Before Blue Dog Democrats break out the champagne over the deal they won this week to water down the big government health care bill in the House, they should pay close attention to the difference between the way the deal is being spun in public and the way it’s being portrayed in private.
While some of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s consiglieri were hyping the deal to the media as a significant breakthrough on Wednesday, others were huddling in private with liberals to encourage them to keep hope alive.
Exhibit A is what was said in a private Capital Hill meeting between a representative of Speaker Pelosi and disgruntled House liberals.
According to the Politico, Speaker Pelosi’s emissary to liberal Democrats in the House, Rep. George Miller (D-CA), met with progressives who were in near-revolt over the Blue Dog deal late Wednesday. Rep. Miller reportedly downplayed the importance of the deal, noting that it is only one of three bills passed by the House and the only one lacking the public option that is make or break for the leftwing.
“[Miller] said they would have plenty of opportunities to change it back,”the Politico quoted one person present at the meeting as saying.
Just to be clear, “changing it back” means reverting to the punitive, high taxing, big government bill favored by President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA).
House liberals reportedly left the meeting “somewhat reassured.”
Even if it sticks, the deal brokered by the Blue Dogs this week is still bad for American health care consumers – it’s just slightly less bad than the original House bill.
Chief among the Blue Dogs concerns about the original bill is its cost and the job killing taxes it will place on small businesses.
But under the so-called deal, new taxes and mandates will still be placed on the small businesses that employ 70 percent of all small business employees. Small businesses that have an average of just 32 employees will be subject to an 8 percent payroll tax hike. Even small businesses that have an average of just 17 employees will face new taxes and mandates under the deal.
But the larger problem with the Blue Dog deal is that it only slightly slows down the train toward mandatory government health care; it does nothing to change the track.
The deal supposedly makes the public insurance plan that would quickly overwhelm the private insurance market optional.
But even without the public plan, the bill will have bureaucrats making the health care decisions that should stay with doctors, patients and their loved ones. The anti-competitive taxes and mandates it places on small businesses will kill jobs and reduce take-home pay. And the immense cost to the Treasury the bill imposes will inevitably lead to tax increases, not just for the “rich” but for all working Americans.
As if these substantive problems weren’t enough, when you consider the political math, the deal won by the Blue Dogs – who are being simultaneously envied and derided by liberals for exercising outsized clout in the House – looks even worse.
The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that in the 51 congressional districts represented by the Blue Dogs, President Obama’s approval rating has taken a nose dive since June – that is, since the beginning of the push for his version of health care reform – falling from 71 percent to 57 percent.
And while a strong majority of Democrats in other districts – 56 to 40 percent – support the components of the House bill, Democrats in the Blue Dog districts are much more closely divided. Only 51 percent support legislation like the House bill, while 48 percent oppose it.
Given these numbers, you would think the Blue Dogs would be more careful about who they’re making deals with. Instead, these Democrats from conservative rural districts have put their future in the hands of one House leader who represents San Francisco (Speaker Pelosi) and another who represents Beverly Hills (Henry Waxman). As the saying goes, a deal’s a deal – until it’s not. The Blue Dogs may not think they rolled over, but it sure looks like they got rolled.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has published 19 books, including 10 fiction and nonfiction best-sellers. He is the founder of the Center for Health Transformation and chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future. For more information, see newt.org. His exclusive column for The Examiner appears Fridays.
