By John Brummett
Is there greater conservative virtue in opposing federal health reform, period, or in saying it ought to be implemented locally instead of from Washington in the event we are unavoidably laden with it?
That is to ask: Is the greater conservatism in obstruction or pragmatism?
I think national Republicans answered that already in the debt-ceiling fiasco. And the question seems not to give the least pause to Arkansas Republican legislators, and they, after all, know the right wing best.
They choose the option I wouldn’t — obstruction — but, then, I didn’t sweep into office in a tea party revolt last year based mostly on fear of this health care reform law.
Their choice is to oppose federal health care reform at all cost, period, across the board, even if that effectively cedes to the federal government an eventual authority that could have been the state’s.
Gov. Mike Beebe is a consummately moderate Democrat worried about some elements of the federal health care law but favorable to having the state run whatever part it may. And he got his back up over this last week.
He decided to let the Republicans have it their superficial and obstructive way.
Beebe said he would not exercise his executive authority to seek and receive $3.8 million in federal aid so the state Insurance Department could plan for state-created health insurance exchanges as mandated by 2014 in the new law.
If states don’t exercise the option, the federal government will design and install these exchanges containing private health insurance plans under government parameters that would augment the usual choices in the private sector.
Leading Arkansas health insurers like Blue Cross-Blue Shield and Delta Dental had called on the governor to secure the planning money. They like the profitability possibilities of participating in the exchange but would rather deal with state politicians close to home instead of the federal government. They think it’s high time to plan what will be a complicated undertaking.
Beebe balked after several Republican legislators sent him a letter saying they were against receiving this federal grant because there was no urgency and, anyway, what they call “Obamacare” may be thrown out by the courts.
Even so, they wrote, the federal government will give the exchange to the states after a year.
Maybe, the governor’s people say, but only by federal rules and probably with some cost to the state.
I’m told that Beebe believes the politics of all this could play to the benefit of Democrats and to the detriment of Republicans.
He thinks “local control” could resonate, especially when sought by the relevant and affected private sector, including, tentatively, the powerful lobby known as the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber president, Randy Zook, told me Thursday that the chamber isn’t certain there is an urgent need to take planning money right now. But he said that, in the larger picture, the chamber wants any newly mandated health care exchange to be designed by the state, not federally.
Zook may be right about the timing and Beebe wrong about the politics.
As Zook indicates, the state could still pursue federal planning money in December and the “drop-dead date,” a state insurance official told me last week, is not actually until June. Beebe’s decision last week was not the end of it.
Beebe’s calculation that the state’s voters might rise up against Republican obstruction of local control assumes — incorrectly, I regretfully suspect — that wide and superficial fear of federal health care reform won’t continue to prove more powerful.
For all his job approval, Beebe remains an agent of effective government in an era when people don’t seem to be believe in such a thing.
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John Brummett is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com; his telephone number is (501) 374-0699.
October 1st, 2011 at 7:56 am
John, Republicans are probably doing what their constituents have requested. For constituents, it is the fear of the unknown and the way it was passed (our way or the highway-11th hour-no C-span debate). Since its passage, Democrats still have not a done a good job of explaining it. So, do they even know what all is in it or do they not want people to know exactly what is in it? I think many see it as another “tax code” like document that is going to be cumbersome and hit them squarely in the pocketbook.
October 1st, 2011 at 8:22 am
John,
Respectfully, this had nothing to do with any sort of moderate governing. Please call it what it was. Gov. Beebe was trying to get political coverage on this one.
If Republicans (who do not control anything in Little Rock) were to signal support, the governor and his legislative allies would have an instant free pass against any claims of supporting the president’s health care law.
This is not a question of federal vs. local control. It is a question of implementing a component of a a health care law that is likely to appear on the Supreme Court docket this year or early next year.
Furthermore, is this grant application was as important and critical as advertised, Mr. Beebe can easily move forward. If he felt the need for having legislative support for the grant, then he could call a special session for the purposes of holding a vote on a resolution. Short of that, I’m sure he could contact Speaker Robert Moore or President Pro Tempore Paul Bookout to get a letter supporting the grant application signed by the Democratic majorities of both houses.
Ultimately, the governor is not being limited by Republicans on this issue. He made a choice to proceed in this manner. Surely our “moderate” governor would want to be “effective” and show leadership on this issue instead of asking permission of the party not in control of the General Assembly.
All the best, John.
October 1st, 2011 at 10:57 am
kryan, my man: thanks for the respectful difference of opinion. i acknowledge an element of truth in what you say. but i also think beebe is a patiently pragmatic and tactical guy who is thinking that much of the state’s business establishment, which he knows well, will side over the next few months with him and democrats and against the republicans on what is a thoroughly moderate view: accept the looming reality of reform and get as much of it done as possible at the state level. even mississippi is proceeding with state exchanges, which i seem inadvertently to have deleted from a first draft. but, yeah, all that would effectively give beebe cover, i guess. all moderate pragmatic politicians are looking for a kind of cover, aren’t they — a buffer against the extremes? my underlying conclusion remains that it’s republicans playing politics by going to the mat against health reform, period, never mind any smart and incremental concessions.
October 2nd, 2011 at 6:38 am
The more I read about Obamacare, the more it scares me too. Who can blame the Republicans in Arkansas for opposing it and I think that Pryor will get beat like Lincoln and this will go done as the #1 reason. Time will tell.
October 2nd, 2011 at 5:47 pm
@Halting – - -oh please, what are you talking about? You know the government has a wonderful record for efficiency and cost control.
October 2nd, 2011 at 5:57 pm
Anyone else notice that the leftwing “anti-Wall Street” protests this weekend have already created more arrests, more civil distribuances, more violence, than all the Tea Party protests combined?
But of course when the Left does this, nobody really pays attention. It’s just standard operating procedure for them.