Taking $1 From Every American
Last evening thelobbyist’s founder Nick Brown gave me the quote of the day: “So what you’re telling me is they took a dollar from every American to pay off [Senator Mary] Landrieu (D-LA) to vote for health care reform?”
In short, Senator Landrieu demanded $300 million for her vote to start debate on the Senate’s health care bill. Initially worth $100 million, her critical vote for Democrats is increasing in price. The Senate is trying to hide its bribery by claiming the money is for any qualifying ?state,” saying, among other things, that it would be states that ?during the preceding 7 fiscal years? have been declared a ?major disaster area.?” In other words, for Hurricane Katrina and Louisiana.
Can we please call our senators and kill this bill? Then, next year, let’s vote the bums out. Please. In both parties. Starting fresh is a great way to go. Or, we could always rebel. Put a government in place that represents the people, institute constitutional term limits, have transparency with every political donor required to be listed on political websites and in every office, eliminate business subsidies, eliminate bailouts and cut the waste in defense, education, Medicare and Medicaid. Oh, and put in a flat tax or, even better, the Fair Tax that Mice Huckabee has made almost famous.
Senator Reid Releases Senate Health Reform Bill
Various news sources have information for the willing:
Congress.org has five interesting provisions about the bill, as well as a link to the bill itself.
CNN has an article, a political analysis of sorts as well as a link to the bill.
NRTL blasts the bill, according to Politico.
AP, NYT, and NPR compare the House and Senate bills.
Remember- this bill does not include the more-than-quarter-trillion dollar “Doc Fix” bill that failed in the Senate a month ago. So whatever the Congressional Budget Office says…add that to it. The current CBO score is $849 billion, which includes Medicare cuts and raising some taxes, and will reduce the debt by $127 billion. So, in reality, the debt will increase by $118 billion, unless the government and CBO estimates are underestimates, which is generally the case.
Either way, the CBO score is great momentum for Senator Reid (D-NV) with fiscally conservative Democrats- who may ignore the “Doc Fix” numbers for the final vote on the Senate bill- and bad for those of us opposed to many of the Democratic health reform concepts. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, abortion is covered in the bill and there is a public option. This is bad because they are bad ideas, but good because it will allow moderate Democrats to oppose the bill if abortion and the public option are included, as some have said they will do. Whatever else happens, let’s at least hope the public option and abortion are eliminated. Contact your Senators.
One last note: this is the preliminary CBO score Democrats are all excited about. The final one is supposed to be out today.
Will You Go to Jail If You Don’t Have Insurance?
Jack Balkin says that the answer is no.
Balkin is correct that, technically, anyone who does not buy insurance under the new set of laws will only have to pay a tax (or as I prefer to think of it, a fine).? Only if they refuse to pay the fine will they then, eventually, be sent to jail as a tax evader.? Fair enough.? But the general point still remains.? If you do not comply with this new law – you will be sent to jail.? Being sent to jail for refusing to pay the fine is only morally different if the fine has some particular justification.
Balkin argues that the fine (or as he prefers to think of it, tax) is justified by free-rider problems:
If lots of people (and especially young and mostly healthy people) don’t buy health insurance, the cost of insurance goes up for everyone, and it is passed on to others in the form of higher premiums. In addition, people who don’t buy health insurance tend to wait until their health problems are severe and then use emergency services; they may contract communicable diseases (which they may pass on to others) or they may become disabled. All of these costs get passed along to others–in the form of higher premiums and higher costs for hospitals and insurers–or they have to be absorbed by federal and state governments through programs for the poor or the disabled.
So if you don’t buy health insurance, you are increasing costs for other people. The federal government is taxing you to recoup some of those costs. An analogy would be taxes on alcohol or tobacco, although these taxes are usually worked into the retail price of the goods so that people don’t even have the opportunity to refuse to pay them. Another example would be taxes on an enterprise that is creating additional costs to the environment through pollution; the government taxes you if you don’t purchase and install anti-pollution equipment.
Balkin skips more than a few steps with this analysis.? In significant part, health care free riding is only possible because there are laws that legalize free riding.? For example, the laws requiring hospitals to treat all emergency room visitors, regardless of their capacity/intent to pay, are an invitation for free riding.? The costs of treating any of these patients who do not pay will be passed on to all of the hospital’s paying patients.? If we really wanted to eliminate this free rider problem, we would just make people pay for their emergency room visits – or we would at least not require hospitals to receive people without insurance.
