They Can't Even Muster A Decent Hissy Fit

The House is taking up a "resolution of disapproval" for Joe Wilson today, carefully writing it so nobody thinks they actually disapprove - just a technical rules violation is all - and the Republicans are cleaning their clocks with it on the House floor.

In a clear sign that Republicans intend to turn the disapproval vote against Joe Wilson into a rallying cry for their own base, far more Republicans than Democrats have been speaking during the floor debate on the resolution.

The subject of their talk: That the American people are done with this and don't want to talk about it anymore. The message here is that the Dems are wasting time with the proceeding, and abusing their power to persecute Wilson.

"There is definitely a sense that House Republicans aren't dealing with the same hot potato they were dealing with on Thursday morning after the president's speech," a GOP leadership aide just told me. "The president's acceptance of Joe Wilson's apology has left the Democrats looking petty and possibly on the verge of overreach. The fact that White House has now adopted some of Wilson's policy proposals is evidence that this is no longer the political loser Democrats once thought it would be just a few days ago."

The highlighted portion above took any teeth completely out of the hissy fit, and partisan Republicans used it as a rallying cry. The resolution passed 240-179, BTW, with a whopping seven Republicans crossing the aisle to vote yes (12 Democrats voted no and 5 "present").

The point is not whether or not Wilson's outburst represented some violation. The point is that Democrats gradually made a decision to try and beat up Republicans over a universally despised high-profile action, and they managed to blow it. And get the policy wrong by tailoring it to the universally despised person. Who's also a serial liar (Just throwing that in because I think it's funny. You can literally say anything as a Republican and never get called on it).

If you can't even pull off the hissy fit, about the easiest two-step in politics, particularly in this day and age when the cable news channels might as well rename themselves "Umbrage 1," "Umbrage 2" and "Republican Umbrage 3", then really, it's time to get a new batch of consultants.

An Affront

NBC's First Read, which has replaced The Note as a Village weathervane, is just awful depressed about the whole Joe Wilson saga coming up in the House today.

A Democratic House leadership aide confirmed to First Read that a resolution reprimanding South Carolina GOP Rep. Joe Wilson -- who shouted, “You lie” at President Obama during last week’s joint address to Congress -- will likely come this afternoon. NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell adds the official language of the resolution is expected to be "short, direct, non-partisan," and it will address the "breach of decorum." Yet after House GOP leaders reportedly urged Wilson to apologize on the House floor, Minority Leader John Boehner said he would oppose the resolution, the New York Times says, adding: “Democrats are likely to paint the [GOP] stance as evidence of a lack of Republican respect for the House as an institution and an outgrowth of the unruly and uncivil atmosphere that marked town hall meetings in August.” Folks, it could be a very ugly day on Capitol Hill -- one of those days that explains why Americans, no matter their ideology, have a negative view of Congress.

I don't remember this rending of garments when MoveOn.org was censured in Congress for using the words "General Betray-Us." There were probably some high fives among the Village elders for putting the hippies in their place. But now, when a Republican breaks a House rule and Democrats try to mildly take note of that fact, not with censure but a "resolution of disapproval," it's just sad and shows why all Americans should hate Congress.

Seems like a double standard at work.

Outrageous

The White House agrees with Joe Wilson, thinks it's a good idea to stop undocumented immigrants from buying things with their own money. Hopefully they'll extend this and stop them from buying over-the-counter prescription drugs and food without showing papers, either. They're at least talking about using SAVE, a much better verification system than the blunt instrument of proof of citizenship, but it's beyond stupid to force undocumented immigrants away from getting any health insurance (basically what this would do) and into emergency rooms as their primary doctor, with higher costs for everyone, because some backbencher yelled during a speech.

A White House spokesman, Reid Cherlin, said that the president’s proposals would bar illegal immigrants from purchasing private insurance through the new government marketplace, known as an exchange, and that verification of immigration status would be required for anyone seeking to purchase coverage [...]

The White House said that illegal immigrants would still be able to purchase health insurance through the private market, as they can now, but acknowledged that the private market was certain to shrink after the creation of the new marketplace.

Many illegal immigrants must now seek medical treatment in emergency rooms, which by law cannot turn them away. In recent years, the federal government has spent $250 million a year to reimburse hospitals for bills that go unpaid as a result. The White House said those reimbursements would continue.

Jellyfish run our government. By the way, watch abortion be next. They'll move to restrict all funding for a women's right to choose, even in private plans, inside the exchanges. You can see it coming.

Wishing He Could Take It Back, Maybe?

Rep. Joe Wilson is trailing his 2010 opponent in a snap poll taken days after his outburst on the House floor.

Republican Congressman Joe Wilson trails challenger Rob Miller 44-43 in the wake of his shouting out ‘you lie’ during President Obama’s speech to Congress on Wednesday night. Wilson defeated Miller 54-46 in the 2008 election.

