What is Sen. Mike Enzi doing in the middle of the Senate health-care negotiations?

[babylonsister]

We ignore this guy at our peril. He's way too far away from the spotlight. He sounds worse than Grassley.

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=their_man_on_health_care


Their Man on Health Care

What is Sen. Mike Enzi doing in the middle of the Senate health-care negotiations?

Tim Fernholz | August 12, 2009 | web only

Their Man on Health Care

Health-reform experts were all asking the same question last week: Why the heck is Mike Enzi one of six senators crafting the health-care bill?

snip//

But is Enzi's presence worth the trouble? The most conservative member of an already right-tilted crew of legislators, he's pushing for cuts in subsidies for the uninsured, minimum benefits, and limits to anti-discrimination clauses. He's also against a public insurance plan. Those positions might fly among the Gang of Six, but they won't make it past the larger Finance Committee or the more liberal House of Representatives; they don't match up with the president's vision either. Whatever compromise comes out of Finance will itself be subject to compromise, on the Senate floor and in the conference committee that will resolve differences between the House and Senate bills.

Unless, of course, Enzi gets his way. Just before the August recess, he issued a statement demanding, "commitments from Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi, as well as the Administration, that the bipartisan agreements reached in the Finance Committee will survive in a final bill that goes to the President." That is to say, he wanted the rest of the American government to rubber-stamp agreements made by six senators who collectively represent 2.74 percent of the U.S. population. That's no way to fix a health-care system that affects every person in the country.

This column has repeatedly argued that key to success for Democrats is policy victories, not bipartisan comity. Passing weak health-care reform to keep Enzi and Grassley on board won't be a victory for health care or for Democrats. That is not to say that any improvement over the status quo should be rejected -- indeed, even the less controversial consumer-protection portions of reform promoted by the administration would be a major benefit. But a weak bill simply to appease Enzi is no excuse to constrain legislation that would stop the moral travesty of income-rationing 47 million Americans out of health insurance and decrease the long-term deficit, all in one fell swoop.

Just before recess, Grassley told reporters that 95 percent of the bill's provisions have been decided, saying only the most divisive issues remained (he declined to identify them). It's an interesting number, since Enzi is known for his "80/20" rule, a willingness to focus on the 80 percent of an issue where two sides agree. If Grassley was right in his estimation, then perhaps Enzi should already be on board. He told Politico last year that the solution to passing bills "isn't what you compromise on; it's what you leave out."

Wise words. If Enzi can't compromise, leave him out.

Related:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6238353

Time to vote Enzi off the island?

[Metta]

1. Is this O's way of letting them hang themselves?

Past time to vote him off.

[babylonsister]

2. He didn't pick the people on this committee, so no. I do wonder

if it's feasible to get rid of anyone, how that would happen. :shrug: I got a feeling this guy isn't going to be helpful. He's just sliding under the radar.