Tort reform must be among the options lawmakers will consider in crafting final healthcare reform legislation, a key centrist Democrat said Thursday night.
Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the health caucus chairman in the centrist Blue Dog Democrat coalition, said that reform of medical liability lawsuits should be on the table.
"I think tort reform has to be on the table here," Ross told constituents during a tele-town hall last night. "I don't believe there's any sacred cows here, I think we've got to look at everything that's contributing to healthcare costs growing at twice the rate of inflation, and address it."
Tort reform has long been a priority of Republicans in Congress, though one conservative lawmaker suggested that offering up tort reform is unlikely to win votes for the bill.
Ross has been under criticism in more liberal quarters of the Democratic Party for being too friendly to Republican arguments and having stalled the passage of the healthcare package in the House before the August congressional recess.
Ross rejected the notion that he should show complete party loyalty.
"If you want someone to just go up there and vote 100 percent of the time with the Democrat or Republican Party, it'd be pretty easy to find someone to do that," he said. "President Obama and Speaker Pelosi didn't send me to Congress, you did."
The Senate FInance Committee should be able to craft a bipartisan healthcare bill, as long as they're not "overruled" or "undercut" by President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Thursday.
Grassley told Iowa reporters during a regular press call that he believes Senate Democrats could probably pass a bill using budget reconciliation rules requiring only a simple majority vote, but that bipartisanship could succeed if given time.
Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will be able to eventually reach a bipartisan agreement on a healthcare bill "if he doesn't get overruled by the leader or the president," argued Grassley, the ranking member of that committee.
"Sen. Baucus has always been talking about 70 or 80 votes," Grassley later added. "We're still going down that direction, but we could be undercut by anybody."
Both Baucus and Grassley have worked throughout August with the so-called "group of six" centrist senators on healthcare reform, though Baucus -- backed up by Senate Democratic leaders -- has imposed a September 15th deadline by which a bipartisan bill must be reached.
After then, Democrats have left the door open to using the budget reconciliation process to pass a preliminary healthcare bill, which may be a version including a public (or "government-run") option as written by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee.
Grassley said he believed Democrats could be able to pass a bill in that circumstance, but not any one he or any other Republican would support.
"I think the Democrats could pass one under a process called reconciliation," he said. "If they do that, one would pass for sure without any Republican support whatsoever, and I couldn't vote for it."
Massachusetts lawmakers are beginning to rally behind a plan that would allow for a special appointment to fill the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D) seat, giving Democrats in Washington the votes they need to advance their agenda.
State law requires a special election to fill a vacancy, to be held between 145 and 160 days of a vacancy occurring. The law was changed in 2004, when Sen. John Kerry (D) sought the White House and Republican Gov. Mitt Romney (R) held the power to appoint a replacement.
Were a special election to occur, virtually all of the state's ten Democratic members of Congress have been mentioned as potential candidates, along with several widely-known officials who have held office in the state.
But with healthcare legislation and the rest of an ambitious Democratic agenda hanging in the balance, support is growing for a quick legislative fix, which would give Gov. Deval Patrick (D) the power to appoint a temporary replacement.
It is an idea Kennedy himself urged on his home state legislators. In a letter last week, Kennedy told Patrick and leaders in both chambers on Beacon Hill he supported changing the law.
Democratic leaders expressed willingness to push forward with such a proposal, but it would take time to work its way through the state legislative process, which could delay any possible appointment significantly and perhaps make the effort moot.
Patrick told a local radio station Wednesday that he would support such a change, and state Senate President Therese Murray has reportedly warmed to the idea after giving it a cold reception.
Patrick said he would urge the State Legislature to adopt the change.
One of the most conservative members of the House took some flak from her constituents yesterday in a raucous town hall.
Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-Minn.) event in Lake Elmo was certainly not dominated by liberals. But pro-reform advocates certainly made their voices more loudly heard than previously.
First, as the video below shows, Bachmann could barely get through her introductory remarks before the angry catcalls began (skip to the 2:00 mark):
Christine Norton, of Cottage Grove, challenged Bachmann's premise that the Democratic plan means a government takeover. Under some proposals, a panel of medical professionals would set standards for insurance coverage.
Bachmann responded that the government would pick the panel members and ultimately decide the standards.