The current health care reform is not a brilliant scheme to end free riding.? In large part, it is an attempt to write more free riding into law.? It requires insurance companies to transfer health care costs from sick to healthy patients.? It enacts massive subsidies that transfer costs from the poor to the wealthy.? These transfers are very much like actual free riding, and they would not occur in an efficient insurance market that had no free riding.
Balkin shrugs and says that “tax policy does this all the time”.? And so it does.? And opponents of these subsidies are right to remind the rest of the electorate that their participation is not voluntary, but enacted through threat of imprisonment.? Health care reform is commonly assumed to be in everyone’s benefit, but this is of course not the case.? The threat of jail time lies behind every government “charity”.
Don’t Panick Yet- Healthcare Reform Still Needs Senate Passage
One of my friends sent me a text early Sunday morning (1:15 a.m. EST) saying that a trillion dollar House bill had been foisted on America. While it is true that a more-than-trillion dollar bill was passed by the House of Representatives 220-215, this should not yet be a cause for panick.
No, the bill is not good news. However, as Hot Air points out, “Take heart, righties…the likelihood of 60 votes in the Senate, especially after a vote this narrow, [is] very slim indeed.” (Also, see my piece?here on how I think Reid could very well fail in his goal to pass health care reform.)?Furthermore, the upcoming Senate bill (which is still being scored by the Congressional Budget Office) is certainly going to be more moderate than the House one, given the influence of moderate Democratic senators such as Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Independent Joe Lieberman (D-CT). Democrats need 60 out of 100 votes in the Senate, not the 50%+1 (or 218) necessary in the House of Representatives, and assuming all Republicans oppose the bill, even just one of the three Senators listed above voting with Republicans to not close debate on the bill would kill it. Therefore, Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) must keep the bill more moderate. (Unfortunately, of course, liberals will kill it if it’s too moderate, so he can’t make it an actual good bill, just a less-worse one.) This balance of power is what gives Americans reason to hope that this disastrous Democratic form of health care reform does not work. Allow me to briefly explain.
After spending over 14 months in D.C., both at The Heritage Foundation and in health care lobbying, I’m certainly not an expert on the political process, but I know it fairly well, and any number of things could happen that would derail health care reform. The first is getting a Senate bill passed. The second is to get the House and Senate bills to conference and make one combined bill. The third is to then vote on that combined bill in both chambers. However, a number of things along the way could derail the process. A few examples: a Senate bill could be killed in the inital chamber vote; the conference bill could be killed in either the House or the Senate (remember, many liberals are declaring they won’t vote for a bill without a public option, and some won’t vote for a bill that’s pro-life); and, lastly,?the bill could pass in its conference-created form in one chamber but?be modified slightly in the other and therefore have to be voted on again in the chamber that passed the conference bill. This latter course could make the bill unpassable, as the changes could be very minor or very large.
We should all be actively involved in contacting our representatives in Congress, becoming active through organizations such as The Heritage Foundation?or Americans for Prosperity?and generally following the debate so when voting comes around next year we know who to vote out of office. One example of a Republican who?perhaps should be?gone: Representative Joseph Cao (R-LA), who represents a Democratic district and voted in favor of the House bill.
Alan Grayson Is Enjoying His 15 Minutes of Fame
Imagine if a conservative or Republican did this about abortion. Unfortunately, it’s a very effective tactic- minimal effort, lots of attention and it excites the base.
No Public Option, Be Wary The Ides of September
With the Congressional recess coming to a close it was further reported last night that the Obama Administration would not seek a public option.? Obama may be looking to save his campaign promises for health care reform by coming to terms with what the outspoken nation deems inappropriate.? But I must say, be wary of this tactic, it has been used before.? Magicians use it.? They call it slight of hand.
It stands to reason that exiting the recess, bold, and highly visible claims of back tracking could easily lead to less public attention of a bill that would include a revised or partial public option.? The next several weeks and months will be a key time to zone in, not to zone out based on these initial claims.
Be aware as well that as Congress boots back up, the Al Gore Business Plan cap and trade legislation will also be entering the Senate.? This is another bill to keep a watchful eye on in the Fall season.
