IBT News Release:
TEAMSTERS PRAISE BIPARTISAN BILL ON PENSION REFORM TO PROTECT WORKERS
LEGISLATION WOULD STEM LOSS OF JOBS
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| The IBT is happy there is some bipartisanship going on in Washington, D.C. The Teamsters are praising U.S. Representative Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., left, and U.S. Representative Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, for introducing legislation that would if passed save jobs and stabilize worker pension plans. |
(October 27, 2009) The International Brotherhood of Teamsters today applauded Reps. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., and Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, for introducing legislation that would save jobs and stabilize pension plans.
Many single- and multi-employer pension plans are suffering funding problems because of the unprecedented financial crisis facing our country, putting unreasonable financial pressure on companies that employ tens of thousands of workers. The long-term retirement security of these workers and millions of retirees is being threatened. If Congress fails to change the laws governing the funding status of pension plans, dozens of companies could face bankruptcy, worsening the current unemployment crisis. This bill would help avert such a disaster by setting new funding rules for defined benefit plans to allow them time to recover.
“This is about jobs,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “We have to live up to promises that workers can retire with dignity, but we also need to make sure we don’t jeopardize jobs to fulfill that promise.”
“Reps. Pomeroy and Tiberi are responding to concerns by both employers and workers about the pension and jobs crisis facing our country,” Hoffa said. “This is a catastrophe caused by both irresponsible Wall Street speculation and recent pension legislation that did not contemplate the kind of collapse of financial markets that occurred in 2008. We can’t do much about Wall Street’s past bad behavior, but we can at least fix the law to take into account this unprecedented situation.”
At the end of 2008, the largest U.S. pension funds had just 79 cents for every dollar owed to current and future retirees.
“This legislation would simply give our pension plans some breathing room to recover from the Teamsters Commend Bipartisan Bill On Pension Reform To Protect Workers catastrophe that the big banks and Wall Street operators created,” said Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Tom Keegel. “Congress must act quickly or pension funds will fail, and the bill introduced by Reps. Pomeroy and Tiberi is a good one.”
Particularly important in the legislation are amendments that would alleviate the problems faced by multi-employer plans. In many of those plans, the number of retirees far exceeds active participants because many former employers have failed. In those funds, the funding pressure on the remaining employers is unsustainable and if not dealt with soon will lead to a new wave of bankruptcies.
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IBT News Link:
OFFER TO LET STATES OPT OUT OF HEALTH PLAN GAINS SUPPORT
Wall Street Journal
(October 23, 2009) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, stepping deeper into the health-care debate, put his weight Thursday behind a proposal that would create a new government-run insurance plan while giving states the option not to participate.
The proposal, which was described by other senators and congressional aides, represented a first overture by the Nevada Democrat to solve one of the knottiest issues dividing his party: whether to create a national plan that would serve as a low-cost alternative to private insurers. House Democratic leaders are strongly behind a government-run plan, though exact details have yet to be finalized.
Whether the Senate will embrace any form of the idea is unknown. Republicans are lining up in near lockstep against it. Moderate Democrats are concerned, too, and responded Thursday with wariness.
Sen. Ben Nelson, who has met twice this week with Mr. Reid, said it would be "very difficult" for him to support any proposal that creates a national plan -- even one that allows states to opt out. The Nebraska Democrat wants to empower states to experiment with their own public plans, he said, "the nature of which would be determined by the states, not the federal government."
Legislation approved by the Senate Finance Committee last week didn't include a public option, and instead proposed to create a network of nonprofit health cooperatives to compete with private insurers.
Mr. Reid's proposal grows from negotiations between top Senate Democrats and the White House over how best to marry the Finance panel's version with more-liberal legislation approved by the Senate health committee in July. President Barack Obama hasn't drawn a hard line but has made clear he would prefer to establish a government-run plan.
People familiar with the discussions suggested the White House is supportive of Mr. Reid's efforts to broker a compromise. Mr. Reid and other top Senate Democrats briefed the president late Thursday, a session that focused in part on how to promote "greater choice and competition" for consumers, according to a statement released by the White House.