62% of voters in his district say they disapprove of Wilson’s actions while just 29% think they were ok. While there is consensus on that, respondents were pretty divided about whether the substance of his comment- that Obama was lying- is correct. 42% say they think the President was lying while 46% believe he was not.

Wilson’s approval rating comes in at 41%, with 47% of voters disapproving of his job performance. He gets good marks from 68% of Republicans, 38% of independents, and 11% of Democrats.

“In a matter of seconds Joe Wilson turned himself from a safe incumbent into one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country for 2010,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling.

In an almost more important statistic, Obama has an approval rating of 50% in this lean-conservative district, better than what he yielded here (45%) in 2008.

Meanwhile, Democrats are prepping the full-on hissy, in a rare show of political savvy.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has agreed the House should vote next week on scolding Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) for his outburst during President Barack Obama's speech unless he apologies on the floor of the House.

"There was a violation of the rules of the House," said Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly. "It needs to be resolved by an apology or a resolution."

A Democrat, likely House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), will introduce a "resolution of disapproval" Monday or Tuesday unless Wilson formally apologizes on the House floor. The House returns Monday.

This isn't censure, but a resolution that forces people on the record. Some Democrats would claim that this distracts from the overall goal of health care, but I disagree for a couple reasons. One, the media's focused on it anyway and there's no stopping their soccer scrum. Two, this puts Republicans in a rough position and a tough vote and that's always desirable. Three, it highlights the obstructionism of Republicans in a way that looks bad for them contrasted with the President's speech.

I don't know if it will matter ultimately, both to the overall health care debate or to Wilson's chances in 2010, which is a long way off. But it rides an activist-driven wave, which is always good. Now if Max Baucus and Kent Conrad can stop caving to Wilson's demands...

UPDATE: Other outlets are calling it censure.

Illegal Logic

John Aravosis uncovers an amazing nugget in TIME Magazine. Apparently, there are Democrats who saw Rep. Joe Wilson yell "You Lie!" at the President of the United States and thought, "that guy has a point." And they happen to be the ones writing the health care bill in the Senate Finance Committee.

The controversy over Republican Rep. Joe Wilson's shouting out "You Lie!" at the President over his claim that illegal immigrants wouldn't benefit from health-care reform apparently sparked some reconsideration of the relevant language. "We really thought we'd resolved this question of people who are here illegally, but as we reflected on the President's speech last night we wanted to go back and drill down again," said Senator Kent Conrad, one of the Democrats in the talks after a meeting Thursday morning. Baucus later that afternoon said the group would put in a proof of citizenship requirement to participate in the new health exchange — a move likely to inflame the left.

So many things wrong with this, starting with caving to an extremist. But it's worse than that on the policy end. The exchanges are just health insurance purchasing centers, like a Wal-Mart for insurance. You don't have to receive a subsidy to buy insurance on the exchanges; in fact, if your family makes over $88,000 a year, you can't be eligible for a subsidy, though you can still purchase there. What Conrad is saying is that he would make it illegal for a non-citizen to BUY something.

Not only that, but proof of citizenship laws, which we don't have in most states for voting, are onerous and disproportionately tilted away from the poor and the elderly, as well as potentially restrictive to legal immigrants with green cards, in this case. As the New York Times says today:

Should we take a harder line? Force people to prove citizenship in emergency rooms? That’s illegal, for good reason. Make verification requirements so onerous that not a single illegal immigrant slips through? Very expensive, and not smart. It would be highly likely to snag deserving citizens — like old people who don’t have their original birth certificates. And besides, we’ve tried that: A House oversight committee reviewed six state Medicaid programs in 2007 and found that verification rules had cost the federal government an additional $8.3 million. They caught exactly eight illegal immigrants.

In the case of an epidemic, like swine flu, should illegal immigrants go untreated so they can infect legal residents and American citizens?

Hard-line Republicans insist that they will fight for citizenship verification. They could, in theory, get the country to spend whatever it takes to do that and proudly report back to their voters. But there is a line beyond which antipathy to the undocumented can be damaging to those voters’ health, not to mention the federal budget. Mr. Wilson and his admirers seem to have crossed it.

Not to mention the fact that buckling to these demands will not get one Republican vote on any health care bill.

This is the Senate Finance bill, not the overall bill. But Democrats are so wishy-washy when it comes to, well, anything, that we actually could see this rotten, xenophobic, piss-poor policy in a bill supposedly designed to expand access to health care.

I know a lot of money has been flowing to Joe Wilson's opponent in 2010, but a far better use of those dollars would be to funnel them toward primary opponents for Kent Conrad and Max Baucus.

