President Obama is holding a summit on health care today at the White House. Though his reform effort is sure to face strong resistance, it is receiving some surprising initial support from insurers, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, the Washington Post reported. When President Clinton attempted to overhaul the system in 1990s, these groups united to block it. But this time, the medical lobby is realizing that reform might benefit it, because it could result in millions of new customers.
“I’m very encouraged by what’s going on now,” said Bill Gradison, a former head of the Health Insurance Association of America, which funded the “Harry and Louise” advertising campaign that helped kill the Clinton plan. “My impression is that there’s been a real openness to reach out to diverse interests, not leaving anyone out — which is how a lot of people felt back in the 1990s. . . . They seem to have learned the lessons of what not to do this time.”
“It seems that ‘socialist’ has supplanted ‘liberal’ as the go-to slur among much of a conservative world confronting a one-two-three punch of bank bailouts, budget blowouts and stimulus bills,” Mike Leibovich wrote. “Right-leaning bloggers and talk radio hosts are wearing out the brickbat. Senate and House Republicans have been tripping over their podiums to invoke it.”
Why the rush to label President Obama’s policies as socialist, even though they don’t meet that definition? “Conservatives sense in their bones that the tide is shifting against them,” columnist E.J. Dionne wrote. “That’s why they are trotting out attacks on socialism.”
Commentator Bay Buchanan (in photo) noted that the socialist label has worked in the past, such as when the GOP used it to help defeat President Clinton’s attempt to reform health care. “‘Socialized medicine’ was a great argument for us,” she said.
For all their outrage about pork spending in the stimulus bill, GOP lawmakers weren’t shy about earmarking spending projects in the 2009 omnibus spending bill being debated in the Senate this week. Six Republicans are among the top 10 biggest Senate earmarkers based on total dollar value, according to a database released Monday by Taxpayers for Common Sense. Topping the list of all senators was Thad Cochran, R-Miss., who by himself and with other lawmakers earmarked nearly $471 million worth of spending. Kansas GOP Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts ranked 62nd and 63rd, with earmarks worth $47.7 million and $46.7 million, respectively. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who made curbing earmarks a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, had no earmarks.
Though the depressingly low turnout didn’t even break 10 percent, Tuesday’s primary for Wichita City Council identified incumbent member Lavonta Williams and community activist Janet Miller as the favorites in the first and sixth districts, respectively. All three face-offs in the April 7 general election — Williams versus James Barfield, Miller versus Bob Aldrich and incumbent Jim Skelton versus Charley “Chuck” Dahlem — promise a brisk debate on how the city should wield its economic development tools and cover its bills during the downturn, among other issues. Voters citywide also need to get engaged in the races for three Wichita school board seats. Such nonpartisan elections may not generate a lot of heat, but their results can spell success or big trouble.
