Establishment Democrats Are Undermining Medicare for All
Some freshman candidates who ran on the issue during the campaign, like
Harley Rouda of California, still declined to co-sponsor Rep. Pramila
Jayapal's Medicare for All bill.
Some freshman candidates who ran on the issue during the campaign, like
Harley Rouda of California, still declined to co-sponsor Rep. Pramila
Jayapal's Medicare for All bill.
Barbara Davidson / Getty Images
By Michael Corcoran, TruthoutPublished March 17, 2019
The Democratic establishment - deep in the pockets of the health industry-
wanted to make sure any blue wave election in 2018 would help sink, rather
than support, the growing movement for a single-payer health care system.
The recent decline in co-sponsors of the House Medicare for All legislation
is, in part, a byproduct of this strategy and a reminder of the great
obstacles corporate Democrats have put in front of the single-payer
movement.
In 2018, there were 124 cosponsorsfor the Medicare for All bill in the House
(then H.R. 676), representing 66 percent of the Democratic Caucus. This was
celebrated widely as a high-water mark for the legislation. So was the
release of Bernie Sanders's Medicare for All bill in the Senate, which also
got a record 16 co-sponsors, including prominent Democrats who are running
for president.
Given that the Democrats gained 35 seats in the 2018 midterm and Medicare
for All has been polling extremely high among Democratic voters - a survey
by Reuters from August 2018 showed around 85 percent of Democrats supported
the policy - many were hopeful that the number of cosponsors would rise even
higher in the current Congress.
Despite this hope, when Rep. Pramila Jayapal introduced the new flagship
Medicare for All bill (H.R. 1384), the amount of co-sponsors
decreasedconsiderably to 106, down to 47 percent of the caucus. So why, if
Democratic voters are moving left on health care, is this not reflected in
Congress? Where did all the co-sponsors go?
A Truthoutanalysis shows the primary reasons for this decline are: 1)
incumbents who once supported Medicare for All who have defected, and 2) a
largely disappointing freshman class.
The most well-known faces of the freshman class are progressives, such as
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, thanks to their ambitious proposals and popular
support. This might give the impression to the public that this is
reflective of the whole class. The majority of the newest House Democrats,
however, were shaped strongly by the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee and the New Democratic Coalition. About 71 percent (42 of 59) of
freshman House members declined to co-sponsor the legislation. Some freshman
candidates who ran on the issue during the campaign, like Harley Rouda
ofCalifornia, still declined to co-sponsor Jayapal's bill.
In happier news for the movement, three incumbent Democrats decided to
co-sponsor Medicare for All for the first time: Reps. Joseph Kennedy and
William Keating of Massachusetts, and Susan Wild of Pennsylvania. However,
29 of the Democrats who were previously co-sponsors have defected this year.
Why are Medicare for All's congressional supporters backing out?
Incumbent Democrats Turning Away
It is much less courageous for members of Congress to co-sponsor legislation
that has no chance of passing. So last year, as members of Congress quickly
signed on to H.R. 676 some suspicious names appeared on the list (like
Joseph Crowley, who had never hinted at support for the policy until he
faced Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the primary). In the minority, they could
add their names while, behind closed doors, giving viable explanations to
donors: "Don't worry, it has no chance of passing - I am just getting
re-elected."
Now that Democrats control the House, this calculus changes for many. Sure
enough, 29 incumbentswho previously co-sponsored H.R. 676 have failed to
co-sponsor the newer bill, which recently was made stronger to include
long-term care for elderly and disabled Americans. Among these defectors are
Reps. Elijah Cummings, Hakeem Jeffries and Marcy Kaptur.
"It's another painful but important lesson about the limits of politely
pushing elected officials to the left," writes Alex Panagiotopoulos, who
analyzed the defections. "Just because they co-sponsor or promise to support
legislation doesn't mean [they will] expend any political capital to make it
happen."
Adam Gaffney, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, told
Truthout that the most important thing is to keep pressuring candidates to
support the legislation.
"The movement has been putting pressure on Democrats [that] don't support
it, this kind of work must continue," he said. (Gaffney recently impressed
many with his stirring defense of Medicare for All on Fox Business News.)
Why the Freshman Class Is Largely Unsupportive of Single-Payer
When people think of the freshman class of Democrats, the most recognizable
names tend to be Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. This
makes sense, as they are pushing popular policies - and are constantly
attacked by Republicans.
These strong voices of dissent, however, are in the minority in the new
Congress. By and large, the freshman class of House Democrats has refused to
support single-payer in practice. Of the 59 freshman Democrats elected to
Congress this year, only 17 of them (a woeful 29 percent) co-sponsoredH.R.
1834.
