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Industry Interests are Not in Their "Twilight"
The Washington Post's Ezra Klein has an amazing post in which he trumpets what he calls the "Twilight of the Interest Groups" reflected by likely passage of the health care bill (h/t). Why are Interest Groups -- once so powerful in Washington -- now banished to their "twilight"? Because, says Ezra, "the Obama administration succeeded at neutralizing every single industry." If, by "neutralizing," Ezra means "bribing and accommodating them to such an extreme degree that they ended up affirmatively supporting a bill that lavishes them with massive benefits," then he's absolutely right. He himself notes what he calls the "remarkable level of industry consensus" in support of the bill:
Pharma supports the bill. Insurers are incoherent on it, but there's not a ferocious and united campaign to kill the proposal. The American Medical Association has endorsed the Senate bill. The hospitals have endorsed the bill. Labor has endorsed the bill. The business community is split, with larger employers holding their fire.
Indeed, PhRMA is so in favor of this bill that, over the last week, they've spent $6 million on an ad campaign aimed at undecided House Democrats to try to pressure them to vote for the bill. And while the most hackish Obama loyalists (echoing the administration) have been claiming that the health insurance industry is vehemently opposed to and working to defeat this bill, Ezra commendably acknowledges the reality that they have done little in that regard (Marcia Angell -- Professor at Harvard Medical School and the former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine -- said a few weeks ago of the health insurance industry: "What they're fighting for is the individual mandate. And if they get that mandate [which the final bill contains], if everyone does have to buy their commercial products, then they're going to be extremely happy with it").
Now, if someone wants to argue (as Kevin Drum has) that sleazily bribing these industry interests with secret deals was a necessary evil -- a shrewd, pragmatic way to get a health care bill passed, without which it could not have happened -- that's one thing. I think that's debatable -- after all, the central promise of the Obama campaign was that it would circumvent those factions by appealing directly to the armies of citizen-supporters they had lined up -- but at least that's an honest, rational argument. Bribing these industries was ugly and sleazy but necessary.
But to pretend that this bill represents the "Twilight of the Interest Groups," that special interests have been "neutralized," that this bill is some sort of great victory over the health insurance and drug lobbies, is just hagiography and propaganda. Being able to force the Government to bribe and accommodate you is not a reflection of your powerlessness; quite the opposite. Everyone would love to be forced into a "twilight" like that. It's one thing for the Obama administration and the DNC to issue self-serving claims like this (we've stood up to the insurance and drug companies!), but those who hold themselves out as independent commentators ought to keep their feet on their ground.
As for the related Obama defense that the way this bill was crafted fulfilled his campaign promises because he said he would include these industries "at the table": please. It's true that Obama did say that, and that this clearly meant he intended to try to accommodate some of their concerns so that they didn't wage jihad against his bill. That's fair enough. But it's also true that he repeatedly railed against the Washington practice of crafting bills by negotiating in secret with lobbyists and industry interests, and his whole I'll-put-these-negotations-on-C-SPAN promise was specifically designed, he said, to prevent a health care bill from being negotiated based on secret deals with the health care and pharmaceutical industries.
But that's exactly how he ended up negotiating this bill -- using the exact secret processes that he railed against and which he swore he would banish. It was only because The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim uncovered the secret memo-deal the White House had entered into with PhRMA -- a deal they had publicly denied until then and until PhRMA demanded they publicly affirm it -- did we know that the administration had agreed to oppose drug re-importation and bulk price negotiations, measures Obama (and the Democrats generally) repeatedly promised to enact. Indeed, when it came time to vote on drug re-importation, the administration concocted false "safety concerns" about re-importation in order to whip against Byron Dorgan's re-importation amendment, rather than admit that they really opposed it because they secretly promised they would to PhRMA, which hates drug re-importation because it lowers prices. And it was only two days ago that we finally had confirmed what (at least to me) was obvious all along: namely, the White House had agreed in secret with health care industry representatives that there would be no public option in a final bill, even as the President publicly feigned support for it and pretended to be fighting for it.
In other words, this bill was negotiated using the standard, secret, sleazy Beltway lobbyist/industry practices that candidate Obama frequently condemned and vowed to defeat. And these industries extracted such huge benefits as a result of these secret deals -- a bill shaped to their liking and profit objectives -- that they are essentially in favor of it.
