday during his arrival at his new job.

MILITARY -- ARMY IN 1994: HUMVEES ARE A 'DEATHTRAP' AGAINST ROADSIDE BOMBS: According to A Pentagon inspector general report, "Army and Marine Corps officials knew nearly a decade before the invasion of Iraq that its workhorse Humvee vehicle, was a 'deathtrap' even with armor added to protect it against roadside bombs," USA Today reports. A 1994 study found that Humvees "even with a mine-protection retrofit kit developed for Somalia remained a deathtrap in the event of an anti-tank mine detonation." Despite this knowledge, the military sent thousands of unarmored Humvees to Iraq after the 2003 invasion. It wasn't until 2007 that the Pentagon started deploying "significant numbers of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles," two-and-a-half years after Marines in the field made an urgent plea for these better-protected vehicles. In fact, in 2007, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he had only recently learned about the benefits of MRAPs from reading a newspaper article, even though the technology was developed in the 1970s and the Pentagon had tested MRAPs in 2000. In 2005, then-Marine commandant Michael Hagee ignored a request to buy MRAPs, deciding instead to just "buy more armored Humvees." In fact, a USA Today investigation found that as early as December 2003, Pentagon analysts sent detailed information about the superiority of the [MRAP] vehicles to the Joint Chiefs of Staff"; however, then-Joint Chiefs chairman Richard Myers said that buying MRAPs "was not on the radar screen when I was chairman."

JUSTICE -- ALBERTO GONZALES CLAIMS U.S. ATTORNEYS WERE NOT FIRED FOR POLITICAL REASONS: In an interview with CNN's Campbell Brown yesterday, former attorney general Alberto Gonzales said that a Department of Justice report conducted on the firings of nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006 had concluded that they were not fired for partisan reasons. Gonzales claimed that the report found that "there were performance-related reasons" for firing most of the attorneys and insisted that the report "didn't have enough information to draw definite conclusions" on the rest of them. The report by the DOJ's inspector general, however, did draw "definite conclusions" that the firing of New Mexico U.S. attorney David Iglesias was done for political reasons. According to the report, complaints by Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) to the White House about Iglesias' handling of a voter fraud case were a "primary factor" in the attorney's name being placed on the firing list. "We believe the evidence we uncovered showed that Iglesias was removed because of complaints to the Department of Justice and the White House by New Mexico Republican members of Congress and party activists about Iglesias's handling of voter fraud and public corruption cases," said the report.

President Obama said last night that he had "screwed up" with his nominees who withdrew over tax issues yesterday. "I've got to own up to my mistake, which is that ultimately it's important for this administration to send a message that there aren’t two sets of rules," said Obama. The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan notes that "it has taken Obama two weeks to say something that George W. Bush couldn’t manage to say in eight years."

Last night, Karl Rove delivered a speech at Loyola Marymount University in California. "One man loudly denounced Rove as a 'traitor' before he was escorted out. A woman held up a pair of handcuffs and said she would like to see Rove wearing them."

President Obama's chief economic adviser Larry Summers said Obama "has been prepared to walk a long mile for bipartisan support" for the stimulus package, but that he won't compromise on weakening the bill's impact. Summers said Obama wanted to keep his tax cuts, including those conservatives have criticized, and said that if Republicans don't support the bill, "it defines those who aren't prepared to support major action to help the economy."

The Senate pushed the cost of the economic recovery package above $900 billion yesterday with amendments that added "billions for medical research and tax breaks for car buyers." At the same time, the Senate rejected an amendment "that would have added $25 billion in public works projects to the recovery bill, including highway construction, public transportation and water and sewer projects."

Elizabeth Edwards will publish her second memoir, called "Resilience," in May. The book will discuss the re-emergence of her cancer in 2007, as well as Edwards's "remarkable grace and courage...when the very private matter of her husband’s infidelity became public fodder," according to the publisher's catalog description.

Former senator Chuck Hagel has signed on to be a "distinguished professor in the practice of national governance" at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, teaching students about "bipartisan governance."

Officials have described President Obama's approach to South Asia "as a refusal to be rushed, using words such as 'rigor' and 'restraint.'" "We know we're going to get [criticism] for taking our time," said a senior official. Stability is becoming "a higher priority than democracy in Afghanistan."

Despite reports yesterday that Citigroup was "exploring the possibility of backing out" of a $400 million sponsorship deal with the Mets, the bailed-out financial firm now says that it is sticking with it. "In conversations this morning, Citi reinforced that they will honor our legally binding agreement," read a statement by the Mets yesterday. Citigroup has received $45 billion of taxpayer money through federal bailout.

Yesterday, Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee "unveiled a set of principles that will guide their efforts to craft legislation aimed at slowing global warming." The document was "short on details but set a goal of creating a cap-and-trade system designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ‘to levels guided by science to avoid dangerous climate change.'"

And finally: After raising the ire of Michelle Obama, Ty Inc. -- the company that created Beanie Babies -- has decided to retire its controversial dolls Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia. A statement on the company’s site read: "In deference to the wishes of the First Family, Ty Inc. has officially retired the Ty Girlz names Marvelous Malia and Sweet Sasha. We have renamed the dolls Marvelous Mariah and Sweet Sydney." The dolls, which went for $9.99 when they were on the market, are now going for as much as $152 on eBay.

Today, President Obama will extend health coverage to four million more lower-income children by signing legislation expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

THINK PROGRESS: Conservatives still peddling misleading Congressional Budget Office "analysis" of economic recovery bill.

WONK ROOM: Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), a conservative champion of the oceans.

PAM'S HOUSE BLEND: Rep. Michael Conaway (R-TX) is pushing a bill to rename the Midland, TX courthouse after President Bush.

WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT: CNBC's Jim Cramer makes up quotes that he claims President Obama said.

PENNSYLVANIA: Gov. Ed Rendell (D) wants to "to legalize video-poker machines at restaurants, private clubs and corner bars to help Pennsylvania students pay for college."

MARYLAND: State delegate introduces constitutional amendment allowing Marylanders to register to vote on election day.

OKLAHOMA: City council candidate won't let gay people in his restaurant, referring to them as "f*ggots."

"I have it maybe that there's 142 people who really will get a job."
-- CNBC's Jim Cramer, 2/3/09, on the economic recovery package

VERSUS

"The Congressional Budget Office says Obama's economic stimulus package of spending programs and tax cuts would create 1.2 million to 3.6 million jobs."
-- USA Today, 2/3/09

Think Progress

Don't Withdraw Health Care Reform

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