Main Street Journal: On the River: On Sausage & Health Care

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The following article is taken from the January 2010 issue of the Main Street Journal. Click “Subscribe Online” above to start your subscription.

On Sausage & Health Care
By: Jonathan Lindberg

Greater Memphis for the most part has managed to avoid much of the health care debate over the past year. This is due in large part to the neatly sliced congressional districts covering Greater Memphis.

Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Congressman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) both held town hall forums devoted exclusively to the heath care issue. Though the Cohen town hall devolved into the sole opportunity for those opposed to the House bill to vent, the position of both congressmen never seemed much in question.

Couple that with two Republican Senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, who both settled on opposition early on in the process and you ended up with a city that had seemingly made up its mind.

This cut-and-dry approach has not translated in other parts of the country.

Though the image of sausage making has been overused in recent days to the point of indigestion, few bills in recent memory have offered us a better glimpse into the downright corrupt process of creating a bill designed, we are told, to help the American people. Picture Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) announcing her support for the Senate version of the bill only after her state was granted three-hundred million in subsidies. Or Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) who secured permanent exemption from Medicare expenses in exchange for his vote.

I am told this is how the process goes. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told us that each Senator that supported his Senate bill received some sort of kick back for their state.

At the risk of sounding naïve, trading favors for votes hardly sounds like democracy at work.

That three out of every four Nebraskans were opposed to the Senate version of health reform did not seem to trouble Senator Nelson. He figured he had found the silver bullet. That his approval rating dropped by thirty percentage points the day after his so-called compromise should trouble the Senator – especially during an election year.

The voting booth remains the greatest tool for revenge in American politics.

With some sort of reform heading toward the desk of the President, the immediate question is what effect the health care wars of 2009 will have on the elections in 2010.

President Obama no doubt had the political capital in 2009 to spend on the health care debate. Despite losing twenty-five points in approval, he still hovers around fifty percent. That number is sure to rise and fall over the next three years based on other issues. However, many members of congress who have supported his push for health care reform and are up for election did not start with the same political capital and do not have the same time to recover.

Whereas swing districts tilted Democrat in 2006 and 2008, look for the pendulum to shift in 2010.

Already in Tennessee, Congressman Bart Gordon (D-TN) and Congressman John Tanner (D-TN) have announced their retirements. Similar Democratic retirements are popping up across the country, much like in 1993-1994.

Not a good sign.

It would be unfathomable not to have some sort of health care reform bill pass the desk of the president and it would be unfathomable for the president not to sign it. The Democrats may get some sort of health reform; they just might not like the political consequences that come along with the bill this fall.

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