At the start of what will inevitably be another week where much of progressive media focuses on Stupid Things Republicans Said, Paul Krugman takes time out to point to the real problem: "centrist Democrats." Here are the key graphs from Krugman, plus links to recent articles by Nate Silver discussing public support for the public option and health insurance industry donations to members of Congress:
The real risk is that health care reform will be undermined by "centrist" Democratic senators who either prevent the passage of a bill or insist on watering down key elements of reform. I use scare quotes around "centrist," by the way, because if the center means the position held by most Americans, the self-proclaimed centrists are in fact way out in right field.
What the balking Democrats seem most determined to do is to kill the public option, either by eliminating it or by carrying out a bait-and-switch, replacing a true public option with something meaningless. For the record, neither regional health cooperatives nor state-level public plans, both of which have been proposed as alternatives, would have the financial stability and bargaining power needed to bring down health care costs.(...)
Honestly, I don't know what these Democrats are trying to achieve. Yes, some of the balking senators receive large campaign contributions from the medical-industrial complex - but who in politics doesn't? If I had to guess, I'd say that what's really going on is that relatively conservative Democrats still cling to the old dream of becoming kingmakers, of recreating the bipartisan center that used to run America.
But this fantasy can't be allowed to stand in the way of giving America the health care reform it needs. This time, the alleged center must not hold.
It is hard to argue with Krugman's read here. The desire to play kingmaker must be overwhelming for many Democrats. For example, on the climate change bill, Agriculture Committee Chair Collin Peterson has received dozens of long feature articles on his "kingmaker" role on the climate change bill. However, he has received little to no pushback from environmental groups, while being showered in effusive praise from Speaker Pelosi:
House Democrats still lack agreement on key details of a comprehensive global warming and energy bill despite intervention from several top Obama administration officials, diminishing the chances that the measure will pass off the floor this week before the start of the Fourth of July recess.(...)
"Everything is going great," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told E&E on Friday. "It's the legislative process. It's going great, and I feel good about it all. We're going to reach our goals. And it's pretty exciting as a matter of fact. I'm really very excited about the Democratic response. It's been very, very positive. And Collin and Mr. Waxman and other chairs have worked very constructively to bring us to a good place."(...)
Peterson, who forged a close relationship with Pelosi during last year's farm bill negotiations, has been in constant contact with the House speaker on the global warming legislation. "She wants the farmers' concerns to be addressed," Peterson told reporters last week. "And she wants them to be on board with what we're doing."
Being a centrist Democrat who holds up Democratic legislation is a great deal. You get fawning press, huge amounts of power, no pushback from timid progressive advocacy groups and, once severely weakened legislation is finally passed, tons of credit for saving the world from climate change dirty fuc*ing hippies. Because really, in the end, the goal of legislation is to save it from DFHs, rather than to solve any problems.
With progressive media focused on the latest episode of Stupid Things Republicans Said, why wouldn't any Democrat want to become conservative kingmaker?
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