For Mr. Reid, the challenge is to ensure that whatever is brought to the floor is supported by 60 senators, enough to overcome an expected Republican filibuster. In Nevada, the majority leader faces a tough re election battle next year, and is under pressure from his party's grass-roots activists not to give up on the public option.
Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, speaking Thursday after a television interview in Washington, has said she would oppose any effort to include an option for a public insurance plan in health-care legislation.
Mr. Reid's proposal is modeled on an idea first floated by Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), and could change as negotiations unfold. Among other things, the majority leader is proposing that payments under any new government plan not be tied to the low rates paid through Medicare, the health-insurance program for the elderly. Instead, the government would negotiate rates directly with doctors and hospitals, people familiar with the matter said.
"This is the drift of the conversation," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad. The North Dakota Democrat said he has received assurances from Democratic leaders that the plan wouldn't be tied to Medicare. That is important for rural states such as North Dakota that have high proportions of Medicare patients, making it tough to attract doctors because of the lower reimbursement rates. Even so, Mr. Conrad was wary. "The devil is in the details," he said.
A spokesman for Mr. Reid declined to comment. Mr. Schumer said the proposal was getting "good reaction" from liberals and moderates.
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The eDispatch:
NEWS FROM THE IBT
TEAMSTERS NOW REPRESENT NEARLY ALL UPS FREIGHT DRIVERS AND DOCKWORKERS ELIGIBLE TO JOIN UNION
(October 19, 2009) There were several important stories reported via the IBT’s eDispatch Network recently. Following is one of them, about the Teamsters UPS Freight Drivers and Dockworkers.
TEAMSTER NEWS RELEASE -- The International Brotherhood of Teamsters now represents nearly all of the 12,600 UPS Freight drivers and dockworkers eligible to join the union, announced Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa.
Nearly 100 workers in Nebraska, Maryland and Kansas recently signed authorization cards to become Teamsters. In Omaha, Neb., 55 workers represented by Local 554 recently ratified their first-ever contract unanimously. The Federalsburg, Md., and Wichita, Kan., workers will be holding ratification votes soon.
The Teamsters kicked off the organizing campaign in 2006 when the union organized UPS Freight (formerly Overnite Transportation) workers in Indianapolis and negotiated a contract with the company that was ratified by a 107-1 vote in October 2007. The Teamsters won a card-check agreement from UPS in December 2007, and in January 2008, launched its nationwide campaign.
By November 2008, the Teamsters represented more than 12,400 UPS Freight workers in 42 states. The Teamsters now represent all but two UPS Freight locations that employ 50 workers.
“Our continued success to organize UPS Freight workers is a great victory,” Hoffa said. “They were determined to become Teamsters and we are proud to have them among our ranks.”
“These drivers and dockworkers have shown a great commitment to joining the Teamsters and we look forward to representing them,” said Teamsters Package Division Director Ken Hall. “We encourage UPS Freight workers who have not yet signed cards to do so now so they can also start benefiting from a great contract.”
James Sheard, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 554 in Omaha said the UPS Freight workers ratified their contract on Oct. 4.
“After they saw the benefits of being a Teamster at other locations around the country, they decided to get on board,” Sheard said.
Jesse Castillo, President of Local 795 in Wichita, said the 20 UPS Freight workers there realized that not being a Teamster meant inequality for them.
“They saw inequities in applications and work rules because they were not under a Teamster contract,” Castillo said.
Irvin Williams, Vice-President of Local 355 in Baltimore, said the 20 UPS Freight workers at the Federalsburg facility came aboard after seeing a big increase in insurance costs.
“We had a gentleman who was ready to retire but said he couldn’t because of the insurance costs,” Williams said. “We also had key people who worked very hard on this campaign.”
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Teamsters News Link:
CONGRESS FACES BACKLASH WHETHER OVERHAUL PASSES OR NOT
Wall Street Journal
(September 11, 2009) When American political discourse has reached the point where a congressman shouts "You lie!" at the president during a nationally televised address, it must be a sign that the stakes are running pretty high.
