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Has Daschle Gone Rogue?
Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP Photo
Tom Daschle, Obama's original pick to overhaul the health care system, is now floating a rival plan, to the chagrin of some in the administration. The Daily Beast's Richard Wolffe asks the president's failed health nominee which side he's on.
He was supposed to be at the heart of the health-care debate, shuttling between his White House office, the halls of Congress, and his expansive Cabinet secretary’s suite. Instead Tom Daschle, the former Democratic leader in the Senate and prominent advocate for health reform, is shaping the contentious debate through the advisory job that derailed his nomination as Obama’s first pick for Health secretary. And it's a shape that the president doesn't currently accept.
“This is difficult stuff,” he tells me. “It’s not easy. There’s no painless way to reach compromise. There’s no painless way to reach the revenue targets we’re trying to reach. I don’t mind taking heat. I guess I feel I took plenty of heat when I was leading the Senate. It comes with the territory. You have to accept the fact that you’re not going to please everybody.”
“He’s making compromises we don’t want to,” says one senior Obama aide. “We just take a different view right now.”
The reason he’s not pleasing Obama right now: the reform blueprint he negotiated with two former GOP Senate leaders, Bob Dole and Howard Baker. It includes compromises that some Democrats, including several inside the White House, are still uncomfortable with.
(Daschle works at the D.C. office of Alston & Bird, a corporate law and lobbying firm headquartered in Atlanta. He is not a registered lobbyist, meaning he cannot approach government officials on behalf of his clients. He can, however, advise the firm's clients, which include several major health care companies and organizations.)
Daschle’s big compromise was to weaken the so-called public option, making the federal government a fallback in case state governments fail to establish so-called insurance exchanges. Those exchanges are intended to allow patients to compare plans in a clear way, encouraging more competition between insurers to drive down costs.
In return, Daschle felt that his Republican counterparts dropped their opposition to universal coverage, and especially mandates for companies and individuals—which would levy fees or taxes on those who don’t offer coverage or take up insurance.
The headlines and commentary about Daschle’s compromises were not exactly positive. “Daschle Folds on Federal Public Health-Care Plan,” wrote ABC’s The Note. “Daschle reluctantly agreed that there would be no federal-government plan,” wrote The Washington Post’s veteran columnist David Broder. Another point of criticism: the fact that he continues shaping policy, including talking on background to reporters and commentators and sharing his expert analysis to his clients, via the job that derailed his nomination as Obama’s first pick for Health and Human Services secretary: special public-policy adviser at the law firm Alston & Bird.
White House insiders weren’t necessarily expecting the South Dakota Democrat to carry their water. But after his nomination debacle, they weren’t expecting major differences, either. Now there’s a feeling that he’s gotten out ahead of them. “Everyone loves Daschle,” says one senior Obama aide. “But he’s making compromises we don’t want to. We just take a different view right now.”
Daschle has expended much time and effort to correct the impression that he torpedoed a public health-care option—up to a point. “I don’t think I said that,” he explained. “But we have to be willing to compromise on a public plan. At the end of the day, I’m not opposing everything else just because a public plan isn’t designed the way I would like it to be. There isn’t one thing that should kill the reform effort this time.









Obama's got 65% approval. 70% of the people want a public option. There are wide majorities of Democrats in both houses of Congress. And they can't get a public option through? OK. Who's stopping it? Shine a light on them. Do I have to explain brass knuckle politics to Mr. Chicago? Obviously, Dems care more about their big money donors than they do about the country. And Daschle? Daschle ought to be put in stocks in front of the capital wearing nothing but those weird red glasses of his. What a traitor. Come on Obama - let those who oppose you learn to fear you. Why won't you fight?
You should check those polls a little closer. People want A public option, but when given the specifics of the proposed plans.... not so much.
The latest NBC/Wall St.Journal poll
Finds a whopping 76% -at least that-
The poll actually says 'more than three quarters'
Of respondents think the health care reform bill
Should give people the option
Of a public non-profit plan
SO ThinkAgain.
