The moderate Democrats who hold the key to salvaging health care legislation in the Senate were hard to read even before the raucous town halls and sinking presidential approval ratings of August. Now, they are almost inscrutable.
While these swing-state centrists managed to make it through the summer without committing to the major elements of the Democratic plan, including the creation of a public health insurance option, the vocal opposition from the public may have had a chilling effect that will make it even harder for Congress to pass a bill this year.
Among those who have not committed to the Democratic plan is Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who said she has received 14,000 letters and phone calls about health care from constituents. Shaheen, who defeated Republican incumbent John Sununu in November, has publicly backed the idea of a government-run health insurance option but would not rule out voting for a bill without the public plan.
“The senators have their antennas out and they sense a lot of ambivalence,” said University of New Hampshire political science professor Dante Scala. “These moderates are going to tread cautiously.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., a moderate and an early backer of President Barack Obama’s White House bid, faced shouts and anger from constituents at August town hall meetings, some in favor but many opposed to the Democratic plan. McCaskill has said she supports the creation of a public plan, but told more than 1,000 town hall attendees in Springfield, Mo., on Monday “I can’t support a bill that will allow the public option to become the public mandate” and said she would “not support a government takeover of the health care system.”
Senate Democratic leaders hope to pass a health care reform bill with a 60 vote supermajority, rather than use parliamentary rules to force through a bill with just 51 votes. Many moderates fear the political backlash that might result from passing major health care reform with anything less than a supermajority.
“If the people who are deeply concerned about this today thought that one party would ram through a proposal which is almost certain to increase the debt, limit coverage, raise costs, cause people to lose their employer-based insurance, there would be a minor revolution in the country,” said Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
But to get to 60 votes, Democrats, who control 59 seats, must win the votes of at least one Republican and the approval of more than a dozen Senate Democratic moderates, some of whom have already pledged a “no” vote on any bill that includes a public option.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who once called the public option a “deal breaker” but has since said he will consider it, talked to thousands of constituents at six town hall meetings where many stood up in opposition to the Democratic plan.
“Sen. Nelson said afterward he was cautious before and will now be supercautious about reform,” his spokesman, Jake Thompson, told The Examiner.
