Roll Call reports:
Senate Democratic leaders’ hopes of approving health care
reform before adjourning for the August recess appear all but
dead, with the prospect of meeting President Barack Obama’s
demand for a bill on his desk by Oct. 15 looking increasingly
difficult.
There's a reason why President Obama is trying to rush health
care legislation through Congress and why he continues to make
dire warnings that if it doesn't happen this year, it won't get
done. The longer legislation stews in Congress, the more time
there is for opponents to pick it apart. While Democrats had
hoped to have bills passed in both chambers by the end of July,
allowing them to come back from recess after Labor Day and merge
the House and Senate bills together in the fall, now
critics will have much more time to expose the problems
with Democratic health care plans.
And there's a further complicating factor. Several more months of
delay means several more bad unemployment reports that call into
question the effectiveness of the economic stimulus package. In
an interview on
local television in Connecticut, Sen. Chris Dodd (who is one of
the key players on health care) said that the stimulus
legislation wasn't working and suggested there may have to be a
second stimulus bill. So, Democrats may find themselves in a box
in the fall assuming the economy continues to deteriorate. Take
no further action and they'll face criticism from the left that
they're not doing enough to help the economy and from the right
that their policies have been ineffective. However, if they do
push for a second stimulus package it will be a tacit admission
that the first one was a failure, make their health care claims
less credible, and divert a lot of oxygen from the health care
fight.
