As xstryker noted last night, Mike Castle definitely voted no for HCR and its reconciliation bill. Castle’s office put out a press statement on last night’s historic vote, that should be read in it’s entirety to fully comprehend how badly he is managing to maintain any moderate cred while marching lockstep with his party. But let’s take a look at a few things here:
The debate about how to reshape health insurance in order to reduce skyrocketing costs, and increase access, has dominated the attention of Congress for the past year. While there are many areas of agreement, Congress and the American public remain divided and it is easy to see why. While I am glad the “deem and pass” procedure was abandoned, and the House of Representatives allowed an actual vote on the bill, I feel strongly that Congressional leaders and the President have missed a real opportunity to take incremental, bipartisan steps that recognized the concerns of Americans who feel as though they will foot the bill for widespread reforms that they do not embrace.
See the problem? We get another unenthusiastic recitation of his party’s talking points on this thing, certainly. But how can you have “many areas of agreement” with the HCR and then call for small, incremental steps to get this done? There was little about this effort that was small, unless he wants to count the 200+ Republican amendments included to this thing. But either Castle is trying to dog whistle his party’s sense of entitlement (you have to do what we say or it doesn’t count!) or he hasn’t been paying attention. And note the faux concerns for what Americans feel about this — there are alot of Americans genuinely confused about what is in this bill. And that is a real failure of Democrats for not messaging this thing properly; of Republicans who lied about this non-stop AND the media who did little to help their audiences sort out fact from fiction. More on that in abit.
Throughout the debate, I have advocated for common-sense policies that aim to lower costs and expand access, without compromising the quality of American medicine or raising taxes on the American people. I have urged leaders to consider legislation to drive down the costs of care first, in order to increase access and coverage through affordability.
Oh really? The only thing I can remember is the wellness thing — which wouldn’t have been especially effective at expanding access, might lower costs for people who are healthier and also lets somebody — government or insurance company decide if you are taking care of yourself well enough to get those lower rates. Other than this, Castle has been largely AWOL during this thing. (BTW — did anyone hear Castle speak last night? I didn’t, but wasn’t completely glued to my computer screen all day.)
While there are policies embedded in this legislation that have bipartisan support, they are buried under budget gimmicks that threaten the long-term solvency of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security– the existing entitlement programs that are draining the federal budget based on their current obligations. Health care reform will impact the lives of every American, our federal budget, and 1/6 of our economy. Reform should hold insurance companies accountable, eliminate barriers to competition and quality care, promote prevention, and drive down health care costs. To ignore the costs and enact unrealistic and misleading legislation will only prolong our health care challenges for generations to come.
Budget gimmicks? These are budget gimmicks that Mike Castle voted for:
- BushCo Tax Cuts — the gimmick here was wiping out budget surpluses, replacing them with structural deficits (meaning they never got paid for), and letting them expire in 10 years to, you know, make the deficits look smaller;
- BushCo War Expenditures — this was a double counting scheme, where they got to vote for a bloated Appropriation for the DOD AND they got to vote for a War Supplemental. The gimmicks here would include a backdoor funding mechanism for the DOD (increasing the pool of funds funds for Halliburton, Blackwater, et al) AND bypassing the annual budget ceiling in order to spend more money on the DOD.
- BushCo Estate Tax revisions — this effort reduced he amount of federal estate taxes levied on weather people. Except to make the deficit numbers smaller (and to not have to pay for this), they let the tax drop to 0% this year and return to its 2001 levels in 2011.
In other words, Mike Castle spent the last decade voting for budget gimmicks, but it was OK because His Party Told Him To. But here he is pretending that no one will remember any of this stuff and count of this fake moderation to tide him over.
He ends with more talking points on how to change this bill. Some of that is worth doing, but none of that would cover 30M+ people for health insurance. None of it. And like the rest of his caucus, Mike Castle bailed on any real substantive discussions about this bill — if they cared about long term cost controls, they could have been heros everywhere by joining in the process to work this out. Instead, they want to pretend that this little stuff actually stands in for making major reform work better. This is the price of a policy of Obstruction Only. A policy that Mike Castle is fully committed to. And as you listen to him claim to be trying to influence process, remember that he is specifically lying to you. Because it is the policy of his party to Just Say No to Everything — a policy that has nothing to do with the lives of Delawareans — because his party has judged that to be in their best interests. Working towards common sense solutions means you have to work with the other party to have some impact. And as long as he isn’t doing this — because this is the will of his party — you aren’t watching anything near moderation.