Ask them if they'd like to get cancer care at the VA and then you will get a realistic answer. ONLY 25% of the american public has a college degree, and these folks do not understand what will happen to our health care delivery system when ObamaCare is in charge of them.
Medicare is going bust, so why not double down? Because it is a very bad idea.
Wow, sadie101, that's really elitist of you. First, it's 29%, not 25%, but that's not the point. Your implication is that those without a college degree are stupid. What arrogance.
You also seem to be suffering from the delusion that those with college degrees agree with you. We don't, but then many of us are well traveled and have actually had occasion to participate in public plans overseas.
same kind of people were "not so much" social security, med care, etc. now what?
So only people with a college education know whats right for everyone else?
I think those are the smart folks who got us into so much trouble to begin with.
75% of people are wrong and 25% are right because they went to college.
Hmmmm.
"The Daily Beast's Richard Wolffe asks the president's failed health nominee which side he's on."
Daschle and all politicians are supposed to be on the side of "The People."
These people in Washington,
actually believe "it is all about them and power," Dems versus Reps.
Politicians in their arrogance, are on the side of the largest bidders.
sadie, speaking from her stinky hind quarters as usual
"ONLY 25% of the american public has a college degree, and these folks do not understand what will happen to our health care delivery system when ObamaCare is in charge" - and of course you totally understand what will happen, in your vast wisdom... If you have a college degree, then you are breathing proof that education can and does fail. miserably.
"Medicare is going bust, so why not double down" - yeah, it's not any more complicated than that. We have huge teams of politicians working on a concept that can be boiled down to one phrase... moron
Sadly, it appears the way to get to wayward Senate Democrats is through their campaign committees.
The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee has sent 4 fundraising appeals to me this past week. Whether you got one or not - respond. Tell them you will consider a contribution when they begin to act as Democrats with a backbone rather than a water carriers for insurance companies.
The emails came from the politically savy James Carville, Senator Claire McCaskill, and the DSCC Ex. director. Contact them at:
james@carville.info,
info@claireonline.com,
and info@dscc.org
true that.. all dems that disagree w/ a public option can be purged from the senate, beginning NOW
Benbochner,Democrats and republicans,care more about their cash donors.companies,polticians,and alot of people.on both sides of the aisle.
This is my first time making a reply. I see that they only go 2 deep, so I'll reply to sadie101 here.
While we are polling these folks, ask them if they don't mind paying for the huge profits the doctors and hospitals make on your cancer care.
Also ask them if the VA would refer you out to cancer specialists and then pay for it all, which they do routinely, would they want that type of care.
I would think so? He stepped down from the nominations far to quick. Yes, Obama please show these folks how you can Govern this Nation. You have the majority of the people following you at this point, go for the all you know.
76% want increased services, lower taxes, and a balanced budget.
99% think Bill Gates should pay the all the taxes so the rest of us can avoid the hassle filling out a 1040. Could happen.
You could get over 65% to express approval for a great many bad ideas. The United States is a Republic, not a Democracy. We elect representatives, not spokespeople. If our Senators and Congressmen were nothing more than mouthpieces, we could install touchtone voting in our homes and send them all home, generating huge savings in the process.
The reason the public option is losing traction is because it's a bad idea. It will lead to the destruction of the private insurance industry because it is beyond question unfairly advantaged in the competition. Obama is pragmatic enough and open enough to the flow of ideas that he appreciates that the public option, though knee jerk popular with the left wing of his party, may in fact be bad public policy. The more this gets debated, the more persuaded he will become. That's one of the nice things about bad ideas: their general shape gets clearer and clearer with the passage of time and more information.
Robin Williams
Suggested that lawmakers
Should dress like NASCAR drivers
Showing their sponsorships on their
Jackets pants and hats.
Tom Daschle has run out of space on his-
And Kaiser-Permanente is spelled out
Across his ass.
How perfectly appropriate, Ritarita. Thank you for this!
Love that idea. Let's send it to Daschle!!! Where do we reach him, ...the little weasel. Turning on the People for a dime.
Nope, Jane1948, he didn't turn on We The dear Sheeples for a dime -- it was for 31 pieces of tarnished silver.
