Pelosi: Dems will fight to defeat GOP Medicare bill
Aggressive effort to unite party rank-and-file
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House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
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President Bush is pushing Congress to pass a Medicare overhaul that would add prescription drug coverage.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that Democratic opposition to a Republican-backed Medicare prescription drug bill is "a party position," signaling an aggressive effort to unite the rank-and-file, scuttle the bill and claim credit with voters.
"This bill is wrong and when the public sees what's in this bill, I think it's going to be a negative to have voted for it," the California Democrat said in an interview squeezed between public appearances and private appeals designed to defeat the measure.
Nine Democrats voted for GOP-crafted legislation in June, and the party's leader said some "may have mitigating regional concerns" prompting them to vote in favor of the House-Senate compromise.
At the same time, Rep. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, third-ranking in the leadership, said Pelosi has made it clear she expects Democrats to oppose the bill, "and she expects that if you can't be of that position, you come tell her why you can't be of that position."
Underscoring the political stakes, one prominent Republican said he welcomed the prospect of a public referendum on the issue. "I think her obstructionism could well lead her to finding that the Democratic minority could be a permanent minority and a deep minority," said Rep. Tom Reynolds, chairman of the House GOP campaign Committee.
"The American seniors want prescription drug coverage, the AARP wants prescription drug coverage and you're beginning to see some Democratic senators" support the bill, added the New York Republican.
Pelosi's strategy emerged as GOP leaders tentatively set a vote for Friday on the measure, the product of months of negotiations among House and Senate Republicans, the Bush administration and Democratic Sens. John Breaux of Louisiana and Max Baucus of Montana.
Republicans hold a 229-205 majority in the House, with one Democratic-leaning independent. But some Republicans recoil at the prospect of creating a new government benefit, and the leadership can afford few defections.
As a result, Speaker Dennis Hastert's predecessor, Newt Gingrich, drew an invitation to the party's weekly closed-door caucus during the day, and used his appearance to tout the benefits of the legislation to conservatives. In particular, according to participants in the meeting, he stressed the importance of a provision that would establish a new health-related tax benefit.
Hastert, seeking to underscore the importance of the Health Savings Accounts, told Republicans it was the only provision he insisted be retained in the bill in final bargaining.
The legislation would make the most far-reaching changes in Medicare since the program's creation in 1965. It would add a prescription drug benefit, with federal subsidies for lower-income seniors.
In addition, it would encourage private companies to create new preferred provider organizations, in hopes that seniors would select them over the traditional health care system they have known.
Supporters argue the private plans will deliver better health care more cheaply, curtailing the cost of Medicare over time. Critics worry that the legislation will begin to undermine the foundation of Medicare -- a standard benefit at a uniform price.
Republicans confident
Republicans expressed confidence about prospects for passage of the bill in the Senate, where Breaux and Baucus are working to enlist the support of enough Democrats to offset any opposition among GOP conservatives.
The actions of the two Democrats also have complicated efforts by Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, to rally opposition.
Daschle, D-South Dakota, Kennedy and Pelosi spoke during the day at a rally organized by the Alliance for Retired Americans, and all three attacked the bill sharply.
But Democratic officials say Daschle did not raise the prospect of a filibuster with his caucus on Tuesday, while Pelosi is seeking to enforce party discipline.
In her remarks at the rally, Pelosi also took a swipe at the AARP and its leader, William D. Novelli. The seniors organization endorsed the bill this week and is advertising on television to help secure its passage.
The Californian noted that Novelli wrote the preface to Gingrich's recent book on health care, and she said, "AARP's leadership has been in the pocket not only of the Republican leadership in the House, but they helped write Newt Gingrich's book on how to destroy Medicare."
In the interview, Pelosi said that while Democrats have yet to see the legislation, what has been disclosed falls short of the party's belief in a "defined benefit" for Medicare beneficiaries. "We have a responsibility to America's seniors to do what's right," she said, adding that in the Republican bill the winners are not the Medicare beneficiaries but the pharmaceutical industry and the HMOs.
The political stakes also were highlighted by the decision of the Democratic leaders to invite officials from the AFL-CIO to their closed-door caucus during the day. Labor's representatives presented polling data indicating that public support for the drug legislation was thin, and thinner still after some of the details are explained.
But according to one official in attendance, Rep. Martin Frost, D-Texas, asked whether Democrats or their allies would have enough money to counter the advertising claims of the AARP or other groups supporting the bill.
This official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an AFL-CIO official said the group intended to begin airing commercials shortly.
Copyright 2003 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
