Thread: Obama's ambitious reforms lose steam

Obama's ambitious reforms lose steam
by Dan Nowicki - Aug. 8, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

President Barack Obama's ambitious legislative agenda has stumbled on Capitol Hill, imperiling not only his marquee health-care reform initiative but complicating efforts to reform energy and immigration policies.

Senate and House Democratic leaders missed Obama's deadline on health-care reform, and Congress has left Washington for its annual August recess without passing any legislation on what is considered the administration's No. 1 priority.

Its momentum slowed by Democratic infighting between moderates and progressives, the debate over national health care now moves back to fall as the White House and Democratic leaders reconsider their strategies and goals. At the same time, Republican health-care reform foes, who call the Democratic approach too costly and intrusive, are invigorated.
Obama and his allies have run into friction on other fronts, too.

On June 26, the House voted 219-212 to pass a controversial energy-reform and climate-change bill that landed considerably left of the consensus in the Senate, which pushed back work on its own version. And the chances that Congress will get around to the hot-button topic of comprehensive immigration reform this year appear increasingly remote.

"Climate change is obviously in trouble, because it passed the House by an extremely narrow vote, and that always signals trouble in the Senate," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia and editor of the book "The Year of Obama: How Barack Obama Won the White House."

"They'll have to water that bill down considerably for it to have any chance of passing the Senate," Sabato said. "(Immigration reform is) deader than dead for this year. It's already obvious that health care and energy are going to absorb all the legislative energy this year."

Others may quibble with some of Sabato's conclusions, but nobody disputes that the Obama agenda, widely viewed as the most sweeping since President Lyndon Johnson's, has hit a big road bump and that his initial health-care timetable was overly optimistic.

Obama invited Senate Democrats to lunch at the White House on Tuesday in hopes of boosting morale and strengthening resolve before they returned to their districts to talk to constituents.

He had a similar meeting Thursday with a bipartisan group of senators working on health-care reform. Angry critics have been aggressively confronting lawmakers at town-hall meetings and other events.

"He really kind of reminded me of the days when I was an athlete and the coach was giving you a pep talk before the game," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said after the Tuesday meeting with Obama. "You came out of that pep talk that the coach gave you ready to take on the world. We're ready to take on the world."

Most political analysts doubt that Obama and the Democrats will allow the historic opportunity to enact health-care reform slip away from them.

Few presidents enter the Oval Office with Obama's positive poll numbers and solid congressional majorities. And 2009 likely still offers Obama his best opportunity to push through his major priorities, unless and until he gets re-elected. But although experts expect that some sort of a health-care bill will happen, nobody is sure what it will look like.

This year's health-care legislation process has been difficult to follow even by Capitol Hill standards. Three House committees and two Senate committees have been working on bills that would have to be blended into a final version that can pass both chambers.

"Obviously, it won't be as extensive and as expensive as Obama has hoped," Sabato said.

Obama is drawing criticism for giving Congress too much leeway in crafting the plan. The cumulative impact of the blizzard of competing ideas, proposed tax increases and exploding cost estimates rattled voters and muddled the Democrats' message.

"I'm assuming that the Obama people are involved now and working with the leadership on those three (House) bills," said Democratic Rep. Ed Pastor, senior member of Arizona's House delegation.

"What you will probably see in mid-September is one bill that the leadership thinks will get 218 votes with some of the objectives of the Obama administration woven in there. It could be a smaller version. It could be a bigger version," Pastor added.

Pastor said he has been telling people to check back in September "to get a better idea if the issue you're interested in is in or out."

Reid reiterated his commitment to the issue even in the face of rising public opposition, which national Democrats have characterized as partisan and industry-orchestrated "mobs."

"The American people want health-care reform, and we're going to do health-care reform," Reid said. "In spite of the loud, shrill voices trying to interrupt town-hall meetings and just throw a monkey wrench into everything, we're going to continue to be positive and work hard."

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who opposes the Democratic health-care approach, suggested health-care reform's fate is now unfolding across the country as senators and representatives gauge the reaction of their constituents.

"It is impossible to say at this point whether there will be health-care legislation coming to the floor and, if so, what it will look like and, if so, when," said Kyl, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, one of the panels working on a bill. "All I can say is that health care has slowed down substantially. I think that's a good thing."

www.azcentral.com

President Barack Obama's ambitious legislative agenda has stumbled on Capitol Hill, imperiling not only his marquee health-care reform initiative but complicating efforts to reform energy and immigration policies.

And you know he is probably writing that next book already. 600 days and who will "We the People" have running as our NEW PRESIDENT.

The day is coming! For a New President!

Originally Posted by vmonkey56

President Barack Obama's ambitious legislative agenda has stumbled on Capitol Hill, imperiling not only his marquee health-care reform initiative but complicating efforts to reform energy and immigration policies.

And you know he is probably writing that next book already. 600 days and who will "We the People" have running as our NEW PRESIDENT.

The day is coming! For a New President!

Now that is looking at the positive!

vmonkey56 - I have to tell you, I couldn't sleep tonight (while our country is in such a mess), so I got back up a while ago, and logged on. I just read through three current threads, and in each one you happened to have just made the last comment. Each one got funnier than the last as I read through them. You're on a roll tonight!

This article implies the projects ever had steam.

When you elect a weak leader in a time of crisis you get poor results.

Dixie

Most political analysts doubt that Obama and the Democrats will allow the historic opportunity to enact health-care reform slip away from them.

In other words, the Dems are determined to ram something down the throats of Americans, irrespective of the fact that a majority of Americans overwhelmingly oppose such reform.

If Obama thinks health care reform has been met with resistance, wait until he tries to bulldoze amnesty for 20 million+ illegals upon the backs of Americans!

He hasn't seen anything yet!

This article implies the projects ever had steam.

That is because none of Obamas major legislative goals (health care reform, climate change/global warming, fixing the economy, and immigration reform) actually fix anything. The greatest leader in the world would have trouble selling non-solutions like these in an open debate.

Cap and Trade does not solve any environmental issues. It is a scam. Europe uses it and it has depressed their ecomomy and they have reached none of their stated goals. It is a zero sum scam. If I pollute I buy credits from someone who does not. Where is the pollution reduction. Meanwhile we are saddled with the 8th president since the 1070's oil embargo who does not have anything resembling a comprehensive energy policy.

Health care reform, as presented in the House bill, does not attack the core issue of insurance for the uninsured, nor does it address true health care cost reductions. No controls on illegal immigrants using the system. No tort reform. No mention of portability for people changing jobs. No discussion of catastrophic coverage vs. comprehensive coverage; no discussion of sliding scales of deductibles that could lower insurance premiums while restricting frivolous (i.e., non-essential) use of medical facilities.

As for fixing the economy, the Obama administration's actions are making it worse. Not only has the national debt doubled in 7 months, Obama wants to add another 1.5 trillion dollars to the national debt via Health Care Reform, yet he says this is the key to economic recovery. Moreover, by not curbing illegal and legal immigration, he takes jobs away from US citizens, and the unemployment rolls continue to grow.

Comprehensive immigration reform reforms nothing; it exacerbates the problem, and actually mitigates against fixing the other three problems mentioned above.

Anyone who can sell this bucket of male bovine fertilizer could sell snow to the snowbirds.

4thHorseman

Thank you for a well thought out post! Excellent.

The only thing Obama's goals would accomplish, in my opinion, is just more control over the people of the US and more debt.

The only thing Obama's goals would accomplish, in my opinion, is just more control over the people of the US and more debt.

Amen.