By and large, the freshman class of House Democrats has refused to support
single-payer.
This was not by chance. It can be traced to the Democratic National Campaign
Committee(DCCC) and the corporatist New Democratic Coalition in the House
(and its affiliated NewDemPAC). Long before the 2018 midterms were underway,
Democratic Party power brokers and fundraisers were militant in trying to
keep prospective members of Congress in line going into the 2018 election.
This included pleading with new candidates not to support single-payer or,
as The Interceptreported with corroborating audio, trying to bully
progressives out of the races altogether, depriving voters of a chance to
weigh in. Establishment Democrats' goal was, as Politico reported, to
"neutralize the threat" of single-payer.
"Democratic voters want single payer health care. But don't expect to hear
Democratic candidates talk about it," the report said. "To avoid divisive
intraparty fights that drive candidates left - only to be attacked by
Republicans for favoring socialized medicine - the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee warned aspirants last year about the political
liabilities of endorsing 'single-payer.'"
Until the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016, single-payer was not recognized
by most media and politicians as a mainstream proposal (despite its
popularity among the public). Sanders energized the movement, putting
powerful Democrats and industry stakeholders on guard.
Surely, the leadership of the New Democratic Coalition and similarly minded
organizations chalk this up to another victory for the "vital center." They,
like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, argue the voters aren't "ready" for
single-payer, despite its massive popularity. This is a rather dubious
interpretation, however, given that the DCCC deprived many voters of a
chanceto vote for a single-payer candidate in their district. Candidates
were hand-picked by party officials in many instances, as the Hoyer tape
proved.
When seeking candidates in 2018, the DCCC embraced the centrist/corporate
Third Way agenda. The New Democratic Coalition, which preaches free markets
and is funded largely by Wall Street, endorsed 27 candidates in the 2018
primary. The DCCC, the primary fundraising institution for the House,
endorsed 25 of these 27 candidatesvia itsRed to Blue list. This provided
money, support, opposition researchand more, giving these candidates a huge
advantage in the primaries. As a result, candidates supporting single-payer
found themselves being thwarted, attacked and outspent by their own party
leaders, who were defying the wishes of most of their base.
"The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee unleashed a scorched-earth
campaignagainst [House candidate Laura Moser of Texas]," reported
Vox,"releasing an opposition memo highlighting past statements Moser made
seemingly denigrating her home state."
Moser, a single-payer supporter, lost to the DCCC's choice, Lizzy Fletcher,
in the primary. Fletcher won the seat and failed to co-sponsor the new
Medicare for All bill.
By contrast, the DCCC did not support any of the same House candidates
endorsed by the Bernie Sanders-founded organization, Our Revolution, which
endorses candidates with a range of progressive views on single-payer and
beyond.
The New Democratic Coalition saw 16 of its endorsed candidates win in 2018.
Of these 16 candidates, only three co-sponsored the Medicare for All bill in
the House. Had the DCCC not gone so far out of its way to oppose
single-payer supporters, the outcome may have been quite different. Had they
embraced single-payer, the amount of co-sponsors could have risen
considerably.
"The problem we have is actually with the Democrats," said Jessica Early, a
nurse practitioner and health care justice organizer, in a 2017 interview
with Truthout. "We know how Republicans are going to vote on this issue. The
obstacle we face is getting Democrats who will support us into office."
Can New Democrats Derail Single-Payer?
The term "New Democrats" refers to an ideological and strategic movement
that argues the U.S. is fundamentally a center-right country and the
Democrats must embrace this - and corporate donors - to win elections.
During the 1990s it was the most powerful wing of the party: Bill and
Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and most of the party's top names
were on board. The New Democrats boasted about helping pass the Welfare
Reform Act of 1996, which added work requirements to cash and food
assistance and was supported mostly by Republicans in Congress. The
organization was also hostile to candidateswho tried to run as progressives,
such as Howard Dean and Ned Lamont in 2004 and 2006 respectively.
This kind of thinking has, for the most part, fallen out of favor: There is
virtually no grassroots support for "centrist" moderation. It is a doctrinal
assumption, however, made by much of the dominant media, that proposals like
single-payer will hurt Democrats in the general election, or in districts
that President Trump won in 2016. Third Way, which is run largely by hedge
fund managers, advanced this theory in its Winning on Health Carememo in
2016.
"A national debate over single payer is what Republicans want since it would
turn health care from a winning Democratic issue into a losing one," Third
Way pleaded.
Many advocates, however, say a national debate over single-payer is exactly
what the Democrats - and the United States more generally - need to be
having.
"This is a winning issue for the American people and for the Democrats,"
Gaffney said. "Now we have to get it done."
