“I think the administration has put her in the driver’s seat; it’s very disconcerting.”
by Joe Sudbay
October 15, 2009
Last night, John wrote a post explaining how President Obama could and should use his power to pass a strong health insurance reform bill out of the Senate. That require presidential leadership. Yet, for some reason, the White House brain trust has chosen to give its power to Olympia Snowe:
One day after the Senate Finance Committee approved a measure without a “public option,” the question on Capitol Hill was how President Obama could reconcile the deep divisions within his party on the issue. All eyes were on Senator Olympia J. Snowe, the Maine Republican whose call for a “trigger” that would establish a government plan as a fallback is one of the leading compromise ideas.
Two senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the White House looked favorably on the Snowe plan. But liberal Democrats were maneuvering against it Wednesday, arguing that Ms. Snowe, the lone Republican to vote in favor of the Finance Committee’s bill, was gaining undue influence over the talks.
Rep. Grijalva, who co-chairs the House Progressive Caucus, said on-the-record what most of us are thinking:
“It’s one vote, she won’t make the commitment on the final product, and she says she’s got to have the trigger,” said Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, who is leading an effort in the House to round up votes for a government plan akin to Medicare. “I think the administration has put her in the driver’s seat; it’s very disconcerting.”
Very disconcerting.
http://www.americablog.com/2009/10/i-think-administration-has-put-olympia.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/health/policy/15public.html?_r=2&hpw---------------------------------------
What Olympia Snowe Got for Her Vote
By Ezra Klein
The list of senators charged with merging the Finance and HELP bills into the legislation that will actually come to a vote on the Senate floor is vanishingly small, and every participant is there for a reason. Harry Reid will preside. Max Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee, will be one of the chief negotiators. Chris Dodd, who led the HELP Committee's health-care efforts, will be the other. And that's about it. Oh, except for one other person:
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Mr. Reid, said that Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, the lone Republican on the Finance Committee to vote in favor of the bill, would be invited to future sessions. And Mr. Manley said the Democratic leader was prepared to go to substantial lengths to keep Ms. Snowe’s support.
"He is prepared to do what he can to keep her on board while putting together a bill that can get the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster," Mr. Manley said.
This shifts the room's balance of power substantially: The negotiations were previously confined to one liberal Democrat and one centrist Democrat. Now they'll be between one liberal Democrat, one centrist Democrat, and one moderate Republican. In practice, this is likely to mean that Baucus will have something of a trump card against Dodd. If there's a particularly thorny dispute, and Snowe weighs in strongly alongside Baucus, it's hard to imagine Reid siding with Dodd, except in the most extraordinary of cases.
There will also be issues that Snowe brings to the table herself. For one thing, she wants to make sure the bill is affordable, but that just means that people can afford the fees, not necessarily that what they're buying will be good insurance. One of her ideas, actually, is to make the minimum benefit package less generous. She also wants to open up the exchanges and push for her public option trigger.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/10/what_olympia_snowe_got_for_her.html?hpid=topnews?hpid=topnews-------------------------------------------------
What Does Snowe Want Now?
By Suzy Khimm
October 13, 2009
As the only Republican who supported Baucus's bill, Olympia Snowe will wield considerable leverage as the negotiations move out of committee, to the Senate floor and, eventually, into conference committee with the House. As she said during the proceedings today, "My vote today is my vote today and it doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow."
So what will Snowe be pushing for in the final Senate bill? In a scrum with reporters today immediately after the historic vote, she underscored a few key provisions:
Prioritize affordability: Snowe called affordability her "first and foremost goal" going forward. What does this mean? She cited her work with Schumer to loosen the individual mandate in the absence of greater subsidies, which she declined to lobby for. One idea she floated today: "maybe lower the actuarial value" of insurance--which roughly means to scale back the benefits that insurers will be required to offer in the exchange, i.e. skimpier benefits to bring down the price tag. She also mentioned the coverage of "young invincibles"--which could mean that she'll defend the exemption that the Baucus bill gives young people under 25, who can buy catastrophic coverage instead of comprehensive plans.
Push for the trigger alternative. Yes, she's still all for it. She reiterated that she wasn't inclined to support the proposed state "opt-out" option and emphasized the importance of thinking of a government-run alternative as a genuine "back-up" plan for states.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/so-what-does-snowe-want-now