And so they are in the great health debate. Most analysis, though, has focused on only one side of the political poker game now under way:
Will lawmakers pay a political price if they vote for a health bill that proves unpopular?
There's also a flip side to that question, which is about to get a lot more attention:
Will lawmakers also pay a political price if nothing gets done -- that is, if the effort to pass a health bill collapses in failure?
There's been much discussion of the political price lawmakers could pay if they support an unpopular health-care overhaul, but what about the reverse:
Is there a political price if nothing is done?
WSJ's Jerry Seib explains, the Obama White House certainly argues that inaction would exact a heavy toll, particularly on fellow Democrats. "There's great political peril in not acting," one senior Obama adviser asserts, a message likely to be sent with increasing frequency and urgency.
Political scientist Norman Ornstein of the generally conservative American Enterprise Institute agrees. "It seems obvious that the political cost to Democrats will be enormous" if nothing passes, he says. Such a failure, he adds, would "demoralize the Democrats and energize their opposition," and lead to losses in 2010 midterm elections.
In the broadest sense, it's probably correct that, for Democrats and maybe even some Republicans, the dangers of failure exceed the risk of doing something controversial. Still, that conclusion isn't certain. Current polling doesn't give clear guidance, and the conclusion likely doesn't hold true for every Democrat in Congress.
Journal Community Vote: Which option is worse: passing the wrong health-care bill or no bill at all?
The question is particularly relevant after President Barack Obama's speech to Congress on health care Wednesday night. The speech appears to have succeeded in refocusing the health debate, with the president as its central figure, but it doesn't seem to have lessened the controversy, intensity or polarization of the issue.
While the president gave ground to Republicans on some points -- particularly by putting medical-malpractice limits on the table for the first time -- Republicans were arguing Thursday that some of his more barbed language did nothing to improve the chances of bipartisanship breaking out. Democrats, meanwhile, are pointing to South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson's now-famous "You lie!" shout during the speech as evidence that there aren't a lot of soft edges in Republican opposition.
So for Democrats, the question is whether to unite behind something that will remain controversial, or walk away from it. There are dangers either way.
That's clear from a new Gallup survey that tries to test the political trade-offs. Gallup found that a hefty 64% of Americans say that their representative's position on health care will be a major factor in their vote in next year's congressional elections.
The key finding, though, is that the importance of health care is higher for those who oppose passing a bill than for those who favor it.
Among those against passing a health overhaul, 82% said their representative's position on the subject will be a major factor in next year's election. Among those who favor passing a bill, 62% said their representative's position will be a major factor. That suggests that more voters are ready to punish lawmakers for supporting change than are prepared to reward them for doing so.
Yet the equation isn't quite that simple.
Mr. Ornstein says that, as they watch the health debate, voters are making mental notes on whether the Democrats who control both houses of Congress and the White House can govern effectively. A broad sense that a party is unable to get things done, he argues, may be more damaging than the unhappiness lawmakers generate by doing something controversial.
"Voters out there are bundles of contradictions themselves," Mr. Ornstein says. Their attitude, he adds, is, "'We pay you the bucks to go in there and solve problems and act.' They don't want to hear excuses."
That, Mr. Ornstein believes, is the lesson Democrats learned, with great pain, from their disastrous flirtation with health care in 1993 and 1994. The Clinton administration proposed a large health overhaul that grew highly contentious and collapsed. Nothing controversial passed -- yet the Democrats who were in control got hammered in the 1994 midterm elections anyway, losing 54 seats. They were neither rewarded for letting a health overhaul die, nor for giving it the ol' college try.
An appearance of incompetence or ineffectiveness could be even more damaging this time around, because voters hold the Congress the Democrats control in even lower esteem to begin with. In the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, just 24% of those surveyed said they approve of the job Congress is doing; by comparison, at the beginning of 1994, Congress's job approval was 33%.
