Progress Illinois

The latest news from the health care reform battle -- both in D.C. and here on the homefront.

A Final Bill By Christmas?

Now that health care legislation has passed out of the five relevant committees on Capitol Hill, health care advocates are starting to wonder when both chambers of Congress will take up the bills in earnest. While House leaders are moving quickly, Illinois' own Dick Durbin says that progress might be slower in the Senate. The Hill has a quick story up today outlining the reasons for the possible delay:

Even while House leaders pressed forward for a vote on a House version this week, [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid and Durbin said their hands are tied until the CBO releases its cost estimate of the Senate bill. Then the document would be published online for public review, possibly revised and re-analyzed by the CBO, and then several weeks would be needed for House-Senate conference talks.

Despite months-old predictions of a bill before Christmas, with only six weeks of legislative time remaining in the year Durbin acknowledged a healthcare bill in 2009 “is certainly a challenge.”

Will Sen. Roland Burris join Durbin and vote in favor of health care reform when he's eventually presented with the final bill? In the past few weeks, Illinois' junior senator has received heaps of media attention for his principled stance in favor of a robust public option. But the vast majority of those media outlets have failed to ask him the most relevant question: Does he intend to filibuster a bill lacking a public option or just vote against its final passage. All indications are that he would stand with his party and approve cloture, undercutting the severity of his threat:

"It's certainly going to be tough, in terms of getting this done," [Burris] told WGN-TV. "I've let it be known unequivocally that I would not support any legislation -- now they may get the 60 votes to pass it. I'm not going to be an obstructionist. I'm not here for some ego trip. I'm here to speak out for the people who have spoken to me."

Unfortunately, Sen. Joe Lieberman's threat seems very real. Yesterday, Reid's office denied reports that the lawmakers agreed in private to vote for cloture on health care. If no Republicans cross the aisle, the Democrats will need Lieberman's support to break a filibuster, a obstructionist tactic he has previously called "unfair."

Abortion Funding

While the Senate moves forward cautiously, the House is barreling ahead, preparing to vote on a final bill Saturday at about 6 p.m ET.

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Here's our latest roundup on 2010 political news ...

Giannoulias Snags More Endorsements

Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias racked up a few more endorsements this week, including one from the Illinois Democratic County Chairman’s Association (ILDCCA)  on Wednesday. ILDCCA's President Alan Pirtle explained in a statement why the  local chairs are ready to throw their political organizations behind his Senate primary campaign:

"We feel that Alexi Giannoulias has the vision, work ethic, and skill to lead efforts to invest in American jobs and American workers [and] not give tax breaks to companies that ship our jobs overseas from a seat in the United States Senate. He has shown tremendous commitment to the people of Illinois and their values such that he will serve all of Illinois in an effective and honorable way."

Meanwhile, the executive committee and 48 local affiliates of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) voted unanimously to back Giannoulias as well. In his endorsement, LIUNA Vice President and Midwest Regional Manager John Penn made it clear that labor hasn't forgotten how Giannoulias went toe-to-toe with Wells Fargo when the bank tried to liquidate Hartmarx, Inc. and send its employees packing. From a statement:

"When a bank that does business with our state threatened to pull the plug on 1,000 Illinois jobs, Alexi told them they could forget about managing $8 billion in state money. The bank relented and the jobs were saved because Alexi stood up for Illinois workers. That’s the kind of leader we need in the U.S. Senate."

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Here is our latest round-up of health care news:

Biggert Promotes Euthanasia Lie

Last night in Naperville, Reps. Judy Biggert and Mark Kirk entertained questions about health care reform at a town hall forum. No violence or rowdiness was reported -- after all, both are strongly opposed to the Democratic proposals -- but Kirk, who's now a U.S. Senate candidate, continued to suggest that health care reform would harm people with life-threatening illnesses and would cost the government too much money. Biggert, on the other hand, took her criticism one step farther. According to the Daily Herald's editorial board, the Hinsdale Republican joined the Palin brigade, passing around literature claiming that the bills working through Congress would lead to end-of-life euthanasia:

Misinformation will continue to abound. At a forum Wednesday in Naperville, guest speaker U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, a Hinsdale Republican, distributed a flier stating the Democrats' proposal will require counseling of seniors that might encourage those who are seriously ill to "give up." Later, she admitted to Politics & Projects Editor Joseph Ryan "that was a little inflammatory."

