Newly elected Democrats waver on health plan
By Daniel Dombey and Tom Braithwaite in Washington
August 13 2009 22:08
ft.com
Two freshly elected Democrats are wavering in their support of healthcare reform, as a rancorous summer series of “town hall” debates appears to be hardening opposition against the Obama administration.
Frank Kratovil and Tom Perriello, who as freshmen congressmen would be expected to back the party leadership, both say proposals for expanding coverage to the uninsured are unacceptable in their current form and should focus more on cost savings.
Mr Kratovil, who was hanged in effigy by a healthcare protester at a town hall meeting in his state of Maryland, said he would have voted against legislation if it had come to a vote last month.
Tom Perriello, another new representative from neighbouring Virginia, also says he is not yet ready to support the current proposals in the House of Representatives, partly because he is “still getting feedback from?.?.?.?constituents”.
Neither man has ruled out voting for a revised package.
Billed as a chance to sell healthcare reform to the American people in small meetings across the country, the town hall debates have seen protesters screaming at their elected representatives.
In spite of hopes by proponents of reform that voters would be turned off by the sometimes ugly scenes, a poll yesterday from USA Today gave an indication that the debates were having the opposite effect.
Some 34 per cent of respondents said the demonstrations had made them more sympathetic to the protesters, while 21 per cent said they were less sympathetic. In the all-important independents grouping, 35 per cent against 16 per cent said they were now more sympathetic to the protesters – a margin of more than two to one.
The Obama administration was on Thursday attempting to regain the initiative with a self-described “chain” e-mail from the senior adviser David Axelrod, pointing to a series of “myths and facts” in the debate.
But the “myths” identified by David Axelrod, one of Mr Obama’s chief advisers, themselves highlight how the healthcare dispute has spilt out of the White House’s control.
In the e-mail, which Mr Axelrod asks supporters to forward to others, he denies that the administration favours rationing healthcare, that the new system will undermine health benefits offered to the over-65s in the government’s Medicare scheme or that the reform will encourage euthanasia – the origin of the “death panel” myth.
This week the veteran lawmakers senator Arlen Specter and congressman John Dingell were shouted down by constituents fearful of tax rises, cutbacks in Medicare and rationing of private schemes. In the face of barracking from a large part of her audience, senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri was reduced to saying: “I don’t know what else I can do. If you want me to go home – OK.”
Mounting opposition among such newly elected legislators played a particularly important role in the collapse of the Clinton administration’s effort to push through healthcare reform in 1994.
This time, some commentators, such as Joe Scarborough, a television host and former Republican congressman opposed to Mr Obama’s proposals, say feelings are even more passionate. |