Again, none of this is proof that the health care bill is a bad idea -- it's possible that a bill which pleases these industries also produces, on balance, more good than harm (by expanding coverage and restricting some industry abuses). But being in favor of the bill is not a justification for making misleading claims to try to glorify what it achieves or, worse, claiming that it represents a change in the way Washington works and a fulfillment of Obama's campaign pledges. The way this bill has been shaped is the ultimate expression -- and bolstering -- of how Washington has long worked. One can find reasonable excuses for why it had to be done that way, but one cannot reasonably deny that it was. And one can truthfully say many things about the political power of industry interests in Washington after this is all done; that they were "neutralized" and are in their "twilight" is most assuredly not among them.
UPDATE: Matt Yglesias also says Ezra Klein's claims about interest groups are "wrong" and that the reality is the "reverse" of what Klein wrote: "interest groups were able to get their way on most key points without needing to seriously attempt to deliver votes in exchange. . . . the interest groups were able to get 85 percent of what they wanted in exchange for absolutely nothing." Does that sound like their having been "neutralized" and sent to their "twilight"? This highlights a primary point I'm making here: Yglesias is as enthusiastic a supporter of this bill as one can find, yet, at least in this regard, is still able to be realistic about what it actually is and is not.
40 Comments so far
Show AllHow did you manage to get all that horse care for twenty bucks or so? It cost me at least double that to have my decrepit half paralyzed dog "put down".
Why did the SEIU waste its resources on the "Americans for Stable Quality Care" ads?
"Stable quality" care is for horses.
I am deeply offended that you choose to demean essential health care for horses. That is bad enough, but the fact is that I am not the only one in my household who goes to the local veterinarian. Wilbur has realized that he can save a lot of money on his health budget by using veterinary services for routine needs.
Just last week, I accompanied Wilbur to our local veterinary office to get his vaccinations and to get his nails trimmed. The total cost for the visit was $20. The vet even threw in a blood pressure check and a screening for hoof-and-mouth disease at no additional charge. (Wilbur doesn't have this, don't worry.) And the drug costs are cheaper, too. Wilbur discovered he can buy one single horse aspirin pill and cut it into 25 individual pieces for himself--at a fraction of the cost of buying Advil.
We are both going in for a dental check-up next week. Wilbur has a loose bridge that needs adjustment, and it seems that I have not been flossing enough, which I admit is true.
By the way, I am doubling my contribution to the SEIU this year. Thanks for letting me know about this wonderful organization.
Good grief! If Wilbur plans to get his teeth "floated", I certainly hope that your vet can find a slightly smaller implement than the one you use.
Again, hilarious....
"D"
AUSERNAME: I just got off the phone with the SEIU local representative, and boy was I misled. That organization doesn't want to help horses at all. They just want to help Democrats pass that useless health care bill to help the insurance companies make more money.
I am putting a stop payment on my check to SEIU. Wilbur and I are strong supporters of single-payer insurance with universal coverage for all mammals.
Greenwald once again clears the air of pollution and elucidates the truth!
" Using the exact secret processes that he railed against and which he swore he would banish". Yep, I pegged Obama as the consummate con man when I voted third party and not many believed me then; but ohhhh... how they believe me now! I just talked to several Obama voters and they are open minded, intelligent people that now admit Obama is a dangerous con man and they are completely disgusted with themselves for being conned. But one thing in their favor, is that many of them did not want McCain- Palin to win and that worked in Obama's favor also, because many said a third party had no chance, but it looks like the lessor of two evils is still evil.
Sad to say, I am one of those who voted for Obu$ha out of fear of a McCain/Palin win where two weeks into the term, McCain has a heart attack and Palin become president.
Looking back, the only concilation I have is that McCain/Lieberman have introduced the "Enemy Belligerent Act" which is fascist to the bone...however, I have no doubts the Obu$ha will sign it into law if he has the chance.
This empty suit traitor has proven to me beyond the shadow of a doubt that "lesser of the two evils" is in fact still evil, and frankly, I'm not sure McCain would have been that much *WORSE*. Buck Ofama!
There are ridiculous and dishonest claims about this bill on both sides. The republicans claim it is socialism which is patently false and the democrats claim it makes health care a right which is also false. I still believe that the impetus for this so-called reform came from the insurance companies themselves because they need to enlarge their customer base due to so many young healthy people not buying their insurance. They found a candidate in Obama willing to fight for their interest and sell it as reform and this bill is the result.
Do you really think that our beloved insurance industry could possibly be as machiavellian as that?! :)
Gee, what a cynic! The next thing you'll be suggesting is that Obama himself was just a set-up Republicrat candidacy to get rid of an unpopular president while retaining essentially the same USA Incorporated policies.
