What are you willing to give up?

By Jennifer J. Foster

I was watching CNN this morning when I heard the anchor tease something interesting on the blog.

As Congress moves ahead with the debate over health care reform, what are you willing to give up to help?

The interesting thing about this, to me, was the way CNN posed the question. As it is right now in Congress, the goal is unclear: Is is universal health insurance? Is it a government program? Is it increased affordability?

So ... what are you willing to give up? Please comment below.

Read through some of the comments CNN received, and compare your answers with those of other Americans.

It’s interesting, don’t you think, that some folks aren’t willing to give up anything—they still expect to take care of themselves, and they expect others to do the same.

If you’re interested in reading my response, you can see it on the list at 11:46 a.m.

That sounds familiar

By Jennifer J. Foster

Remember a week and a half ago when, in the column about the Blue Dog Democrats’ influence on health care reform, I said:

For all his efforts to make this his signature domestic policy issue, President Obama has been at best an interested observer. He’s advocated for universal coverage, and he’s done some town halls. But when it comes to bridging rhetoric and reality, he has been careful not to commit himself to anything – or rule anything out.

The president’s supporters say he’s respecting the legislative process, giving lawmakers the space to work things out themselves. His opponents say it’s just another example of Obama talking the talk, but being unwilling – or unable – to walk the walk; by refusing ownership of any specifics of the plan, he’s maintaining his deniability in case things go wrong.

This leadership gap gives congressional caucuses a golden opportunity to wield significantly more influence over legislation than they usually do.

Well, about 34 minutes ago, CNN’s Dana Bash posted this on the Political Ticker:

As the prospects for passing health reform by the time Congress leaves for its August recess look bleaker, Democratic grumbling about President Obama is growing louder.

One Democratic senator tells CNN congressional Democrats are “baffled,” and another senior Democratic source tells CNN members of the president’s own party are still “frustrated” that they’re not getting more specific direction from him on health care.

“We appreciate the rhetoric and his willingness to ratchet up the pressure but what most Democrats on the Hill are looking for is for the president to weigh in and make decisions on outstanding issues. Instead of sending out his people and saying the president isn’t ruling anything out, members would like a little bit of clarity on what he would support – especially on how to pay for his health reform bill,” a senior Democratic congressional source tells CNN.

Gee. That sounds familiar.

‘It will be his Waterloo’

By Jennifer J. Foster

Let’s talk health care reform.

I have been watching this with interest as Congress has started to take on the details of reform. As I did with the Sotomayor nomination, I held my fire until it became apparent what was being done.

I said a couple of weeks ago that the deadline House Speaker Nancy Pelosi set to get the proposal out of her chamber was arbitrary and had no basis in reality. It was just a date she picked out of the air.

Well, there are 434 other folks who serve with Pelosi. And they didn’t like being bullied. Many of those don’t-tell-us-what-to-do-congressmen are ... Democrats.

As I told you last week, the Blue Dog Democrats started expressing concern even before the House bill was rolled out (which, incidentally, was after Pelosi set the deadline. Nothing like having a deadline four to six weeks away and not even having a bill).

Pelosi ignored them.

The bill was rolled out anyway, with no concern or regard whatsoever for the misgivings of those even in her own party.

But the Blue Dogs won’t be ignored. They know the power they have to—pardon the pun—affect change. So they made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that they would put the brakes on this sucker if they didn’t get the concessions they wanted due to their concerns about the deficit, tax increases, protections for rural areas and even the possibility that the new plan could use federal tax dollars for abortion.

(Hey, President Obama. If you’re looking for a way to curry favor with conservative and moderate Democrats to help this thing along, you might consider ruling out abortion coverage as part of your reform package. But then, of course, that would be YOU making the compromise. We know how you think compromise is for everyone else.)

It’s no joke. The president decided to meet with them—and, as a matter of fact, they may all be having coffee and tea in the White House as we speak, because that meeting was to take place today.

I wonder if the little subject of the efforts of his political team to target those Democrats in new media spots will come up, you know, just in the course of conversation.

And while we’re on that topic, what do you make of the fact that President Obama is turning on members of his own party? What happened to the big-tent philosophy the Democrats were so busy crowing about and chiding the Republicans about just a couple of months ago?

It seems that President Obama and congressional Democratic leadership are only interested in a big tent if that big tent is filled with bobbleheads.

Anyway, the reality is that the president just doesn’t have the votes right now. So this is why we are seeing the stepped-up, full court public relations press from the White House and the president himself.

Yesterday, he made some remarks at a children’s hospital. In the course of those remarks, he signaled a new timetable for passing the bill—by the end of the year, instead of by the August recess in a couple of weeks.

It’s indisputable that the new timetable was more an acceptance of the political reality that he doesn’t have the votes right now than an acknowledgement of and concession to those folks who believe that the pace he’s set for a major reform package is simply insane.

But what really bothered me was the tone the president took.

The remark made by U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) about how it would be the president’s “Waterloo” if opponents were able to stop him on health care reform took center stage. It was the headline out of that statement.

I wondered as I listened to his speech how the president can say on one hand that it isn’t about him, but then make the remark one Republican senator made about Obama the centerpiece of the speech. That sounded pretty disingenuous to me.

And then there were Obama’s remarks about how those who oppose his efforts are doing it for political purposes.

That statement is simply NOT true. It IS simply unfair.

I’ll have more to say about this in my column this weekend, but suffice it to say that the president is starting to take on an ugly tone when it comes to getting things done.

You might say he’s adopting techniques and approaches that are indicative of the “tired old politics of the past.“

How’s that for a sound bite?

This week’s column

By Jennifer J. Foster

OK, folks, I’m back from a weeklong trip to Florida for my brother’s wedding. So it’s time to catch up the blog a bit.

First off, in case you missed it in Saturday’s print edition of the Opelika-Auburn News, my most recent column is now available on the web. Check it out:

Sotomayor hearings offer little surprises

I watched a good bit of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor last week. I had said that I was interested in hearing how she would explain her “wise Latina” remark, among other things. Having heard her responses, I used this week’s column to wrap my thoughts on the Supreme Court confirmation process in general, her explanation of her infamous remark and why that explanation is important.

It might surprise you.

In related news, Alabama’s own U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, exercised his right to request a one-week delay in the committee’s vote on Sotomayor’s nomination. Sessions wanted the time to review the answers Sotomayor provided to written questions GOP senators posed to her following the televised hearing last week.

The delay makes sense: Sotomayor turned in her answers this morning.