Still, not every Democrat will see things that way. Almost two dozen freshman Democrats won narrowly last year in conservative districts that Republicans carried in the presidential vote. They won't be easily convinced that they will benefit from seeing just anything pass. That's why the White House still has work to do when it argues that "failure is not an option."
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Teamsters News Link:
PACE OF CHANGE UNDER OBAMA FRUSTRATES UNIONS
New York Times
(September 8, 2009) For eight years under George W. Bush, union officials barely set foot inside the White House. But 10 days after President Barack Obama took office, the nation's most powerful labor leaders mingled in the Blue Room, moments after the new president, a man they helped put there, signed a string of executive orders undoing Mr. Bush's policies.
The mood was euphoric. “He walked in with the biggest smile,” James P. Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said of Mr. Obama, “saying, ‘Welcome back to your White House.' ”
Today that euphoria is giving way to a mixture of frustration and unease, as union leaders are growing concerned that the Obama White House has not delivered as much as they had expected. Some criticize him for not pushing hard enough or moving fast enough on their issues, while others blame the deep recession and Republican opposition for his failure to do more.
Mr. Obama has delayed a push for the unions' No. 1 legislative priority, a measure to make it easier for workers to organize. He faces potential conflict with unions on trade, and on how fast to push for immigration reform. And on health care, friction between labor and the White House is suddenly spilling out into the open.
In response, Mr. Obama is renewing his courtship of the labor movement, whose members worked as foot soldiers in his campaign and spent August doggedly defending his health plan at town-hall-style meetings across the country. On Monday, the president will mark Labor Day by speaking at an A.F.L.-C.I.O. picnic in Cincinnati. During his visit, he is expected to name Ron Bloom, who heads the president's automotive task force, to a second role in the administration as manufacturing czar. The next week, Mr. Obama will address the A.F.L.-C.I.O. convention in Pittsburgh.
“He gets an A for effort, and an incomplete for results,” the incoming president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., Richard L. Trumka.
While labor leaders, including the current A.F.L.-C.I.O. president, John J. Sweeney, say they remain extremely supportive of the president — especially his handling of the economic crisis — Mr. Trumka set off an uproar last week when he warned that unions would not support a health care bill that lacks a government-backed insurance plan. It was a shot across the bow to the White House, which is weighing whether to compromise on the so-called public option.
Another top union leader, Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, cautioned that if Mr. Obama abandons the public option, “it will be harder to gin our people up on other issues.” Mr. McEntee said he had noticed a shift in sentiment even since July, when 14 union leaders spent 45 minutes in the White House Roosevelt Room with the president and top aides like David Axelrod.
“He said, ‘You've stood shoulder to shoulder with me' — and I'm paraphrasing here — ‘I want you there, and I'm going to fight for you,' ” Mr. McEntee said. “When we left, I think we were all on maybe not cloud nine, but cloud four. I shook hands with all the staff, Axelrod was there. This was the person we elected; this was our president with a voice. It felt good.” And now? Mr. McEntee paused. “Well,” he said, “not as good.”
Blue-collar workers have long been a little bit suspicious of Mr. Obama, who has never quite been able to demonstrate that he is one of them. Still, they stood strongly behind him once he became the Democratic presidential nominee, contributing money, running phone banks and knocking on doors in critical swing states like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The two main labor federations, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and Change to Win, said unions and their political action committees had spent nearly $450 million in the presidential race. The addition of Joseph R. Biden Jr. to the ticket as Mr. Obama's running mate helped with his union bona fides. So did the endorsement of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts.
Today, Mr. Biden continues to play an important role as a link between the unions and the president. But Mr. Kennedy's death is a significant loss, one that may force Mr. Obama to work that much harder to win union support for any health care compromise he might make, said Geoff Garin, a Democratic strategist.
“Ted Kennedy was an incredibly important Good Housekeeping seal of approval, and if he lent his prestige to whatever compromise Obama felt he had to make, that would mean an awful lot to people in the labor movement,” Mr. Garin said. Mr. Obama, he added, must “persuade labor unions and others that his commitment is to getting it right in the interest of the average working person.”
