By David J. Sanders

Add Congressman Mike Ross’ name to the list of Arkansas politicians in Washington who have a higher-than-usual profile.

Counted among the 50 or so moderate to conservative House Democrats called the Blue Dog Coalition, Arkansas’ 4th District representative, who also chairs the group’s health care working group, made an unsettling discovery late last week.

Just as President Barack Obama was preparing to hold high-profile meetings at the White House with the health care industry leaders, who killed the last Democratic president’s attempt at creating a universal government-run health care program, Ross got wind that an exclusive group of liberals in his party’s leadership had been working in private — behind closed doors at the Capitol — crafting a bill to overhaul the national health care system.

Needless to say, Ross, whose temperament famously matches his politics, was less than thrilled, but not altogether surprised. This was the second time that he and his allies had been excluded from one of the most significant policy discussions of the past 50 years.

The first time, which occurred just a few weeks ago, was during the crafting of cap-and-trade legislation.

Ross explained that it became obvious to him that the Democratic leadership’s strategy on cap-and-trade included blowing past the Blue Dogs on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Moderates on the committee responded by slowing down what was, in their estimation, a very bad bill.

“We were never brought in,” he pointed out. “We put the brakes on and tried to make it a better bill.”

But after nearly two weeks of work by the moderates on the committee, only modest changes were made.

“This bill is to the left of Barack Obama,” Ross said, adding that it could get worse during the final mark up.

That said, he predicts the controversial legislation will clear the committee and pass the full House, although without his support. And then he believes the legislation will go to the U.S. Senate and die.

But with that experience fresh in his mind, he said, he and the rest of the Blue Dogs weren’t going to wait for a bad health care bill to be “crammed down their throats.”

So, Ross sent a fiery missive — affixed with 45 signatures — to three committee chairmen, who each have jurisdiction over health care legislation. In the letter, the Blue Dogs demanded that the chairmen open up their closed-door deliberations.

As expected, when news broke that a select handful of liberal Democrats were secretly writing the bill, while moderates were being shut out of the process, it became a big story. The usually low-key Arkansas congressman landed himself in the middle of a national news story.

The New York Times reported: “Representative Mike Ross, an Arkansas Democrat who is chairman of the coalition’s health task force, said: ‘We don’t need a select group of members of Congress or staff members writing this legislation. We don’t want a briefing on the bill after it’s written. We want to help write it.’”

Ross outlined the group’s broad set of health care principles, which included limiting the amount of new health care spending, giving tax credits to businesses to help them buy health insurance for employees, making insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions, and offering incentives for healthy living.

On Wednesday, Ross got word that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom he blames partly for the Blue Dogs’ exclusion, had agreed to meet with him. Who knows what will come of their meeting, or the entire health care bill writing effort. Leadership usually gets what it wants, especially on the big-ticket items.

In the end, Ross does not really lose. By standing up to Pelosi, whom he pointed out “doesn’t share our Arkansas values,” there is less of a risk that he’ll be saddled with her baggage in the future.

Politics aside, you’ve got to appreciate a guy who’ll stand up and say what needs to be said.
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David J. Sanders writes twice weekly for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock and is the host of Arkansas Education Television Network’s “Unconventional Wisdom.” His e-mail address is DavidJSanders@aol.com.