This is a tendentious myth that has been widely debunked. The language in multiple bills actually says that physicians will be paid through Medicare to counsel elderly or terminally ill patients about what medical interventions they would prefer near the end of life. The sessions would take place once every five years and would be completely voluntary. As Jonathan Cohn writes, health care opponents are "swiftboating health reform." Sadly, Biggert knows that this criticism is ridiculous. So why is she distributing such an obvious lie?

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Here's the latest Illinois-centric health care news:

Citizen Action Targets Bean, Halvorson, Foster

In today's edition of Crain's, Paul Merrion writes that, when it comes to health care reform, suburban Reps. Melissa Bean, Debbie Halvorson, and Bill Foster are all "stuck in the middle, still uncommitted and coming under pressure from both ends of the political spectrum."  On the left, Citizen Action/Illinois is doing its part to push these moderate reps towards supporting a public option:

"The next five or six weeks will determine whether we have a strong health reform plan or a weak one," says John Gaudette, Illinois health care director for Citizen Action, a non-profit advocacy group leading local efforts for Healthcare for America Now, a national coalition pushing for a low-cost government-run plan to pressure private insurers' premiums.

Two weeks ago, Citizen Action generated more than 1,000 calls to the three moderate Illinois Democrats, urging them to support a strong government-run plan, and the group is planning a rally with upward of 300 people in Ms. Bean's district later this month. "She's the one we've been focusing on the most," Mr. Gaudette says.

Office Visits For Health Reform

Over the weekend, Organizing for America urged supporters of health care reform across the country to schedule a visit to their congressman's district office.  From their email blast announcing the "Office Visits for Health Reform" action: 

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Contrary to what conservative blowhards like Glenn Beck might have you believe, President Obama is still very popular 100 days into his first term. The latest Pew Center for the People and Press survey gives Obama above a 60 percent approval rating nationally and the Patchwork Nation community type profile shows the Democrat earning above 50 percent in every one of the 11 community types identified, including conservative communities home to rural Americans and evangelicals.

As a result, National Republicans are diverting their attention from the president, choosing instead to link 43 vulnerable Democrats -- including 11th District Rep. Debbie Halvorson -- with their favorite target: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Roll Call has more:

The National Republican Congressional Committee is set to launch a recess ad offensive today, hitting Democrats in 43 districts for helping to “rubber stamp” spending bills for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). [...]

NRCC spokesman Paul Lindsay said Friday that the new ad campaign is an effort to hold Democratic Members accountable for their votes in favor of the stimulus package and budget.

“The Democrats who rubber-stamped these bills with Nancy Pelosi need to be held accountable for burdening middle-class families and inflicting further damage on an already fragile economy,” he said.

The choice to include Halvorson as one of nine Democrats targeted with NRCC radio ads is an interesting one.

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Last week we wondered if Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-IL) would cave to pressure from the agribusiness lobby and vote against President Obama's first budget proposal because it placed a cap on "direct payment" farm subsidies (described by Jonathan Chait as "the least justifiable slice of a totally unjustifiable program"). At the last minute, Halvorson backed the budget, but only after she and other members of the House Committee on Agriculture reinstated the giveaway to large farms.

That she opposed the provision isn't particularly surprising, considering that her 11th Congressional District has received over $1 billion in direct payments since 1995.