Two anagrams for Tom Daschle are "Cash Led Tom" & "The Old Scam."
Oh great, another person who gets their policy from drunkard movie stars.
I can bet how this person answered to the public plan in the poll: I want what Robin Williams wants, he so smart guy
Sadie, you fail to see the wit in that remark? Sad! It's not policy - it's an observation. You're supposed to think, you know -- not just react as you've been told.
I guess some people are waiting for "the rest of the story..." as Paul Harvey used to put it.
The economic magic that I have been hearing s that we extend this benefit to a good portion of the western hemisphere, (we have laws that force care to be provided at tax payer cost now, regardless of citizenship)
we relieve the businesses of having to provide healthcare, but then tax them for it and pay for the benefits this way.
So, business is releived of a burden and then given a new one that is supposed to cover twice as many people?
The math doesn't work. Somewhere in here are some critical assumptions about service availability, competition, costs, and revenue that will either make or break the bank.
These shouldn't be shoot from the hip guesses. There should be sound arguments with facts to back them up. Adding another entitlement that will break our bank in the nearer future is the kind of decision making that got us to where we are now. Just look at Social Security and the mess it will be in. We don't know how we will pay that entitlement, but let's add a few more anyways.
.
sadie
Robin Williams may have his flaws but being stupid is not one of them
Good one!
BTW, it is a good observation, and full disclosure of all donors is one of those McCain ideas that goes right along with this sentiment.
Well put rita well put
HAH! good one!
Rita, that was GREAT!!!
A few more ideas:
Advertising on the outside of AF 1 & all presidential limosines
Billboards erected on the roof of the Capitol & WH
the list is endless!
Lets not forget to remind Daschle to order NASCAR suits for his wife and children. After all, the entire family should be reminded every day how their husband and father gets his money. Good god, don't these people have any self respect at all? Tom Dashle should put up an "I'm for sale" page on EBAY.
First, I love ritarita ;)
I keep thinking that as an *initial* transformation of health care, one way to start a compromise is to limit the coverage discussion to children, or to children and retirees. Medicaid and medicare do some of this already, but folks spend a lot of money out-of-pocket for family coverage premiums, so much that many go without and hope for the best when they could have gotten preventative or early care that could have avoided bigger bills down the road.
As Whitney sang, "I believe the children are our future." Let's start by investing in our children's care - we stupid adults can fend for ourselves for a while. Let's see where that takes us coverage-wise, budget-wise, and efficiency-wise before moving toward the idea of any universal coverage options.
I do love the idea of legislators like NASCAR drivers, literally wearing their allegiances on their sleeves (thanks, Ritarita! Great mental image!). And I do agree that children absolutely do need care, no matter what, so their care rightfully should be a "given."
But I differ with son-of-metis when he says "we stupid adults can fend for ourselves for a while." Sorry, but that's just not true for everyone. There are families going bankrupt every day because of traumatic medical conditions they did not choose and cannot do anything about.
That's the whole point of the public option--that, and the fact that any one of us, insured or (mostly) not, could be the next one forced to bankruptcy after, for instance, a catastrophic automobile accident or an aggressive cancer.
I totally agree with you. In fact, just caught a few minutes of Michael Moore's "Sicko" the other day that reminded me of a lot of problems we 'stupid adults' are currently facing with the current scheme. And yes, those kids are dependent upon healthy parents to take care of them.
Even so, I'm just positing that if we can't agree on a price tag or coverage to possibly cover *everyone*, then let's at least come up with a plan to cover the kids and then work our way on up.
I used to like the Senator but he does not seem to understand how important the pubic option is for the average American. When you live and work in Washington you are in a bubble. You loose touch with real average working class and middle class people. You do not for a minute appreciate the depth of hurt out there. It is all a game of chess when your personal health care is not in jeopardy
What this also tells you is that Tommy "in the money pocket of the health companies" Daschle but that when his tax problem came up it was Obama sho asked him to step down rather then him stepping down...
