The Democrats Civil War is On: Healthcare
Maine Democrats are still fighting for single payer or Medicare for all when their own party has removed those options from the table. Read More...
The Democrats Civil War is On: Healthcare
Posted by David Hughes
Wed, 09/23/2009 - 12:54pm
Carper was speaking in opposition to an amendment from Sen. Bill Nelson and Sen. Jay Rockefeller. The amendment mirrors what Henry Waxman did in the House to close the Medicare Part D doughnut hole by requiring drug manufactures to provide rebates for the overcharging of dual eligible Medicare/Medicaid recipients. In July, Debbie Halvorson and Heatlh Shuler authored a letter to Waxman signed by 70 Democrats, asking him a rewrite the bill to " substitute the President's proposal" for his own, which reflected the PhRMA deal.
PhRMA's board approved the $80 billion in price reductions on June 19. On June 30, the Hill reported that PhRMA began running ads in the districts of vulnerable Democratic House freshmen.
It's pretty simple. If you make a deal with the President and that deal can't be kept because the President can't get his own party on board to it then why would you ever work with the President again? What's at stake here isn't an additional 86 billion dollars on top of the 80 billion already agreed to being extracted from PhRMA. What's at stake is the trust in Obama's presidency.
The left wing of the Democratic Party will not back down on the issue and the President cannot back down on the issue.
Just look around here in Maine. The Democrats here are still fighting for single payer or medicare for all when its clear that their own party has removed those options from the table before anyone sat down to negotiate. Look at what is realistically being discussed in Washington and compare that to what your Democratic neighbors are hoping/wishing/fighting for. There is a huge disconnect within the Democratic Party and Republicans would do very well to exploit it. Not so that political points can be scored on health care or to ultimately kill a health care bill ( we all know that A health care bill will pass ) but to crack the lock hold Democrats have on the overall narrative.
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