RV: Sign me up for the Cynic Party! When's the next meeting?
Unfortunately, it's very difficult to find any locale or facility for scheduling meetings or any other type of organizational activity that goes beyond the venting of our "cynical" frustrated anger. And my cynicism further suggests that's not accidental.
Sioux Rose
RV: Flawless reasoning. Great posts.
EXACTLY AND UNEQUIVOCALLY TRUE.
"They found a candidate in Obama willing to fight for their interest and sell it as reform and this bill is the result."
To clear any misunderstanding, I would clarify by saying that they found a "president" in Obama willing to... In the first year of Obama's presidency, he and the Democrats have steered the ship pretty much as the Republicans had been (with some exceptions); and since Obama and the Democrats aren't willing to fight the political establishment and its corruption they decided to try and create a political win with a bad bill, ie., they colluded with the insurance industry to pass a bill and sell it as health reform, when it is insurance reform in favor of the insurance industry.
I think you close to the truth. Ask yourself this why in the middle of a Depression did Obama push this expensive give away to one of the greediest and most evil Industries in America? Because their present model toward profitability was destroying them and they needed some way to FORCE people to buy their lousy over priced crap. Obama was their man and this was the time. Now the game is to gut the parts that restrict them from dropping sick people and making it so expensive for people with pre-existing that they can't afford a policy even with Gov't subsidies. The other part will to expand the fines and enforcement of the mandate to keep the young from bolting from their new chains. This is anything but reform it's really fascism in the true meaning of that word Enforced Corporatism and the its the Dems. that have brought it here not the Gopers. This is a sad day for our country. the Dems. will now be seen as the oppressors and you can bet the Gopers are cheering right now because this one awful bill will give their ugly little kult a new lease on life.
This entire morass has the elements of a bad kabuki play, except that the actors playing the antagonists (the Tea Party hordes) don't quite know what the plot is.
Actually, Glenn, all of what you write is proof this is a bad bill.
Not one problem facing us all is addressed by this bill.
We don't get choice of provider/doctor.
We don't get the elimination of co pays or deductibles.
We don't get drastically reduced drug prices.
We don't get the end of bankruptcy due to illness.
We don't get the reduction in overhead crushing doctors and hospitals by the transition to one payer.
So, no real problem facing us all is addressed.
They are all left to continue to plague us...and get worse.
weacguy: Well stated. Short and to the point. Thank you.
Might also add:
We don't get caps on premuims for pre existing conditions.
We don't get the removal of insurance pricing inequality based on gender
Others?
Greenwald dispels one of the Democrat apologists' myths in this article, ie., if the bill is so bad why did insurance companies spend so much money fighting it. As Greenwald aludes, the fact is the insurance companies spent the money influencing the outcome, not fighting it.
Another myth is that if you don't vote for this bill, you are supporting thousands of deaths. That myth presents a false choice. This bill won't come into effect for years and tens of thousands will die waiting for it. If the Democrats really cared about those dying, they would have worked more urgently and passed the good parts of the bill piecemeal so it would go into effect quicker. Also, if the bill didn't pass and they really cared about the dying, the Democrats wouldn't quit and pout, rather it would get back to work on a bill the American public supports (single payer) rather than what the bought out legislators support.
I am reminded of Br'er Rabbit (now working as an insurance company spokesman): Please, Br'er Fox -- do anything else to me, but DON'T throw me into that briar patchwork bill.
Thank you, Progressive101!
It was eminently predictable that No Insurer Left Behind supporters, typically moderate progressives sympathetic to Obama and the Democrats, would rally to the cause as the apocalyptic Moment of Truth arrived.
Like dandelions popping up on a lawn in Spring, this week comments sites are suddenly studded with disingenuous and manipulative Talking Points calculated to shock or shame resolute opponents into silence or capitulation.
The preferred rhetorical one-two combo is to land a solid jab to the gut-- 45,000 deaths are ON YOUR HANDS if this bill goes down!-- and finish off the opponent with a righteous uppercut-- 59,000 courageous NUNS support this bill; can YOU do less?
And if THAT doesn't faze you, negative feedback about how mean and harsh and awful and rigid and horrifically mean-spirited you are ought to shut you the hell up. ;)
Big Phrma is so powerful enough to influence people's minds that some people will be dumb enough to blame the little guys for giving counterfeit drugs. I try to tell them what a fraud Big Phrma is and they think I have a mental case. Their advice to me? Read the Wall Street Journal and be obedient ! How many people could be that dumb enough? Enough to elect crooked politicians doing business with Big Phrma? When people like one of my dumb cousins can say "Some little criminals are selling counterfeit drugs on the street. Buy only from the best named manufacturers" and lie that single payer in Canada is socialized medicine, what does that say about the populace?
