White House Involved in Healthcare Negotiations

Behind the scenes, the White House is actively involved in healthcare negotiations.

The New York Times (8/13,Kirkpatrick) reports on its front page that, while President Obama "has consistently presented himself as aloof from the legislative fray" in the healthcare reform debate, "merely offering broad principles," the President and his advisers "have been quite active" behind the scenes, "sometimes negotiating deals with a degree of cold-eyed political realism potentially at odds with the president's rhetoric."

The White House has negotiated deals through the Senate Finance Committee, leading some to conclude the Administration "was tacitly signaling as early as last spring that it might end up accepting something more modest than the government insurer the president has said he prefers."

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel "disputed that the administration had elevated the work of the Senate finance panel above the four other committees that have all approved strong government insurers," but "acknowledged the political realities that have made the Finance Committee's still-unfinished cooperative plan a center of attention." Emanuel said, "We have heard from both chambers that the House sees a public plan as essential for the final product, and the Senate believes it cannot pass it as constructed and a co-op is what they can do. We are cognizant of that fact."

In a Washington Post (8/13) op-ed, Paul Begala writes, "I think my fellow progressives ought to give Max Baucus and other members of the Senate Finance Committee a little breathing room as they labor to produce a healthcare bill that can garner enough votes to pass the Senate. Progressive politics is, in my view, a movement, not a monument. We cannot achieve perfection in this life, and if that is our goal we will always be frustrated."