Challenges to reform

While I worked a little for health care reform, I got another look at the challenges supporters of the president's health care reform principles face. Those principles include keeping a choice of doctors and plans (including a public plan), lower costs, and health care access for all - plus, more recently, deficit-neutral (all paid for). Stephanie's principal's daughter, Abby, had recruited me to a Southern Indiana United for Change gathering at which she originally hoped we would somehow each vow to get 50 new supporters each for the principles. SUIC I thought was a front group for Organizing for America, the extension of the Obama campaign. The reality was more complex. There were maybe a couple of dozen people there, and Abby and Bethany, the woman who had helped direct canvassing in Jeffersonville (IN) the Saturday before. But lots of folks there had questions about the president's principles - including too vague, they thought - and many others there were passionate supporters of the single-payer (national health insurance) proposals like the one Senator Edwards had advanced. it's possible to interpret what these folks were doing was heckling the meeting. You might recall I talked to one of these folks two weeks earlier (but she was more philosophical). Apparently, these folks had also talked the moderate Southern IN congressperson for whom I have volunteered into having a single payer expert talk with the "Blue Dog" moderate/conservative Democrat group that subsequently blocked the president's health care reform proposal in the House. There was a lot of discussion about this too. An aide to this House member, Baron Hill (Andy?), was also there. So - after general questions and questions from the single-payer folks - he fielded a bunch of questions - again, arguably, diverting the meeting. He wanted to defend Hill's position/record - and took up a fair amount of time doing so - although Bethany's official line on this was not that Hill and the Blue Dogs were trying to block health care reform, but that they were trying to make the proposal better. I later asked Andy about this directly - could they be trying to slow things down so they'd never have to take a tough vote on it (most moderate Dems are from swing districts, like the many moderates who got decimated in the 1994 election after the controversy over the Clinton health plan and the subsequent GOP takeover of the House). Throughout much of this meeting, I thought that Abby - who I knew was under a lot of pressure to DOUBLE the number of supporters signing up out of Southern Indiana (from 500 to 1,000) in the five subsequent days - was going to cry. Below Abby and Bethany try to enlist us to make phone calls or go out to the Clark County fair.

Folks on the right hand side of the room (below) painted themselves as less informed. For some reason I didn't get a photo of the single-payer people, who were mainly on the left-hand-side of the room.

Below Andy fielded a number of questions. Another problem with this is that the quasi-petition drive is partly aimed at Senator Bayh (D-IN), who will propably oppose the plan, and Hill, part of the Blue Dogs. The 1,000 signatures were partly to try to demonstrate support for Southern IN to them. To the extent that Andy could pick up - as no doubt he did - that even the Obama campaign front group in Southern IN was quite divided over the president's reform principles - even if we came up with most of the 1,000 signatures, it might damage that somewhat. To an extent Andy was a "spy."

Ultimately, only 3-4 of us made calls - with only 45 minutes left. I got two supporters - one of them someone all the way up on the near Cincinnati end of the district where a new casino is doubling in size. (While I called outside where I had better cell phone reception, I overheard some of a fascinating conversation about religion among three folks there for the meeting - but nothing about health care reform from them - as they milled around outside in the parking lot instead of making phone calls.) But that wasn't going to put a big dent in the 500 additional signatures Abby was trying to get - or get me close to the 50 Abby was hoping we'd each get. I believe Abby went on to the Clark county fair by herself. (I told her I felt guilty about going to the Floyd 4-H fair the previous week with no paraphernalia.) I also confessed I would be out of town for the weekend and might might volunteer at the Nevada state Democratic Party HQ in Las Vegas at a phone calling event Monday (which I ended up not doing). Since all of this, the health care debate has sharpened, the Blue Dogs have thrown down the gauntlet, and the police incident in Cambridge and resulting controversy has also diverted attention from it. Also - I see in Ohio - that Organizing for America and allies have finally started running pro-health care reform TV ads - which I'm hoping if Southern IN is really important that they'll start running in the Louisville TV market also.

-- Perry