He may have an easier time with some than others. Mr. Hoffa, for instance, said the public option was not a make-or-break provision for him; he is open to legislation containing a “a trigger” to create a public plan if private efforts to expand coverage fail. Mr. McEntee, by contrast, dismissed the trigger idea as “not a real public option.”
Dennis Rivera, the point man on health care for the Service Employees International Union, said simply that unions would have to be flexible. “Politics is the art of the possible,” he said, adding that Mr. Obama's “heart is in the right place.”
Still, there are tensions between unions and the White House on matters beyond health care. Trade is an especially contentious issue; unions are irked that Mr. Obama has backed away from his campaign pledge to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement. And the United Steelworkers, which represents tire workers, is pressing Mr. Obama to punish China now that the United States International Trade Commission has ruled that China is hurting American manufacturers by inundating the market with cheap tires.
Union leaders have also been patient with Mr. Obama, both on immigration (they want legislation offering a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants) and the Employee Free Choice Act, the bill to make organizing easier. In the July White House meeting, Mr. Obama made a strong pitch that health care should come first.
Labor leaders were willing to accept that strategy, said David E. Bonior, a former Michigan congressman who is the chairman of the National Labor Coordinating Committee, an umbrella group. But with Mr. Obama planning a major speech before Congress this week to lay out his priorities in a health bill, Mr. Bonior said, union members want reassurance that he will stick his neck out for their priorities.
“They don't want him to leave it up to seven or eight committee chairmen,” Mr. Bonior said. “They want him to be the leader and to fight for this stuff.”
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IBT News Release:
FAREWELL TO SENATOR KENNEDY
(August 31, 2009) Last week the Teamsters Union along with the rest of the United States Labor Movement said farewell to one of the best friends of working people in the United States Senate. The death of Senator Ted Kennedy was a huge blow to the nation. Here is what the IBT said about it in an official press release dated August 26:
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PHOTO AND CAPTION FROM THE AUGUST 27, 2009 Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO ENTRY ON ITS “UNION CITY” website.
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| "Hang in there, you will win!" U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy declared as 300 George Washington University students rallied in the rain on April 2, 2004 to support worker and student rights. Coming just days after the arrest of 11 students when they demanded that GW adopt a labor code of conduct, Kennedy's strong support for the GW workers and students ratcheted up the pressure on GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, who had already been inundated with over 1,000 e-mails.
“Senator Kennedy’s willingness to take on a major DC institution like GW was completely consistent with his lifelong commitment to working people in all walks of life,” said Metro Council President Jos Williams, who appeared with Kennedy at the 2004 rally. “His death leaves a huge void in our lives, but his life and work serve as a shining example for the rest of us to carry on the struggle.”
Senator Kennedy was leading the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act and for all legislation benefiting working families at the time of his passing. |
TEAMSTERS MOURN PASSING OF TED KENNEDY
The thoughts and prayers of 1.4 million Teamsters are with the Kennedy family today as the nation mourns the passing of one of the most influential lawmakers in American history.
“Ted Kennedy will stand as an inspiration to generations of Americans as a progressive icon. It’s rare for someone born into such privilege to be so concerned about the plight of working people, but Kennedy was such a person,” said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President.
Kennedy was one of a few lawmakers always willing to tackle the truly difficult issues head on. His combination of political savvy, intelligence and empathy allowed him to effect more change in this country than even presidents can hope to accomplish.
Upon his death, Kennedy was chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Kennedy left an indelible mark on many aspects of American life. He championed progressive legislation on labor, health care, education, civil rights, immigration, welfare and many others. A common theme among his pet issues was to ensure that all Americans have the chance to live and work with dignity.
“Despite the long shadows of tragedy that hung over his life, Ted never allowed that to cloud his vision of a better America,” Hoffa said. “He cared deeply about the issues of working Americans, and his most cherished soapbox was health care reform.
