“Since lawmakers have already decided not to pursue strict regulations on insurance premium increases, Stern said that a public option is the only real cost control mechanism on the table. Without the cost control provided by a public plan, Stern says it would be difficult for SEIU to support an individual mandate which would require all adults to purchase health insurance.”
Senator Ted Kennedy, who was a champion of healthcare reform, but has recently suffered from cancer, is asking the state of Massachusetts to change the law dealing with how vacant seats are dealt with so that Governor Duval Patrick could appoint a successor immediately. Currently, if Kennedy were to leave his seat, a special election would be held 140 days later. Naturally, the Republican Senatorial Committee was not as wild about the idea:
Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Democrats are at risk if they play “partisan politics,” though he said the Senate succession process should be up to the people of Massachusetts to decide.
“The NRSC believes this should ultimately be up to the people of Massachusetts to decide, however, it is hard to see how the Democrats wouldn’t pay a political price for changing their Senate succession law again to meet a new political purpose. The integrity of this process already took a hit when the Democrats made the blatant power play to take this authority away from Governor Romney, and it’s hard to see how they would have the credibility to reverse themselves simply because it’s now politically inconvenient. This should not be about partisan politics – it should be about ensuring the integrity and credibility of the Senate selection process."
Walsh didn’t comment on the irony of a Republican from Washington DC telling the people of Massachusetts that they shouldn’t change the law on how a vacant seat is filled because how the seat is filled should be left up to the people of Massachusetts.
In any event, thanks to the obstinate GOP, Democrats appear prepared to go it alone on healthcare reform, which would either involve circling the wagons to ensure that every Democrat in the Senate votes for the package, or invoking a little known budgetary procedure which would limit debate on the proposed legislation (that budgetary procedure was actually enacted by Republicans, so what goes around comes around I guess). Still, reform seems to be a long way off thanks to the August recess which will be coming to an end in a little over a week.