Look, I voted for Obama but this govt as the answer to everything is going a bit too far. Hate on the insurance companies all you want but govt is running Medicare into the ground, despite the fact that they pay providers at about 70% of the fees charged by private insurers. A public option is a trojan horse...the public plan will drive private competition out of the health insurance business (not to mention doctors and hospitals) and all we'll have is single payer. So the govt owns the banks, the car companies, the health insurance companies...it's all a bit too much for me.
Government is hardly running Medicare into the ground--but private industry may be doing just that, esp when defrauded many $millions$ to the U.S. Taxpayer by Rick Scott, infamous & deposed CEO of Columbia Health Care company. Scott is currently spending millions in advertising to attach a public plan. Gee, why would he want to do that? The private insurance companies have had their day and raped the American consumer of many trillions. We currently pay $2.4 Trillion dollars a year on health costs-- $8,000 per person, while all the other first-world countries pay less than half that cost. Why shouldn't this country save $1.2 Trillion a year and have universal health care, and feel secure that they are a part of a system that won't drop them once they get sick. It's as if the Fire Dept won't drop you if your house is burning, or the Police Dept won't stop by when a burglar invades, or your kids won't be dropped by the school system....
You really think the private corporations are going to exit the business because they're miffed about another provider in the market? To me that's only a baseless fear and a passive justification for keeping the status quo.
My fear is that the Tom Daschles of the world will seek to exploit the new public option and make it another part of the machine, to make it profitable for a tiny minority of the privileged at the expense of social justice and what's good for our nation.
No Jenny, the private insurers won't just up and leave but they will be forced out because the govt sets prices with providers who are required by law to accept Medicare. Private companies have to negotiate with providers and they are taxed by states (most states collect premium taxes from insurance companies). Providers can't survive on medicare rates so they demand greater reimbursement from private companies. This isn't baseless nor is it a passive justification for the status quo. The savings from a public program would come from screwing providers. Screw them and hospitals will close and doctors will leave the business. Reform is necessary but please leave the govt out of it - they have enough to do in running the banks and car companies.
This is no surprise. Daschle's clients include health care FOR-PROFIT companies so why should he be concerned about the Ameriacan health care patient. I don't understand what Dole and Baker have to do with this, though. Are you saying, Mr. Wolffe, that those two relics of the old rational republican party can influence the ideologues in the Congress today? I would be struck dumb if that's true.
Unfortunately, Daschle has been bought and paid for by the health care industry that's responsible for he and his wife's now very comfortable lifestyle. He planned on selling out Obama all along. The country was lucky that his avarice for free limousine rides torpedoed his appointment as HHS secretary.
"Daschle says he has received positive reaction from his Democratic friends..."
Of course they are "positive". They're looking for a way to keep that pharamcutical cash flowing without looking like they're siding with the GOP and he's giving them that option.
Look for Daschle to be building a few new vacation homes soon. He's cashed in and sold out!
Daschle needs to get a clue and support a viable option. Private insurance companies are not going to have the public's interest in mind and they need to be forced to play by rules that are fair for the American people. I've written a blog article outlining exactly what I think should be done to successfully implement health care reform in the U.S. and you as an individual are at the core of the plan. Read more to find out how:
http://rxvette.blogspot.com/2009/06/biggest-key-to-health-care-reform-i n-us.html
What is wrong with the Democrats? Why can't they even get a reform past that almost all their voters demand? This governmnet moves a hell of a lot faster to assist big banks, corporations and insurance companies than it does the very people who supposedly elected it. Daschle is by no means the only politician of his generation who talks like a populist and collects money like an elitist.
I can't tell you how sick I am of people like this. Had it up to here with them.
He couldn't get the status so he's just settling for the cash. He is what the Greed-Is-Good crowd would call a "realist".
Listen dahlings! Tom Daschle was suspect from the beginning, so why did Obama chose him and then let him shoot his mouth off and hit the Prez in the foot. Daschle is no friend of seniors and his view on Medicare management is not an option. If Rahm Emanuel reads any of these messages the point made is that the White House should dump Daschle and find a proper replacement. This is a critical moment in the health care issue. So Rahm, sweetie, stop fooling around spending so much time doing smoke and mirror tapdancing around how to ignore the President's vanishing support of gay legislation and get to serious business of smacking Daschle into place and get the health care package passed. It all looks very tacky, Rahmy.
