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What did Melissa Bean get for her healthcare vote?
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The Wall Street Journal today looks at the behind-the-scenes deals that helped Democratic leaders pass a massive health care package over the weekend.
Illinois Democrat Melissa Bean is cited, along with Oregon's Kurt Schrader and Jim Cooper of Tennessee, as having pressed party leaders for assurance that the massive costs of the bill would be met with new sources of revenue. In particular, they extracted a pledge that a tax on "high-cost insurance plans" would be included in the Senate bill and would become part of any eventual legislation. The proposal had been part of the House bill, but was absent from the version passed Saturday night.
Ironically, two of the most liberal Democratic Representatives voted "no" on the House bill. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio says he voted against the bill because it did not go far enough in curbing the power of private insurance companies.
And in a statement on his website, Washington state Democrat Brian Baird explains that he could not support the bill because "we do not yet have reliable estimates of how this legislation will impact the premiums paid by people who already have insurance." Moreover, Baird objected to the way in which Democratic leaders rushed the legislation through the House with very little opportunity for debate or amendments from the floor.
So, while much of the media has lately focused attention on the glaring divisions within the Republican Party, a snapshot of the Democrats shows little unanimity there either. Moreover, traditional labels of "moderate" and "liberal," Blue Dog and Social Democrat do not necessarily offer insight into how Democrats will vote on important legislation.
