The last week has brought a blizzard of news from the administration: the State of the Union, bank reforms, high-speed rail, 4th-quarter GDP growth, President Obama’s highly lauded appearance at the House GOP retreat, and now his budget and jobs proposals. Conspicuously missing from the headlines has been health care reform. And that’s just how the Democrats like it.
As Jonathan Cohn reported this weekend, there’s more going on behind the scenes on health care than the dismal outlook suggests. The decision to shift the attention to other issues, while viewed skeptically by many progressives as the first step toward dropping the issue altogether, might actually be having a salubrious effect:
Even the decision to focus on jobs, banking, and the economy right now–while letting the “dust settle” on health care reform–may not be quite the sign of retreat it seems at first blush. Many insiders have suggested to me that giving leadership a little breathing space to negotiate, and giving members of Congress more time to adjust to the post-Massachusetts political landscape, will ultimately make a deal more likely. In today’s Los Angeles Times, Rep. Gerald Connolly, president of the House Freshman Democrats says that strategy may be working: “The more they think about it, the more they can appreciate that it may be a viable . . . vehicle for getting healthcare reform done.”
By diverting the attention to jobs, banks, and budgets, the president is betting that he gives Congress the time and room to work out their differences and talk each other off the ledge. Maybe he’s right.
But there’s a legitimate fear that unless the president takes firm control of the process soon — be it behind the scenes or in front of cameras — health reform is in danger of dying of neglect. Cohn reports that the administration is still taking a hands-off approach with Congress, which is giving his supporters heartburn.
Is it enough to tell the Dems to not “run for the hills”? Based on the skittish display congressional Democrats put on in the wake of the Scott Brown win, color me skeptical. It need not happen in full public view, but the president might need to do much more exhorting and hand-holding to get the House to act.