Most people do not consider that who the President selects for his cabinet must be approved by the Senate so this has to be considered when he makes a choice . The same is true of laws and programs . The congress controls the money and makes the laws and the President can only try to convince . Regarding health care ; The "public option" was dreamed up by someone to benefit Wall Street and has saturated the media with this debate . The real truth is "health care providers" cause insurance rates to increase and the same thing will happen with the "public option" as it has with medicare . And Wall Street (GOP) can destroy the "public option" insurance program as they have been doing with medicare . Before RR we had many low cost government clinics and hospitals and he dismantled them so the AMA would not have the competition these low cost health systems offered . A governemnt insurance program will be a failure unless the AMA has competition and many know this but do not have the voice to oppose the media sponsored "public option" . You can bet your socks if the media is pushing it Wall Street wants it . Maybe Mr Daschle has seen the light also .
Richard, sir, this story is laughable and I don't know why we continue it, other than to feed into a political Soap Opera that doesn't really exist.
Look at ALL the blogs, all of them, Daschle has received nothing but hate and scorn from Democrats for his disgusting stage right exit in 2004, into the loving arms of big pharma and rich donors.
Then your "source" paroted him out there as his pick for Obama's HHS.
Thank god corruption and the DLC go hand in hand, imagine what mess we would be in if the "advisor" got his way and got his buddy into the administration.
Now conversely, Sebelius has disappeared from public leaving Obama and Dean, the only Democratic leaders towing the line for our health care agenda.
This is no srprise.Daschle has long ties to the medical profession.He was told a long time ago what they want from him.
Spend $1.6 Trillions over 10 years to insure 17 millions? Does Congress need to learn Math 101? and we are talking about cost reduction. Politics aside, this country can not afford this price and get so little. If Obama was serious, he will take this money from Defense and go for Domestic spending. Obama is a politician from Chicago not a leader as his teleprompter leads you to belive.
Speaking of Math 101, the uninsured figure is upwards of 46 million. The teleprompter crack gives you away as one of Limbos sheep.
Also Mr Wolfe, why has no one in the media challenged the Obama administration on the nomination of this man to HHS?
It seems that Obama talks a big game, but his handlers pushed Daschle who was bought and paid for, then Sebelius who is silent, all the while Howard Dean is on TV show after TV show carrying Obama's water on health care.
You want an interesting story, get the administration on record why they didn't get a star for HHS, as they did for SOS with Hillary Clinton.
Just a real shame, Sebelius could have been a senator and Daschle could still have a limo and 200K he paid to make that story disappear.
Needless to say, many of us are not happy with all the DLC types in the administration. They just ain't what we voted for.
I think Daschle is right in the thought that we have to discuss, no one plan is greatest, we have to look at all sides.
However, while they are doing that, we need to have a disaster plan and get ALL people in the borders taken care of in the life and death situations that have arisen over these issues.
I met a person working for the health reform, going to school part time, and not able to afford health care, and not in a school that provides adequate student health care.
We need to put some emergency measures in place. I think that Department of Homeland Security is supposed to help America in life and death disasters, spends millions on preparedness exercises, and should take the lead here. Just WHOA, here is a disaster and go in to action. Just as if we had fifty major storms, or forest fires, or attacks of some kind, and make sure that every really ill person is assessed and taken care of.
The sad part is, it could happen. We have seen in Santa Barbara and other big disasters (Katrina comes to mind) what happens when we are not prepared.
If we cannot handle the really ill across the country, what would we do if we actually had a major outbreak of some kind of disease? Or just a barrage of natural disasters?
Each community could come on board, they are going to have to in real problems.
While swine flu has kind of gone the way of bird flu and spinach e coli, what if it had reached disastrous and deadly numbers?
We need to practice taking care of everyone, why not take care of those who are falling through the cracks as a practice run, and then use our resources to get the really needy ones the help they need as fast as possible, as would be necessary in a disaster situation?
We would then have the numbers, for real, and could begin to work on resolving the issues, not arguing over what might or might not be.
