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Is Healthcare Reform Dead?
President Obama gave his much anticipated State of the Union address to Congress on January 27. While Obama’s speech maintained his campaign themes of calling for change and fighting partisan politics, reaction to the speech was mixed and did not provide Obama with an increase in approval ratings or wider support for his economic, healthcare, and national security agendas.
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In fact, polls are showing that while Obama’s campaign mesmerized voters, the American people are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the administration’s slowness of progress on key issues as well as political agendas backed by increased spending and taxes.
This attitude was especially evident in the Massachusetts special election for the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat, where Democrat Martha Coakley was defeated by Republican Scott Brown. Although Obama campaigned for Coakley, the Republican victory for a Senate seat held by Democrats for almost 50 years, and a seat held by Kennedy’s the Senate’s strongest proponent for healthcare reform, should give the administration a reading into the country’s frustration with Washington politics.
However, the State of the Union address fell short of providing a strong voice to the American people. According to political analyst Jennifer Donahue, the speech was "very underwhelming….I think he threw bones to the left, he threw bones out to the right. I didn't see a lot there in the middle. I don't see a lot that's going to galvanize people who are looking for specifics on jobs, specifics on deficit reductions, an alternative to the year that's passed and something they can really get their hands around."
While Democrats praised the spirit of hope and change offered in the speech, Republicans were not as impressed. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was disappointed with the lack of emphasis on national security: "It almost seemed to me like a footnote, like an afterthought. Very little time spent. Nothing substantive said about it," he said. "The only thing he actually said about national security is he's going to bring the troops home from Iraq in August of this year. But of course, he was going to close Guantanamo by January of this year. So who knows."
Obama spent the majority of the speech on jobs and the economy, a renewed priority since healthcare reform has suffered setbacks. In fact, while Democrats have been pushing for any type of healthcare reform, the special election in Massachusetts has cost Democrats the 60-vote majority they need to pass the bill in the Senate, and now many believe healthcare reform is over. According to Senator Mark Pryor, D-Ark, "it's very possible that health care is just a stalemate and you can't solve it this year," while Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La said Obama's health care overhaul is "on life support."
In his State of the Union address, Obama urged Congress not to give up on healthcare, which was once his top domestic priority. However, he did not provide any specific plan to move forward.
A day after the speech, Senate Democratic leaders tried to determine how to proceed, and the White House continued negotiations. The Senate hopes to have legislative strategy on healthcare reform by the end of next week.
Meanwhile, Republicans said White House officials have reached out to them, though Republicans remain almost unanimously opposed to the bill. According to Senator Jim DeMint, R-SC, "if [Obama] continued to push this massive takeover that it could be his Waterloo, and now it very well could be."
For now, the push for healthcare reform is fading fast. While it was once the most talked about and important mission for Obama and Democrats, now Senate Democrats appear to be holding back on the topic. One day after the State of the Union, a weekly Democratic policy lunch did not include healthcare on its agenda. Meanwhile, in a letter to supporters outlining Democrats' 2010 agenda, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer did not even mention healthcare. Democrats still do not have a final healthcare bill; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that much work had to be done for the House to agree to changes to in the Senate bill.
This stall is seen as a victory on Wall Street, where there was much opposition to the high taxes and requirements for insurance companies that were included in the healthcare reform proposals. According to an analysis from UBS Investment Bank that was distributed after the State of the Union speech: "Investors should proceed as if the health care effort is dead."
Sources: cnn.com; nbc.com; foxnews.com
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