Industrial farmers and their surrogates in Washington have long hyped farm subsidies as a financial cushion that helps stabilize prices, particularly during lean years. Yesterday, in an interview with downstate radio station WJBC, Halvorson echoed this argument, saying: "You don't want those peaks and valleys.  You want something stable." But agricultural economist Bruce Babcock of Iowa State University recently countered that eliminating all agricultural subsidies would raise prices of corn, wheat, and soybeans by less than one percent.  As Chait has further noted: "It is virtually impossible to find an economist on the left, right, or center who defends agriculture subsidies, which are costly, distort the market, and hurt the Third World poor."

Before being stripped from the House and Senate budget bills, Obama's proposal to phase out subsidies to farms with over $500,000 in gross annual sales was expected to bring in $1 billion in additional yearly revenue.  So where was that money going to be spent? On child nutrition programs that aim to provide higher quality school lunches. 

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While we were concerned earlier in the day that Rep. Debbie Halvorson might oppose President Obama's budget proposal because of a provision scaling back exorbitant farm subsidies, the House vote just took place and the Southland Democrat supported it.  Democratic Rep. Bill Foster, on the other hand, was one of 20 House Democrats to vote against the bill.  We'll pass along his rationale shortly.

Every Republican member of the House voted against the bill.

UPDATE: Below is Foster's explanation of his vote:

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A U.S. House vote on President Obama's budget could come as soon as today, but freshman Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-IL) isn't saying which way she plans to vote.  After hearing murmurs that she was waffling, we asked her office where she stands on the spending plan and got the following statement back from a spokesperson this afternoon:

As you know, this is no small issue and there is a lot of information on the budget to process. Right now Congresswoman Halvorson is taking time to listen to her constituents, as well as the debate. She is still considering her vote.

If you've been following the latest reporting on the Capitol Hill budget negotiations, you might have seen this coming.  A recent BusinessWeek article identified Halvorson as one of the freshmen representatives being targeted by the agribusiness lobbyists:

Lobbyists for the American Farm Bureau Federation are targeting freshman Democrats who make up some 30% of the House Agriculture Committee. Many come from rural areas and depend on support from farmers. Key among the freshmen to persuade: Travis Childers of Mississippi, Bobby Bright of Alabama, and Debbie Halvorson of Illinois. 

And Halvorson has already gone on record saying she opposes the provision in Obama's budget that has infuriated these lobbyists, which would cut direct-payment subsidies to farmers with annual sales revenue of more than $500,000:

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During her first week on the job, newly-minted Rep. Debbie Halvorson is already generating praise. Yesterday, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Blue Green Alliance Action Fund (BGAF) hosted a meeting to honor four freshman Democratic members of the House for their committment to repowering America with clean energy and green jobs. Dubbed one of “the next generation of green leaders,” Grist’s Kate Sheppard has more on Halvorson’s response to the honor:

Halvorson previously served as the Democratic majority leader in the Illinois state Senate, where she worked on sustainable agriculture and energy issues. She has been asked to serve on the House Agriculture Committee. Today, she said she plans to work for green infrastructure investments. “There’s no better way to help American families than to invest in infrastructure, but we have to do it right,” said Halvorson. “We can’t do it by reinventing a wheel that doesn’t work right. We can build a new American economy, and we can do it right.”

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The SouthtownStar is reporting that both Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Congresswoman-elect Debbie Halvorson have come out in opposition to the idea of granting clemency to imprisoned former Gov. George Ryan:

"I sympathize with Mrs. Ryan and regret the hardship this has caused the Ryan family," Jackson said in a statement. "However, I also recognize and respect the jury's verdict and the tragic loss it has caused the Willis family." [...]

"I have the utmost respect for Senator Durbin, and he is certainly free to express his opinion on this matter," Halvorson said in a statement. "However, I believe that just as George Ryan was treated as anyone else would be during sentencing, his situation should be addressed no differently than anyone else regarding early release, and I do not believe he should have his sentence commuted."

WBEZ has a round-up of statements from other public figures around Illinois.  And you can check out our readers' thoughts on the subject here.