There are some stories that almost everyone hears when they first start working in Washington, D.C. One of these stories is about Microsoft and their lobbying spending — or more specifically, the lack of lobbying in the company’s early days. Microsoft originally hardly lobbied at all, much to Washington’s chagrin. As Washington Examiner commentary editor Tim Carney wrote in 2012:
Read without context, this doesn’t sound so awful or even like a big bully pushing their way around a playground. However, once you add in the fact that Microsoft was under attack from Sen. Orrin Hatch — and that, unlike many of the older and bigger companies, Microsoft wasn’t tithing to their D.C. overlords at the same rate as others — then the ugly nature of the Utah Republican’s comments start making more sense.
There is a quid pro quo expectation on Capitol Hill, yet we wonder why cronyism is so rampant. However, quid pro quo isn’t the only form of bullying that goes on from behind the congressional dais.
For instance, ride-sharing companies Lyft and Uber were both just recently threatened for not showing up to testify at a congressional hearing. They were avoiding walking into the bully’s den and being made into a political spectacle.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter A. DeFazio was not happy about it. The Oregon Democrat said, “For their long-term survival, for any hope of ever partnering with agencies who utilize Federal funds, [Uber and Lyft] are going to have to clean up their acts.”
Uber and Lyft aren’t the only victims of this form of playground bullying. In the last couple of years, Google and Facebook executives have often been called to testify, largely for the political gain of members of Congress who want to score political points. The members seem to be willing to bully these companies at any cost, especially when those costs are borne by the businesses. If the companies don’t play the game with Congress, they are threatened with legislation that might harm their businesses and therefore their employees and customers.
Another recent example of this form of bullying is the congressional hostility toward private equity firms for their involvement in the surprise medical billing issue. Congress has pursued a market-breaking solution of price controls, even though other solutions exist, and private equity firms are pushing back.
Does that mean they should be dragged in front of Congress? Does that mean their reputations should be threatened?
No, of course not.
Congress has largely gotten away over the past several decades with passing legislation that hurts doctors and benefits other interested parties, such as insurance companies, because doctors don’t have the lobbying power to push back against insurance titans. And now that the doctors do have some power, Congress isn’t happy. The heads of these congressional committees thought they were going to get away with harming doctors (and therefore patients) without any pushback, but offering threats in retaliation isn’t the solution.
The group that Congress should talk to are the doctors. Recently 110 major medical groups sent a letter to Congress pushing back against price-fixing as the solution to surprise medical bills.
Doctors are on the front lines and will be the ones that have to pay for Congress’s poor decisions. If congressional leaders will just talk to them, they will see that doctors want a solution to the problem as well. They don’t want to send a “surprise bill” to a patient. But they also don’t want Congress to hand over all the market power to insurance companies.
All doctors want is a way to argue with insurance companies about what price they will be paid. They call it “Independent Dispute Resolution,” which is basically the right to go to arbitration with the insurance companies. Personally, I am not sure if that is the best solution, but it is clearly much better than merely letting the insurance companies dictate the payment rates that doctors must accept.
Whenever Congress works on healthcare solutions they should start with patients and doctors. In this case, Congress seems to have just gone to a fundraiser to get their solution from insurance company cronies. And, instead of admitting their errors, they are currently retaliating with bullying tactics instead of reworking their ideas. Even though, as all D.C. staffers know from the Microsoft story, this kind of congressional bullying is the status quo, it still isn’t right.
Charles Sauer (@CharlesSauer) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is president of the Market Institute and previously worked on Capitol Hill, for a governor, and for an academic think tank.
