Obama’s Majority in the Senate and House is dwindling for fear of loosing their seat
WASHINGTON – The Democrats’ control of a hefty majority in the Senate — plus the House — would suggest that President Barack Obama is within reach of overhauling the nation’s health care system this fall.
But the numbers mask a more complicated reality: Obama and Democratic leaders have modest leverage over several pivotal Senate Democrats who are more concerned about their next election or feel they have little to lose by opposing their party’s hierarchy.
One is still smarting from being forced to abandon next year’s election. Another had to leave the Democratic Party to stay in office. And some are from states that Obama lost badly last year.
These factors will limit the president’s ability to play his strongest card — an appeal for party loyalty and Democratic achievement — in trying to muster the 60 votes his allies will need this fall to overcome a Republican filibuster in the 100-member Senate.
When lawmakers face a tough vote, their uppermost thought is “survival,” said Alan Simpson, a Wyoming Republican who spent three terms in the Senate.
On a very few occasions, Simpson said, then-President George H.W. Bush asked him to cast a vote likely to cause him political problems back home. That was perhaps three times in 18 years, said Simpson, who
held a GOP leadership post. “I swallowed hard and went over the cliff,” he said.
But it’s a sacrifice that presidents and party leaders should not count on, he said.
The Democratic leaders’ limited leverage will complicate the push for allowing the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies. Some Senate Democrats who oppose the idea are from states that voted heavily against Obama last fall.
Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln faces a potentially tough re-election race next year in Arkansas, where Obama lost to Republican John McCain by 20 percentage points. She says she will base her health care votes on what is best for Arkansans.
Choice and competition among insurers are good, Lincoln said, but “I’ve ruled out a government-funded and a government-operated plan.”
Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, where Obama lost by a similar margin, said she might be willing to let some states try “fallback or trigger” mechanisms that would create a public option if residents don’t have enough insurance choices.
But she told reporters, “I’m not for a government-run, national, taxpayer-subsidized plan, and never will be.”
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Face Fwd Comments:
The Tea Parties and the people who were vocal and the town halls can take credit for this. Those people who have taken and continue to take time out to represent the rest of us need to be thanked. They have driven the message home to (at least some) of the spending programs Democrats and turncoat financially irresponsible Republicans that we no longer will just turn our heads and allow you to run us into an unrecoverable debt, without a fight.
It makes me sick to think how much money this nation has given the Obama Administration to spend any way that they please. When you read statements like, “U.S. President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus measure has saved or created at least 250,000 jobs in education, an administration official said Monday”, you have to wonder the validity of that since education is a state and local matter, isn’t it? Unless the administration is seeking more ways to influence the education system. You don’t think they would do that……nah. Just more conspiracy crap from the right wing tea jerks. yeah, right!
Our voices cannot be silenced. We must continue the drive to pressure our lawmakers to stop spending money they don’t have and start living within their means. I would support a moratorium on any new spending for one year, other than national security. No raises, no grants, no pork of any kind and re deposit all funds that are left over from the Stimulus Package and TARP funds. We could use that money to repay on the National Debt or start buying back our dollar to drive it’s worth back up. Once we have completed that, then we would get every crook and big spender (Republican, Democrat or Independent) out of government and start rebuilding. Hey I can dream can’t I :=).
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