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Health See other Health Articles Title: Lieberman Sees Recession Delaying Reform Written by Steven J. DuBord Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) thinks there is no reason to push healthcare reform through Congress in the midst of a recession, Fox News reported on August 23. “I’m afraid we’ve got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy’s out of recession,” Lieberman said. “There’s no reason we have to do it all now, but we do have to get started. And I think the place to start is cost health delivery reform and insurance market reforms.” Lieberman may be trying to counter the possibility that Democrats would abandon the White House’s goal of bipartisan support for healthcare reform. Democrats have 60 votes in the Senate, enough to overcome a filibuster and force a vote. “I think it’s a real mistake to try to jam through the total health insurance reform, health care reform plan that the public is either opposed to or of very, very passionate mixed minds about,” Lieberman said. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has mentioned that Democrats might consider using whatever voting tactics were necessary to pass legislation by the end of this year if Republicans don’t cooperate more with a bipartisan bill. But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) thinks this could backfire: “The American people will be very troubled by a single political party’s ‘my way or the highway’ attitude to overhauling their health care, especially when it means government-run health care, new taxes on small businesses, and Medicare cuts for seniors.” McConnell stated that Republicans want to start from the beginning again “with a genuine bipartisan approach.” Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) agreed that bringing up the health care situation “in the midst of recession, the unemployment problems … was a mistake.” He added, “For the moment, let’s clear the deck and try it again next year or in subsequent times.” Democrats may be feeling the absence of some of their key members who were sidelined by illness, the late Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.). Kennedy especially was a major backer of healthcare reform, and both Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) believe he would have contributed to achieving an acceptable compromise. “He had a unique way of sitting down with the parties at a table and making the right concessions, which really are the essence of successful negotiations,” McCain said. It is ironic that someone who would have pushed hard for healthcare reform as envisioned by President Barack Obama was himself unable to participate in the debate due to health problems. Perhaps the Democrats would do well to recognize that factors beyond their control are beginning to add up against achieving everything they desire in healthcare reform. Even some in their own party, the moderate, “blue-dog” Democrats, can’t be counted on to back everything President Obama has proposed. If only Americans would follow what politicians do, not what they say. We could all have their level of access to private care and to specialists if our current government-regulated managed-care system was dismantled and a true free market was once again allowed to function without interference.
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