"It's still government calling the tune," she said. "I want consumers calling the tune."
When John Beyer, of Stillwater, challenged the widely debunked claim that Obama's plan would create end-of-life "death panels," Bachmann replied that the House Democratic bill would create "53 new bureaucracies" between patients and their doctors. "Washington bureaucrats" would make their health decisions, she asserted. She didn't mention death panels.
Ilya Gorodisher, of May Township, accused her of "stretching truth to the point of lies" by, for instance, asserting that Obama has proposed a government takeover of health care. Bachmann responded that even if private insurance remains an option under the president's plan, "the government will dictate what you can buy."
A Woodbury woman told the tale of how her insurance company canceled her policy after she became ill and asked how Bachmann would stop insurers that "drop me the minute I get sick." The congresswoman said the solution was to offer consumers more insurance options so they could pick the cost and level of coverage they want.
There was an edge to some of the questions Bachmann fielded at Lake Elmo.
And catcalls, both supportive and otherwise, came from the crowd.
"Sit down ACORN," yelled a man at one questioner, using the name of an organization Bachmann has often criticized.
"Nobody is proposing this," came a voice out of the audience when Bachmann--brandishing a pack of papers she said contained negative headlines about the medical system in the United Kingdom--spoke of socialized medicine.
There's only a few days left of August recess, but it certainly seems that Democratic groups are beginning to organize their supporters to combat the conservative dominance at past town halls.
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele wrote the AARP on Friday, challenging the nation's largest group of retirees to endorse the principles of the RNC's "Seniors' Health Care Bill of Rights" released earlier this week.
AARP Executive Vice President John Rother said earlier this week the bill didn't contain concerns raised by the GOP's document, which would aim to "prohibit efforts to ration healthcare based on age" and "prevent government from interfering with end-of-life care decisions," among other things.
"AARP agrees with Chairman Michael Steele's goals for reforming our health care system, and we are pleased nothing in the bills that have been proposed would bring about the scenarios the RNC is concerned about," Rother wrote.
"I'm sure we would both agree that any attempt to reform our health care system should first do no harm, particularly to senior citizens," Steele responded Friday "That is why I was heartened to see that you agreed with the premise of the RNC's Seniors' Health Care Bill Of Rights, but I was disappointed by your claim that '...nothing in the [Democrats'] bills would bring about the type of scenarios the RNC is concerned about.'"
Steele defended the five planks of the RNC bill of rights, and pointed to the hit the AARP has taken as a result of its position on the healthcare reform bills before Congress.
"News reports indicated the AARP lost more than 60,000 members last month alone because your organization did not take a strong stand against the Democrats' government-run health care experiment and the consequences it would have on seniors," Steele wrote. "Given the facts I have detailed above, I invite AARP to endorse the RNC's recently released 'Seniors' Health Care Bill of Rights,' which I have attached to this letter, and join us in urging President Obama and the Democrat-led Congressional leadership to slow down and get health care reform right."
President Obama will not weigh in on whether he thinks the Massachusetts governor should be able to point a quick successor to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).
White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton told reporters at Martha's Vineyard on Thursday that the president prefers to leave the decision up to state officials.
"The decision of how Massachusetts will be represented in the United States Senate is up to the people and representatives of Massachusetts, and their governor," Burton said. "That's just not a scale that he's going to put his thumb on."
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) has backed efforts pushed by the senator shortly before his death to appoint a quick interim senator to fill the vacancy before a special election could be held.
With the high-stakes debate over healthcare continuing this fall, a successor to Kennedy could be critical in determining the fate of reform Kennedy termed the cause of his life.
The White House declined to say how the senior senator's absence would affect the political calculus over healthcare, arguing that it would be inappropriate at this time.
"People are going to have discussions about this, but the president thinks today isn't the appropriate time to do that," Burton said.
The press secretary also described the personal role Kennedy had played with Obama, especially during the height of the presidential campaign.
"It was obviously incredible and immeasurable in some ways. He endorsed President Obama as a candidate at a time that provided a cannon burst for the campaign," Burton said. "It would be hard to replicate on any other way."
One of Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) potential Republican opponents next fall is calling on Dodd to reject the permanent chairmanship of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee.
