Baucus: Not So Fast with that Swift Boat, Attack Ads = Lose Your Seat at the Table. Some Hold Fire.
Filed under: Advertising & Lobbying, Health Care Plans, Proposed Legislation
Yesterday, we ran a post (Health Care Reform in 60 seconds or Less, or “Was That a Swift Boat I Just Saw Carrying Away Meaningful Reform?”) in preparation for what we perceived to be the onset of a deluge in Health Care Reform advertising as we approach the 4th of July recess. And although Roll Call reports that for the recess
A long list of industry and interest groups have taken out advertising spots, are activating grass-roots networks and are planning Member meetings outside the Beltway.
Roll Call also reports that
Several major industry stakeholders, however, will be noticeably absent from the advertising airwaves over the July Fourth recess….AARP, the American Medical Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, the Federation of American Hospitals and AdvaMed all say they are sitting out this recess when it comes to advertising campaigns.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America will be running positive ads touting health care reform.
The groups have been holding their fire in response to threats from the staff of Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and White House aides, who have warned that any groups that run ads attacking reform efforts before the bills have been crafted would lose their seats at the bargaining table.
Presumably, the Republican Senators on the Finance Committee are exempt from the decree, and will not lose their seats at the table despite a recent offering from the Republican National Committee which, as we posted yesterday, seeks to explain the complexity of health care finance through the following: “President Obama talks about a quote, ‘public option.’ When he says public option, that means putting government bureaucrats in charge instead of patients and their doctors. It’s a bad idea.”
But maybe, in a real sense, the Republicans lost the table a little more than 6 months ago–which is why the tag line in this ad is: “Republicans want bipartisan health care reform.” I’m sure they do.
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Avedon Carol had another good post on health care yesterday: Baucus Regrets Not Including Single-Payer in the Health Care Mix I think you rarely see a sitting Senator be as reflective about the legislative process as Max Baucus is here when he says he regrets that the idea of a single-payer health care system was left out of the mix: He conceded that it was a mistake to rule out a fully government-run health system, or a “single-payer plan,” not because he supports it but because doing so alienated a large, vocal constituency and left Mr. Obama’s proposal of a public health plan to compete with private insurers as the most liberal position. They really are more stupid than words can convey. I mean, I realize Baucus was more interested in killing single-payer than in getting even a half-decent healthcare bill passed, but, seriously, how old do you have to be to understand haggling? And how could you fail to get the optics in this? (Except that, of course, they didn’t dare bring up single-payer, or people would have had to talk about it, and people would have been defending it in public, and then they’d have to explain why they weren’t getting it. And I’m not sure Yglesias is right that a single-payer plan couldn’t possibly have passed. That public discussion might have made more people aware that their own legislators were standing directly in the way of their own healthcare. There has to be a point at which legislators begin to have nightmares about their heads ending up on pikes.) We really are led by morons.