Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
WASHINGTON – So much for the political power of the public option.
Reps. Baron Hill of Indiana, elected with the class of 2006 that gave Democrats the House majority, and Dan Maffei of New York, who rode to office with President Obama on a Democratic wave last year, were among the last lawmakers to make up their minds on Saturday’s historic health care vote.
Both voted “yes,” helping to push the count to a razor-thin majority of 220. Neither viewed the much-hyped furor over the creation of a government-run option to compete with the private insurance industry as an important factor in their decisions.
For Hill, D-9th – and a couple dozen other Democrats – the decision came down to a last-minute compromise that paved the way for an amendment ensuring that no federal funding would go to abortions. For Maffei, it was a long series of discussion with staff, experts, his constituents and Obama.
“I’ve always wanted to get to yes,” Hill, who was part of a conservative Democratic blockade to the legislation in July, said after voting to approve the legislation.
Maffei, a former Capitol Hill staffer, said of public opinion in his Syracuse district: “It’s pretty closely divided. Either way it would have been a profile in courage or a profile in being ordinary.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her leadership team won a hard-fought victory on Obama’s most critical domestic policy agenda item by neutralizing the most potentially toxic political issue well in advance of the final vote, siding with centrists on their preferred version of the public option. She then publicly dared the progressive wing, with its strong commitment to establishing national health insurance, to take down the entire package because one piece was not to their liking.
The progressives blinked. Only Reps. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Eric Massa, D-N.Y., lived up to the July pledge signed by roughly 60 liberals in which they vowed to vote against the bill if it did not contain their favored version of public option.
With that fight out of the way, Pelosi’s team spent the last 10 days soothing the political egos of wavering lawmakers on more easily negotiated issues such as abortion funding and medical device taxes. With a caucus of 258, Democrats knew they could afford up to 40 defections and still reach the magic number of 218 votes without any GOP support. (One Republican, Rep. Ahn “Joseph” Cao, R-La., did vote “yes,” but only after Democrats recorded their 218th vote as the clock approached midnight Saturday.)
The Democratic drubbing in gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey provided a final stark reminder of the stakes lawmakers faced over their Saturday votes.
But leaders repeatedly told rank-and-file Democrats that the bigger concern would be failure to deliver on an issue critical to liberal voters, fearing the combination of an energized conservative grass roots and a depressed liberal base in next fall’s midterm elections.
“When I sign this bill in the Rose Garden, each and every one of you will be able to look back and say, ‘This was my finest moment in politics,’ ” Obama told Democrats at a closed-door pep rally before Saturday’s vote.
The push resulted in a broad cross-section of support from all corners of the caucus. More than half of the 52-member Blue Dog Coalition – most from conservative-leaning districts – supported the legislation. Of the 37 freshman lawmakers elected in 2008 or in special elections since, just 14 opposed the measure.
Hill led the effort in July to craft a more moderate public option and demanded that the vote be put off until after the summer recess. It originally appeared to be a disastrous decision, as he and dozens of other Democrats were confronted by angry protesters at town halls protesting the “government takeover” of health care, making “public option” a household phrase. But he said the pause allowed lawmakers the chance to let their constituents voice their opinions, so that they could not be accused of rushing to a vote.
“I still think it was a smart move, despite the August break and what we went through. That’s how democracy is supposed to work. You have to let the dissenters speak,” he said.
Maffei’s political concerns were eased by Tuesday’s elections after Democrat Bill Owens won a longtime GOP-held neighboring district in a special election by campaigning in favor of the health-care legislation. The final sales pitch to Maffei came from Obama on Saturday, when Maffei listed his concerns on changes to a Medicare program for the rural elderly and the employer mandate to purchase insurance.