Remember Cheney and the energy industry concoction? Boy, did that make "liberals" see red.
Thalidomide, Excellent comment.
"I am bound to be true" to PhRMA, AHIP, Wellpoint . . . .
I agree with Glenn--Twilight of Industry Interests is delusional thinking.
Ezra Klein's article has got to be one of the more startling examples of 'mission drift' I've ever heard of.
whta's great about obomba is that in many instances he is pushing thru things that would have been vigourusly fought against if the rethugs and bush had tried it.....but with nary a word from the left!
1. health care mandates with no public option and no controls on rising costs....
2. nuclear energy and coal re-defined as green so they can grab green investment dolalrs.....
3. pushing more and more war.... more troops in the field than at the height of the bush madness......
4. privatising education thru charter schools while firing entire school staffs...and destroying the ed labor groups....also giving money to the best schools while taking away money from the worst performing schools....ie giving the richest districts even more and taking away from the poorest!
5. privatising the military and enriching private contractors - especially the ones that have ALREADY been caught defrauding the government.....
6. attacking the progressives in congress threatening to withhold reelection funds if they don't tow the line while whole-heartedely supporting the worst of the blue dogs and leiberman.....they even destroyed Kucinich!
7. bank bailouts and trickle-down economics - already well over 20+ trillion and counting....
8. financial reform giving MORE power to the FED Reserve!
9. soon to come - immigration reform attacking the immigants and letting the illegal employers off the hook....
10. soon to come - cap and trade - handing out billions to the largest polluters while accomplishing zero to no decreases in pollutants.....
11. supporting the coup in honduras.....
12. supporting off shore oil drilling....
13. no increase in any public programs but endless increases in the war budget......
and there are many many other examples to choose from...
so all obomba has done is to defang the left and basically destroy it.....
as I said he has accomplished what the rethugs have fought for years to do!
Turns out he wasn't a stealth Muslim, Socialist, Terrorist.
He was a steal Republican.
"so all obomba has done is to defang the left and basically destroy it"
It's a joint venture not actually attributable to any singular personality. Nor is it anything new in the self-proclaimed realm of "freedom and democracy" where all of the "people's choices" are pre-approved by established interests.
It works every time and helps to explain why that realm is so anxious to export its system to others, willing or unwilling, by force of arms where necessary. Perhaps not surprisingly, foreign resistance is more vigorous (and usually more successful) than the domestic variety.
The left has been loud in protest against these issues, but we need more WHO's shouting.
The corporate media will be knocking themselves out to cast this bill as "reform" -- the Klein piece being an early salvo in the effort -- but I think it's going to be a hard sell to the usually gullible American public. Once people understand that it is essentially little more than a mandate -- a massive transfer of wealth to large corporations -- the media, and Obama, will lose them. And be assured that Republicans will keep the fact front and center. The Dems are not going to enjoy running in November as corporate lackeys, while Republicans bizarrely claim the populist high ground.
For a free download of invective useful to the left -- Words that Draw Blood -- go to www.lost-vocabulary.com.
To some of us "half a loaf" is no progress at all. The world may have been created in an instant, "the big bang" and all. But even the "big bang: was preceded by a long, slow and laborious process leading to that exquisite moment. Once the "deconstruction" occured, it took time for all of the disparate elements created in the deconstruction to fall into place forming a Universe.
A step forward has been made, a new direction has been taken. Good job Mr. Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Representative Clyburn and the legions of others who did not give up on what they believed. Sorry, enjoy the party but Monday morning you have to go catch that mule again.
It is worth noting that what "they believed" is precisely what the insurance lobby pushed and cajoled and wined and dined in favor of; specifically, a mandate to purchase private insurance and no public option.
Will wonders never cease?
(BTW, "transition" to what?)
To a Democracy, where the majority of a people chart a reasonable and inclusionary course for our country in our areas of common interest.
We are Fucked !
"The Twilight of Ezra Klein's Mind"
The cruel irony is the fact that industry interests are at their apex not at the least in decline, and Glenn Greenwald is right on target with this article regarding that. All the more irony is having a "Democratic" president surrender so unconditionally to these same interests. It's time to get out of this kind of thinking in the triangulating box.
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