Main ContentRepublicans seek Democratic allies in health care fight
Newly empowered congressional Republicans plan to chip away at the health care reform law next year — and they're hoping a handful of at-risk or moderate Senate Democrats will help them out. (See: Republicans Push Health Care Repeal)
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin won a Senate seat vowing to repeal "the bad parts of Obamacare," and Republican aides say they'll hold him to it. Republicans are also eyeing Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Jim Webb of Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana — Democratic senators in red or reddish states who will face voters in 2012. (See: Republican Party Eyes Choking Health Law Funding)
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“Not only do you have new Democrats coming in who have campaigned against health care, you have Democrats up in 2012 who are running in relatively red states,” a senior Republican Senate aide told POLITICO. (See: Democrats Run Away From Health Care)
With a big new majority in the House, Republicans will have little trouble passing whatever they want, including a full repeal of the health care reform law. But Republicans don't have a majority in the Senate, so even modest changes to the law will require the help of centrist Democrats — or at least scared ones.
Manchin is the Republicans' top target because he campaigned against part of the law and because he'll have to face voters again in 2012 if he wants to serve a full term. (See: Joe Manchin's Health Care Turnaround)
Manchin's office declined to comment. But the senator-elect has made it clear that he's open to changing the law.
"I agree with health reform,” he told The Charleston Gazette last week in a post-election interview. “Do I agree with everything in this package? No," he said, adding, "I've always tried to fix things."
He has also said that if repealing pieces of it isn’t plausible, he’d support repealing the whole law.
Among incumbent Democrats, Republicans have high hopes for Nelson, who stands for reelection in 2012 in a state that Barack Obama lost by 15 percentage points in 2008.
Nelson has signaled that he's open to fixes that fall short of full repeal. His spokesman, Jake Thompson, said he's game to roll back the reform law's vilified 1099 tax-reporting requirement and "perhaps make some improvements to the individual mandate."
"Sen. Nelson would support some changes to the health care law and certain improvements that might be identified down the road,” Thompson said. “But in terms of repealing, that would not be his interest.”
Tester spokesman Aaron Murphy said the Montana senator is always willing to listen to ideas to make any law better.
“But he stands by his decision to cut the deficit by $1.3 trillion and to prevent health insurance companies from booting people just because they get sick or have some pre-existing condition,” Murphy said. “Before this law, those with insurance were paying the hospital bills for those without insurance, and it broke entire families. Jon isn’t keen on going back to that.”
The day after the law passed in March, Webb opened the door to bipartisan repairs.
“I would like to take some time this afternoon and perhaps, being the eternal optimist, speak in hopes that once this process is over in the next two days, we can find a way to move forward with our colleagues across the aisle, fix provisions in this legislation and make it truly the kind of bill that they say they would like to see as well,” he said on the Senate floor in March.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Republicans seek Democratic allies in health care fight - Jennifer Haberkorn
via politico.com
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