Dodd had managed the HELP committee in the absence of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who passed away late Tuesday night, in addition to his responsibilities as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
Republican state Sen. Sam Caligiuri, a GOP primary candidate to face off against Dodd, demanded the incumbent Democrat reject taking over the HELP committee.
"I am calling on Senator Dodd to decline the position of the HELP Committee Chairman, if it is offered to him," Caligiuri said in a statement. "He should be finishing the job he has barely started of fixing the financial sector problems that got us into this economic disaster in the first place, and not spending his time promoting ill advised health care legislation."
Dodd said earlier today in a teleconference that he wasn't sure what his status with the committee would be going forward, and that it would take a few weeks to sort it out.
"Only in Washington would someone who failed miserably at one crucial job be considered for taking the reins on another important front," Caligiuri said. "In typical DC fashion, Senator Dodd is all politics all the time, hoping to secure this new post to dust his past failures under the rug and forge ahead with yet more bad legislation."
Democrats will not use budget reconciliation to pass healthcare reform because it's too politically risky, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) suggested Wednesday.
Gregg said that while "many people are beating the drum" for reconciliation, parliamentary rules would likely result in lawmakers being forced to vote only for tax hikes and spending cuts, and very little actual health policy.
"I don't see that they will use reconciliation, because it's a weapon that will basically shoot themselves in the foot," Gregg said during a phone call into CNBC.
Budget reconciliation would be used to short-circuit Senate rules on a filibuster to pass healthcare reform with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes necessary to end a filibuster.
But the Senate parliamentarian could rule non-budgetary issues in the bill out of order, meaning lawmakers would only be left to vote on taxes and spending contained in the bill.
Gregg argued that reconciliation would leave a number of lawmakers too politically exposed for them to risk invoking the tactic.
"You can't put most of the policy in the bill, and you're going to make Senate members who vote for it -- and House members, for that matter -- vote for the taxes and vote for the spending cuts to Medicare, for very little of the policy," he said. "As a practical matter, I don't see it working."
There would have been more progress made on healthcare legislation this year had the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) been able to participate in negotiations, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday.
McCain, memorializing his fallen Senate colleague during an appearance on CNN, said that talks over the bill would have certainly been more serious than they are now, had Kennedy had the chance to be involved.
"I think we may have made progress on this health care issue if he had been there," McCain said. "He had this unique capability to sit people down at a table together -- and I've been there on numerous occasions -- and really negotiate, which means concessions."
The healthcare bill that came out of Kennedy's former committee, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, has stalled in the Senate as Republicans have been unwilling to compromise on elements of the legislation, most notably the inclusion of a public (or "government-run") option for Americans.
McCain said that the negotiations over the bill would have had more weight with Kennedy's involvement.
"I think we would have made great progress. I'm not positive...of the outcome, but I know there would have been serious negotiations," McCain said. "So far, there really has not been serious negotiations, in all due respect. And that would have happened."
McCain praised Kennedy's ability to keep his word on commitments and compromises, citing it as a vital trait in being able to pass through legislation.
Kennedy, of course, is being eulogized Wednesday as one of the all-time masters of the Senate, having authored more than 2,500 pieces of legislation during his decades as a senator from Massachusetts.
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the only senator to have served longer than the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), mourned his friend Wednesday, saying his "heart and soul weeps."
Byrd said he hoped healthcare reform legislation in the Senate would be renamed in memoriam of Kennedy.
"I had hoped and prayed that this day would never come," Byrd said in a statement. "My heart and soul weeps at the lost of my best friend in the Senate, my beloved friend, Ted Kennedy."
Byrd's wistful statement focused on the work accomplished with Kennedy during decades together in the Senate, and called on the healthcare bill before Congress to be renamed in honor of Kennedy.
"In his honor and as a tribute to his commitment to his ideals, let us stop the shouting and name calling and have a civilized debate on health care reform which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American," Byrd said.
Byrd, who has himself suffered infirmities keeping him from active participation in the Senate in recent months, famously wept when his younger colleague Kennedy fell ill with brain cancer last year.
Those emotions were again on display in Byrd's statement this morning.
"God bless his wife Vicki, his family, and the institution that he served so ably, which will never be the same without his voice of eloquence and reason," Byrd said. "And God bless you Ted. I love you and will miss you terribly."
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