…over what the Hell his party is doing with regard to the health care debacle:
“We’re not going to deem the Senate bill passed.We’re going to pass the Senate bill. We’re going to pass it by a vote in the House.”
I am given to understand that the response was, ah, polite disbelief.
He doesn’t think that he has to care.
And he wants to make sure that the pharmaceutical companies understand that, too. The House Energy Chair intends to retroactively remove what Waxman calls a ‘windfall’ involving Medicare D drug charges, and never mind what either the President or PhRMA thinks:
Drug makers contend they have already worked out a 10-year, $80 billion cost-savings deal with the White House and crucial Senate gatekeepers on the trillion-dollar health care overhaul. The industry says that trying to add Mr. Waxman’s provision could scuttle that agreement.
Putting aside the actual merits of the argument for a moment – I (and Hot Air) may have excellent reasons to assume that a Democrat posturing about ‘windfall profits’ is simply posturing, but it’s still an assumption – it’s instructive to see how little a powerful House Democrat fears the wrath of the White House on this issue. Then again, this is what happens when you’re a President who hands off responsibility for a bill in the first place; the people who do the work naturally end up deciding that their opinions on its final form are more relevant than yours, and unless you have the ability to do something about it they’re going to show little reluctance in showing public defiance. Given that the President just hit 50% on Gallup, and lacks any real experience in leading people who don’t want to be led, I’m not surprised that Waxman is doing this.
And this is why people say “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” Cliche, yes, but cliches exist for a reason.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
For the benefit of any hypothetical researcher from, say, the 2050s or so – hey, how are you folks doing, up there? Have the Cubs won a World Series yet? – let me just note the two major mistakes that the current administration made that seem to have seriously complicated the passage of their health care rationing bill.
After all that sturm und drang and haggling over the price on the Blue Dogs’ part, I just got told that the start of the Energy committee’s markup’s been delayed until at least tomorrow. 36/23 Dem/GOP partisan breakdown and Henry Waxman still can’t run a committee to save his life.
Alas, not being able to do the simplest legislative things will do little to destroy his career: the things that Beverly Hills voters find truly inexcusable have very little in common with the rest of the country, or indeed observed sentient life. And I include dolphins, orangutans, Border Collies, and several breeds of parrots in that category.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
This Jim Geraghty post about the travails of Rep. Waxman, and this Leon Wolf one about the travails of Senators Dodd and Conrad, reminded me that I wanted to point two things out to our Democratic colleagues.
Karma. It’s what’s for dinner.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
The Republicans over at the House Energy and Commerce Committee have been watching a lot of their amendments to the latest monstrosity of an energy bill get shot down on party-line votes. That’s what happens when you let one party dominate Congress – particularly when it’s a party that doesn’t like cheap energy – but this one still requires special notice:
The Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, shall annually prepare and certify a report to Congress on the average retail price of gasoline in the United States. If the Administrator determines that the average retail price of gasoline (all grades) sold to retail customers in the United States during the prior year exceeds $5 per gallon, including taxes (in 2009 dollars), as a result of implementation of this Act, the provisions of this Act shall cease to be effective.
Seems like a reasonable amendment, right? After all, that’s an even higher cap than last summer’s exceptionally inflated prices, and everybody knows that gas that expensive would do horrible things to our economy. Went down in flames anyway, 31/24.
What does Waxman know that we don’t?
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
From a letter to Rep. Waxman by Rep. Barton & Rep. Upton on the apparently burning need to pass HR 2454 before Memorial Day:
In your March 27 letter to President Obama concerning climate legislation in the 111th Congress, you seemed to agree. You told the President that “hearings, markups, and regular order are the best way to forge the compromises that will unite members from all parts of the country. As we work to achieve this consensus, we hope Republican members of our committee and of the full House will join the process too, so that truly bipartisan answers can be developed.”
However, your self-imposed Memorial Day deadline for reporting this bill necessarily requires that we short-circuit the logical legislative process that our democracy thrives on, and replace it with a frantic rush to judgment.
What is the hurry? If we wanted a bill sure to embarrass our committee, this is precisely the process we would adopt to create one. It began with secret negotiations, moved on to a decision to skip subcommittee consideration altogether, and now we face a scheduled markup. We appreciate that today you provided us with a copy of your revised language in the form of an introduced bill—H.R. 2454—that is 284 pages longer than your original draft. However, since the House is not in session today and will not be voting until Monday evening, Members will not have had any meaningful chance to even look at your new language; much less try and understand it before you start the markup. Not that this would make any difference, as we understand that you will be offering a complete substitute amendment at the markup that we will not see until it is offered. Mr. Chairman, this is no way to write any public law, much less one that will transform the way every person in our country lives and works.
Continue reading Reps. Barton & Upton to Rep. Waxman: What’s the rush?