I do not know of one single insurance company or Medicare protocol that asks what party one belongs to. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Green Party, and non-voters, especially children are not getting the care they need. The children's health care plans have snags in them as well. Did you know that a working single mother cannot get a children's health care plan if she cannot provide the information required about the absent father? In the community center, we get those complaints often.
Did you know that most working single mothers make too much money to qualify for these health plans and often have to work a second job to pay for the more than $400 a family member costs for work related health care plans?
We have to resolve these issues. Children with no parents get in to trouble, and working two jobs, while one parent has abandoned the family means children with no parents.
Even going back to his pathetic record as a feckless and cowardly minority leader, I guess we could have expected him to do what he's always seemed to be bets - cave. Tom, take your weird glasses and your limo and go away. Thought you might have something to contribute, but apparently just the same old cowardly undercutting of any real progressive position.
I wish more would speak the truth, especially on party lines.
This is a man who disapeared from Politics as soon as he lost.
Look at Daschle, then look at Al Gore and Howard Dean.
See the glaring difference? They both lost, one went to war on a single issue, the other went to war for his party's majorities and Executive aspiartions, all the while redefining and unifying what it means to be a Democrat in America.
Daschle, like a Republican ran to towards the smell of money and cheesy rented limos.
Richard, for me it's all about "follow the money" as a means of explaining peoples' somewhat predictable actions/decisions. Like those "fence-sitting" democrat Senators. When you look at how much money they've gotten from the "health sector" it's a good indicator of possible and predictable behavior.
For these Senators, it sadly comes down to staying in power and then just figuring out how to explain it to voters and not lose too many of them when running for re-election.
Daschle's minby bambi rhetoric: it's about retaining important sources of income to maintain the life style he's become accustomed to, after leaving the Senate.
What douche bag Daschle should be explaining is why he is lining his pockets with healthcare industry dollars. It's time to send this misguided self-interested piece of who-gives-a-shit-about-what's-good-for-the-American-people packing once and for all. Bill Maher got it right, the Dems are the new Repugnants and it's really starting to stink wherever they show their bought-and-paid-for faces.
The "compromise" is to get rid of public option in order to get guarantees that all Americans will be covered (by private insurance, in light of the other half of the "compromise"). So this compromise means that the insurance companies get more premiums and no competition? Who did you say Daschle was working for these days, again? Hey, Tom, we're not all morons!
Intelligent people can disagree, but I'm really sick and tired of these people thinking we are so stupid that we'll think they are looking out for us no matter what they do that makes it obvious that they aren't. We'd be better off killing reform than getting ourselves more beholden to insurance companies. If they don't want a public plan, they'll have to be regulated to within an inch of their lives so they don't nickel and dime us to within an inch of ours.
mmm, you're right on the crucial point about which one hears so little. If we get individual mandates (everyone is required to have health insurance as you are required to have auto insurance except *a lot* more expensive), without public option, all of those 47 million are required to stuff their money into the "darksome hollow maw" of the Insurance Corps whose only allegiance is to Wall Street and gilded profits.
Now, you, rabid prone-to-hysteria ninny afeard of socialism, may pay Aetna CEO Ron "Silver-Forked-Tongued" Williams' $24 million annual if you just simply have a gigantic jones for that, but dagblast it, allow me the liberty the vaunted freedom to choose a sensible sturdy public option which doesn't have to pay for the gold-rimmed luncheon plates on United Wealthcare's Hemsley's private jet.
Govmint of the corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation shall not remove its cloven hoof off the throat of We The dear Sheeples, apparently. I didn't mind so much being ashamed of the human/reptile hybrids, the Reptilians, they always had cold blood and a hole where their heart should be. But my Democrats -- it breaks my bloody heart, truly it does.
Don't be ignorant and attack VA health care, it is actually the best we have - BECAUSE it is single-payer: "The seamless integration of science, information, and compassion is the dream of modern health care. Scenes like these are not fantasies, however, but daily realities at the Veterans Health Administration." (Fortune, May 2006.)
Daschle is playing spoiler from a grudge because Obama did not spend all his political capital to back his flawed nomination.
I was wondering about that.
What are you basing that on watching?
Thank you.
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