-nick
The Lion Rests His Head (1932-2009)
My mornings generally begin with rolling out of bed to Willie Geist (of Morning Joe fame) and his new show Way Too Early.? He was being assisted by the regulars of Morning Joe in breaking the news of the passing of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy; a burden that no one man could carry on his own.? Even as staunch a Conservative as I am, I cannot help be feel the full weight of this somber moment.? Ted Kennedy was an icon; the personification of liberalism as understood today.? To myself, and many other younger Conservatives, he was the opponent.? We would argue in class, not against teachers and later professors and their beliefs; but against Ted Kennedy and the movement of which he was the avant-garde as if we were engaged in some form of transcontinental dialogue.? No matter how much one disagreed with the man?s views, politics, or personal life, you cannot take away his importance from the left and ultimately from America.
I was reminded of a story I heard while on Capitol Hill.? An older gentleman reminisced about a time when he was a mere intern working for then-Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland.? Underneath the House offices and Senate offices are a number of tunnels and a little train system that ferries people between their respective office buildings and the Capitol.? When you are travelling these halls you always run the chance of brushing elbows or exchanging glances with statesmen you see all-too-often on the news.? The makers of history.? This gentleman sat down in one of the carts for the train to head toward the Capitol, and as many people do, stared straight forward in an effort to maintain his invisibility amongst other passerbyers.? His cart quickly filled up with the larger than life Ted Kennedy and his Chief of Staff, which caused the young intern?s heart to jump into his throat.? Senator Kennedy looked at him, smiled and asked who the young intern was, who he was working for, whether he was enjoying DC, et cetera.? The short train ride concluded and both man and young man exchanged farewells, I imagine the Senator?s was more boisterous than the intern being left frozen like a deer in headlights.
Around a month later, the intern was back on the underground train again.? This time only Senator Kennedy sat with him in the cart which rendered the young intern silent again (this gentleman did not go into politics, understandably so).? Senator Kennedy smiled at him, and said, ?I hope you?ll forgive me but I can?t remember your name.? But I would like to know how your internship with Paul [Sarbanes] is going; are you still enjoying it??? You thought the intern was blown away before, now he had a whole new level of admiration for the Massachusetts Senator.
Senator Kennedy was best at that sort of interaction, from what I hear.? He may have met and dined with and drank with over a thousand people between his and the young intern?s two meetings, but he remembered people and their stories.? He was a statesman.? That is all that I have the authority to judge him on.? There will be reminders of his vitriol on the judiciary committee towards Republican Court appointees, his politics and practices, and most of all reminders of that July night in 1969.? I will refrain from speaking ill of the dead for this particular piece, but my hopes are that the man?s death does not become politicized. Ted Kennedy was a symbol after all, so his name and memory will be invoked for years to come.? In the end, he was a statesman and will live in politics long after he lived in our world.
-rj
Public Option Dead, Obama Administration A Failure?
The AP is reporting that the Obama Administration has decided today to scrap the Public Option in health care reform.
Government provided health care was central to his candidacy.? One has to now wonder if the administration is in someway ultimately considered a failure if the central policy of his platform has crumbled before our eyes.
If Obama fails in this key component of his platform would you consider his administration a failure?
-nick
How the Public Plan Crowds Out the Market
Public-plan proponents have feigned ignorance of how such an option would crowd out the public market.? The answer is simple: a public plan would be a political, not a market, entity.? Its justification is premised on a belief that the insurance market is not competitive and that insurers price oligopolistically, retaining excessive profits.? Even if this were true, the public plan would have no way of knowing when it had priced away its more efficient market competitors’ oligopolistic profits.? It would not know that it had destroyed these “inefficient” profits until it had lowered its premium prices to a level too low for private insurers to match.? Or, as a flowchart:
It is inevitable that the government will stack the deck in favor of its own offering.? Even if it is not openly subsidized, the public plan will almost certainly be able to outsource expensive administrative duties to government bureaucracies with their own operating budgets.? It will likely have powers to impose its prices on providers that its private competitors will not.? And it is absurd to think that the government would simply allow its plan to disappear if it failed to operate within its budget.? The public plan’s political structure and mandate to drive down prices blindly guarantees that a bailout will be needed sooner rather than later.
-wallace
