Ezra Klein: Chuck Grassley Fundraises Against Health Care Reform

[flpoljunkie]

Chuck Grassley Fundraises Against Health-Care Reform

Chuck Grassley is facing a potentially difficult primary challenge in 2010. As such, he's been working hard to cover his right flank. That would all be fine except for one thing: As ranking member of the Finance Committee, Grassley is responsible for developing a workable compromise on health-care reform. But as this fundraising letter (pdf)* shows, Grassley is running against health-care reform back in Iowa. Here's how the missive begins:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/grassleyfundraising.pdf

I had to rush you this Air-Gram today to set the record straight on my firm and unwavering opposition to government-run health care.

And ask your immediate support in helping me defeat "Obama-care."

I'm sure you've been following this issue closely. If the legislation sponsored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives and Chairman Ted Kennedy in the Senate is passed it would be a pathway to a government takeover of the health care svstem. lt would turn over control of your health care decisions to a federal bureaucrat ... and take it away from you and your personal physician.

It would mean government rationing in the name of cost controls.

The emphases are in the original document. Grassley does allow that he is working on "a viable alternative that is free-market based and rejects the pitfalls of government-run insurance." But that's the single constructive or compromise-oriented sentence in the letter. The rest of it, as you can read for yourself, previews a campaign strategy entirely based around Grassley's opposition to "Obama-care." As Grassley says, "the simple truth is that I am and always have been opposed to the Obama administration's plan to nationalize health care. Period."

The question of whether Grassley wants to compromise on health care is increasingly being overtaken by the reality that Grassley is not leaving himself political room to compromise on health care. He is creating a campaign premised on his role in stopping Obama's health-care reform effort. It is not clear how he could pivot to save it, even if he wanted to do so. And given the unique role Grassley occupies as the senior partner in Max Baucus's bipartisan process, the bare-knuckled partisanship of Grassley's letter does not suggest that his political team is readying itself to sell a compromise.

By Ezra Klein | August 31, 2009

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/08/chuck_grassley_fundraises_agai.html

[pscot]

1. K&R

n/t

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. Billionaires for Wealthcare loves this guy. nt