UPDATE: Conrad is now clarifying that there would be no federal subsidies, and requiring proof of citizenship would just be used to determine qualification for government assistance. Of course, you end up with the same problem, then; those without proper proof of ID would have trouble getting subsidies that could be available to them. The larger point is that there was no need to react to a teabagger yelling and screaming. This was already implicit in the bill, and allowed for the HHS Secretary to determine a best practice. This blunt instrument is not the way to do it, and makes Democrats look weak (but that's redundant).

UPDATE II: As this GAO report notes, checkpoint systems like Baucus and Conrad want were implemented under the Bush Administration to ensure undocumenteds didn't get on Medicaid, and for every $100 they spent, 14 CENTS in Medicaid savings were achieved. It's wasteful and spiteful!

Covering The Undocumented Is Cheaper, Actually

Rep. Joe Wilson gave a bumbling, stumbling response to his comments last night.



Once again the media has taken one sensationalistic remark and let it overshadow the entire speech last night, which was a political winner for reform. But it's worth digging down into the substance of the claims and the actual policy behind it. Right now, the way things are, undocumented immigrants (there are no illegal people) can go to an emergency room and get treatment. They can purchase their own health insurance. They can go to a free clinic. They can, in a variety of ways, access health care if they need it.

The plans on the table would provide more security for those with insurance, and provide exchanges for those without coverage. The undocumented can access those exchanges, because it would require them to pay for coverage with their own money. The bill would also provide subsidies to people who cannot afford coverage. The undocumented would not be eligible for those subsidies. It says that in every single bill draft. Rush Limbaugh, being a little more honest than usual today, says "It will cover undocumented aliens. Now it may not specifically say so in the bill... " He's talking about enforcement and verification statutes, which is a red herring, because a driver's license or some form of ID is typically required at the point of service if you have an insurance card. There are lots of checks in the system already.

That said, I agree with this:

The Baucus plan currently going around, of course, explicitly states that "[no] illegal immigrants will benefit from the health care tax credits" and limits the insurance mandate to U.S. citizens and legal residents. But Dana is right to ask whether undocumented immigrants should be covered in some capacity. Beyond potentially skewing employer hiring incentives, the exclusion of immigrants from the plan will create a financial burden on the system anyway -- which seems to be conservatives' big concern. By law, hospitals are not allowed to refuse care to anyone in an emergency situation, whether the person is insured or not. The cost of the uninsured then falls both on the hospitals and on the government, which provides $250 million annually as reimbursement through Section 1011 of the Medicare Modernization Act, which has been extended through this year.

So, tax dollars are already being spent on care for uninsured and undocumented immigrants. And hospital resources are being strained since the losses aren't fully accounted for, which can have an effect on the quality of medical care provided to the general population. Regardless of the system in place, coverage of undocumented immigrants is a problem that's going to need to be dealt with. Given that, shouldn't we be working toward a solution that's more transparent and just?

The President talked about the $1,000 hidden tax on everyone with insurance as a result of funding ER care. That would not change if immigrants had to use continue to use the ER as their primary doctor. That status quo is grossly inefficient and we all pay for it; in fact we pay more than if we just offered subsidies and brought everyone under the umbrella of universal care. In addition, having an underclass of people prone to disease without preventive care is a major public health problem.

In a general sense, this kind of "blame the brown people" argument will be consistently made until we deal fully with the undocumented within our borders, through both workplace enforcement and some legitimate path to citizenship. Until you do that, these political footballs will always surface, and cowardly Democrats will thunder "we will not pay for undocumented workers!" when we already are paying for them, and could lower that payment.

...I knew somebody would turn that into being Obama's fault.

At Least The Other Joe Wilson Had A Reason To Shout "Lie!" At The President

The most sensational moment of last night's speech, obviously, was the heckling and rowdiness from the likes of the now-infamous Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson and others. We see heckling of this sort in the British House of Commons all the time. Politics is emotional. The President is not a king. There's nothing inherently wrong with it.

It does, however, appear to be against House rules, and simply by the book, there ought to be a censure resolution passed. Wilson apologized quickly under pressure, but rules are rules, and Congress should censure him. As Joe Biden said, Wilson "embarrassed the institution I love."

If Wilson wanted to show some fighting spirit for his base, it probably totally turned off the middle, made the entire party look small, and put into perspective the nonsense of the town halls in the last month. It also will gave Republicans fits as the more sane elements rush to condemn the action. Suddenly, we can get a "Republicans in disarray" narrative out of this. It also gave Wikipedians a fat target.



It's worth noting that Wilson's claim, that illegal immigrants would be allowed to access federal funds for health insurance, is patently false. The outburst actually says more about the immigration debate, and all its xenophobia, than the health care debate.

...I think Eric Cantor's twittering might have looked even more offensive to the public. Although, in his defense, he says he was taking notes, and I have used my PDA for note-taking, and it looks bad, even though it isn't.

...Joe Wilson's opponent in 2010 has raised $100,000 $200,000 overnight on Act Blue.