Will President Obama give up on getting bipartisan support for health care reform?

September 1, 8:23 AMProgressive Politics ExaminerKaren Harper

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President Obama has maintained from the beginning of his administration that it was his intention to work on health care reform and other issues in a bipartisan fashion.  Despite all of his effort, only 3 Democrats in the Senate voted for the ARRA stimulus bill and all indications are that no Republican will vote for health care reform, period.

The latest numbers show that 77% of Americans want health care reform that includes a public option.  It might not seem so if you have watched cable news which has given a lot of coverage to town hall meetings where a few loud people have voiced opposition to health care reform. 

In my own experience at a town hall meeting here in Birmingham, I was surprised to find that a number of cars in the parking lot were from Texas, Georgia and other states.  The man in front of me in line was an insurance agent.  The woman behind me told me she got all of her information from Glenn Beck, an entertainer on the Fox network.  I watched two men carry in boxes of professionally made signs that oppose health care reform and hand them out to attendees.  The people in the line behind me and before me treated the waiting time like a party.  They talked about the various town hall meetings they had been to and were traveling to.  They were traveling as far as Washington D.C. 

The only time that I saw people who didn't seem like old pros at attending 'town hall' meetings were when a sick woman stood up and told the story of her insurance company refusing to cover the treatment that her doctors advised she have and when the former Chairman of the Department of Medicine at UAB challenged Representative Spencer Bachus (R), Alabama, about the one health statistic he brought up during the 'meeting.'

The point is that 77% of Americans want health care reform with a public option.  And yet watching cable news, one would think that it is only a small majority of people who do.  Some of the people at the town hall meeting I attended claimed that they too wanted health care reform.  When I asked each of them individually what they thought would be better than the Kennedy committee health bill, none of them had an answer and seemed surprised that I asked.  It seemed clear they were content witht he status quo.

In the past few days it has become as clear as it can be that no Republican wants health care reform.  Senator Chuck Grassley, (R), Iowa, whom President Obama has pointed to as one of the Republicans who has been working hard on health care reform has not only intimated at his own town hall meetings that the health care reform bill out of the House would "pull the plug on granmda," a letter has been produced that he sent out seeking donations for his next campaign that makes it abundantly clear that he has no intention of working on any sort of health care reform with sincerity and in fact, asks for money to help him defeat "Obama-care." 

As Bill Moyers pointed out on the Bill Maher show this week (see the video below), it is in the best interest of Republicans politically, to kill the health care reform bill. If President Obama and the Democrats with their majority in the Congress can't get a health care bill passed, Republicans will benefit politically and financially.  They hope to win back seats in Congress and make Obama a one term president.   Ironically, Republicans have made no secret of their desire and intent to "kill the bill."  

President Obama may have felt a sincere desire to change the way things are done in Washington by seeking bipartisanship going into the White House, but he can't do it alone.  By now, we can only hope that the president is rethinking his desire for bipartisanship.  While he may want it, he isn't going to get it.  That much is clear.  The Republican party's new mantra is "no."  They aren't interested in helping the 77% of Americans who want health care reform.  They are only interested in getting re-elected and part of getting re-elected means taking a lot of money from special interest groups from the health care industry.  

It would be easy to blame the lack of diligence to work for the benefit of the country solely on the GOP.  They are the Grand Obstructionist Party today.  But the blame can't be laid entirely on Republicans.  There are some in the Democratic party who have become what Bill Moyers calls "corporate Democrats."  The Republicans aren't the only ones who are more interested in the huge funding they receive from health care companies (insurers and Pharma) for their next election campaign than they are in ensuring that every American has access to health care.

It is disappointing to many progressives that the Obama administration has made a deal with health insurers and Pharma as part of health care reform.  Part of the deal is that "any healthcare legislation will bar the government from using its huge purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices." 

It's not clear yet whether or not President Obama is, as he seemed to be during his presidential campaign, committed to ensuring that every American has health care as part of health care reform.  Frankly, it is unclear whether he is more committed to seeking bipartisanship or to ensuring health care for every American. 

It seems to many who voted for him, that President Obama has put bipartisanship ahead of the people who voted him into office.  Those Americans care more about getting a robust health care bill than they do about bipartisanship.  And that is reflected in the polls.  While the large majority of Americans continue to want health care reform that includes a public option, the polls also show that the favorability numbers for President Obama's handling of health care reform are on a downward spiral.  It's not hard to connect the two polls.  Americans want health care for all Americans and President Obama appears to be weakening on the important substance of health care reform because of Republican pressure to concede anything that would mean real reform for health care in this country, ostensibly to achieve bipartisanship.

If a Democrat in the White House and a majority of Democrats in the Congress are unable to pass health care reform that includes a public option when 77% of the Americans they are supposed to be working for want it, it will be because they allow the Republicans to "kill the bill" while at the same time pretending to work towards a consensus on the bill.  If health care reform with a public option isn't passed,  the Democrats won't hold the majority for long.

When the American people voted overwhelmingly for Obama and the Democrats it was because they wanted what Obama promised during his campaign.  And while one can give a great deal of credit to the President for the many good bills that he has passed in his first eight months, it will mean little if health care reform with a public option doesn't get passed into law.  The voters will not wait around for them to get it right next time.  This is the next time.  It's the only time.  Once Republicans get back into the majority, and they surely will if the health care reform bill isn't passed, they are unlikely to come up with any sort of health plan that will help the American people.  They had 8 years under President Bush to do something and they didn't.  They don't want health care reform.  Period.

It is time for the President and the Democratic congress to write the health care reform bill that 77% of Americans want and leave the Republicans to their tin foil hat wearing base.  America has spoken, Mr. President.  Will you please listen?