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Mar 20 2009, 1:10 pm by Marc Ambinder

Dems Choosing Health Care Over Cap-N-Trade?

This is big news: Democrats have mapped out their legislative strategy for passing health care reform this year. According to George Stephanopoulos, Democrats will work with Republicans to build consensus around a plan, and then, if that doesn't work, they'll write the revenue-generating-and-substracting provisions of whatever health care plan they come up with into the FY 2010 budget resolution. As important: the budget reconciliation process, which circumvents moderate Democratic and GOP discontent in the Senate, will NOT be used to set up a carbon emissions credit trading system.  Cap-and-trade was always the tougher sell to Congress. Americans don't understand it; members of Congress from coal-producing states worry about job losses in their state (they call it a transfer of wealth); consumers would be forced to pay more in the short-term for energy.  Why did Obama chose health care? Here's a good explanantion from the perspective of policy. Politically, health care reform is more easily swallowed than cap-and-trade and probably less expensive, especially if Obama endorses large-but-incremental incisions over massive surgery. Curiously, though, if, during the transition, you had asked (future) administration officials to predict whether, if a choice had to be made, health care or cap-n-trade would see more action this year, just as many would have placed a bet on cap-and-trade.  "As part of our ongoing conversations with Democrats and Republicans on the Hill, senior aides met with Hill aides last night to discuss the budget, but no decisions were made," an administration official said.

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Comments (5)

Neal J. King

I hope this isn't true. Given that the economy needs stimulus anyway, why not use this time to push forward the transition from fossil fuels to renewable power supplies? If necessary, make the carbon-dioxide penalty revenue-neutral by rebating back at a flat per-capita rate. But don't remove the financial incentive to reduce CO2 emissions.

Of course, the better approach is a straight-forward carbon-dioxide tax, not cap & trade, which is "fussy" to get right.

MaryD

Well, I hope it is true. As the mother of four I am very concerned about the environment, and I believe that Obama is acting in good faith and will do this later in his term. Health insurance needs to be addressed now -- and yes, I have a personal stake in this. My oldest son has a job with no insurance, so has an individual policy. My daughter is about to graduate from college and will be in the same situation, if she can get the policy - she has asthma, so I don't know if she'll be approved.

Our main problem is our family coverage. My husband got downsized Jan. 08, failed to find another job and started his own freelance business. I work for the business too. So far it has done pretty well and we're covering our expenses. We've been doing COBRA to continue the coverage my husband had with his former employer, but our 18 months on that will soon end. We discovered yesterday that for our little corporation to provide my husband, my youngest son and me with coverage will cost $30,000 a year. Why? Because my 17-year-old son is a type 1 diabetic. Not his fault, not an obesity-and-sedentary-lifestyle-type-2 diabetic, but a got-it-at-age-10-autoimmune-disease-will-always-have-it diabetic.

Our insurance costs will probably dictate that he will NOT be going to one of the better, more expensive colleges to which he was recently admitted. (And we'll be going four more years without adding to our IRAs, and we're both in our mid-50s). Not to mention the question that keeps me up at night -- what happens to him when he graduates from college, since more and more employers do not offer health insurance? What if the economy is still down and he can't find a job at all?

My husband and I are upper middle class people with advanced degrees. The health insurance situation has the potential to ruin our family financially because of my son's auto-immune disease. We are not the only family in this situation, and I hope the President and the Congress address the issue soon.


Jason

Lets all hope the comment section isn't stuffed with comments from "upper middle class" folks worried their recent college graduate son might be without insurance for a couple weeks while he looks for a job. Give me a break. And at least pretend you're not a selfish suburbanite.

If Obama choses health insurance over cap and trade, he will have caved to the whining, big spending and under-educated wing of the party.

And if cap and trade doesn't get done in his first term, he won't have my vote for a second term.

TycheSD

To me, healthcare is a private matter. It is not a reason I supported Obama. I supported him DESPITE his plan to get the government more involved in healthcare.

I too would be extremely disappointed if Obama backs off on reducing CO2 emissions. That's the main reason I voted for him - because I thought he intended to take the country in a different direction on energy. If he doesn't take energy policy seriously, I have no reason to support him going forward.

Gypsy Boots

The problem is that cap and trade does not work. It was hobbling the European economy even before the recession hit (see http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=14411)./ Germany has exempted two new giant coal plants from carbon taxing, and seems to re rethinking the whole policy.

All that can and trade will accomplish is to help revive Chinese industry ahead of the rest of the global economy.