These beltway brawls are exposing politicians
Political infighting is ugly and counter-productive to what government should be about. But everything is driven by partisan politics.
Call it the health insurance companies and nursing homes versus doctors and the AARP, a classic, inside-the-Beltway struggle that erupted when House Democrats sought changes to Medicare.
Publicly, all sides trumpeted their concern for older people in the United States and scarcely mentioned their own financial and political self-interests, if at all.
Together, they have spent millions on lobbyists, television ads and polling to influence lawmakers. They stand ready to renew the battle this fall, all the while previewing possible lines of attack for the 2008 elections.
How’s that for a lead-in to a story about the nation’s health care system for the elderly?
The AP makes the convoluted story more readable by bullet-pointing what each side says, followed by what they’re not saying. Now that’s refreshing reporting, even though the topic and issues are disturbing.
I’m following this closely, because like millions of other Americans, I’m wrestling with the provisions of Medicare for my father in another state, and it’s like whacking one’s way through a dense jungle sometimes, only to find more thicket ahead. Like the immigration issue, this one ebbs and flows when other battles force it to the back burner.
Still, the maneuvering over Medicare has been a quiet presence in recent weeks and is certain to flare when Democrats turn anew to the issue.
In the interim, some Democrats strategists express concern that vulnerable lawmakers needlessly exposed themselves to potential political harm by voting to roll back private Medicare, only to have the measure sidetracked.
Here’s a strategy…..express some concern for the well-being and the common good of the citizens who conscientiously vote to put leaders in office, the grassroots folks who make up this representative republic who want Washington to get over their bi-partisan self-interest and actually govern the country well. They’re motivated by the fear of “potential political harm”?
United Health Group circulated a memo from prominent Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. “A vote to cut Medicare Advantage will elicit major negative political consequences,” he predicted. He added that 54 percent of Republicans, 66 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of swing independents believe that “cutting Medicare is a very convincing reason to vote against a candidate.”
Here’s a memo from the people to all members of Congress: On important issues in our country, basing your vote on political advantage and the strategies devised by partisan operatives to keep or gain power inside the beltway will elicit negative consequences next time you are up for election. A brawling, do-nothing Congress is a very convincing reason to vote against returning a politican to power.