“Kennedy’s willingness to reach across the political divide to find common ground with his opponents should be an inspiration to lawmakers struggling with health care reform today,” Hoffa said.
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IBT News Release:
HOFFA APPLAUDS SALVADORAN PRESIDENT'S DECISION TO REOPEN SOTO MURDER CASE; CALLS FOR JUSTICE
(August 24, 2009) Last Friday, August 21, Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa applauded the announcement by the Salvadoran government that it will reopen the investigation into the assassination of Teamsters Port Division Representative Gilberto Soto after nearly five years since his death in Usulutan, El Salvador.
Recently elected Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes ordered the reopening of the case following requests from labor and government officials to follow through on his promise to strengthen the judicial system and crack down on crime in El Salvador by bringing Soto’s murderers to justice.
“President Funes has taken an important first step in strengthening human rights in El Salvador,” Hoffa said. “The violence against trade unionists in El Salvador and across Central and South America has been allowed to go unchecked for far too long. Gilberto Soto’s murderers must not be allowed to remain free if the Salvadoran government seeks to make significant strides in strengthening democratic institutions.”
Hoffa, in a recent letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, urged the State Department to inform President Funes that solving the Soto case will go a long way to further human rights in El Salvador.
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U.S. REP. JAMES McGOVERN (D-MASSACHUSETTS): Soto investigation has stalled in the Salvadoran judicial system, and Salvadoran authorities “have done little to fully investigate." |
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“Convicting the Soto assassins is not simply an issue of importance to the Teamsters,” Hoffa wrote. “Those who murder labor and human rights activists in El Salvador have operated with impunity for too many years. This has stifled the development of a trade union movement and stymied the development of a democratic civil society.”
Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) also called on President Funes to reopen the Soto case in a June 8 letter.
“This case has not duly advanced through the Salvadoran judicial system, and while Salvadoran authorities made arrests in the case, they have done little to fully investigate,” McGovern wrote. Full text of the McGovern letter can be found here.
In an interview with a Salvadoran newspaper, former Salvadoran Human Rights Ombudswoman Beatrice Allamani de Carrillo expressed her satisfaction with the reopening of the case, indicating that it confirms the findings in a report she and her staff originally submitted to authorities.
“Now the Office of the Attorney General has the responsibility to conduct a sound investigation,” said De Carrillo, who has long contended that Soto was murdered because of his trade union activities.
Soto was shot in the back and killed while visiting Usulutan on union business on November 5, 2004. To date, the police have done little to apprehend what appears to be a death squad that killed the union representative. In fact, in De Carrillo’s report, the former ombudswoman charged that the police had perpetrated a cover up rather than conduct an exhaustive investigation. A prominent figure involved in organizing port drivers in the United States, Soto was visiting El Salvador on behalf of the Teamsters to meet with Central American trade union leaders and port drivers.
Immediately following Soto’s death, the Teamsters Union sent a delegation of labor and human rights representatives to El Salvador to appeal for a transparent and effective investigation. The union offered a $50,000 reward for any information leading to the conviction of Soto’s assassins.
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Teamsters News Link:
DEAN CHALLENGES OBAMA TO DELIVER HEALTH CARE REFORM
Washington Post
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HOWARD DEAN: "The worst thing that could happen is to pass a bill without a public option... Then we'd put 60 billion new dollars a year into the health insurance industry that is busy taking away your health insurance when you need it most..." |
(August 20, 2009) Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean is emerging as a thorn in the side of a White House that effectively swept him out of Washington, regularly challenging President Obama and Congress as he crisscrosses the country preaching his progressive vision for universal health care.
Although he is lending voice and brand to the liberal cause in the intraparty health-care debate, Dean hardly considers himself a spoiler. Rather, he sees his role as fighting for progressive values, asserting again and again that health-care reform without a government-run insurance option is hardly reform at all.
When he visited this tranquil corner of New England last weekend, Dean warned that if Democratic leaders abandon the "public option," they surrender their principles to politics.
"The worst thing that could happen is to pass a bill without a public option," he told about 200 union workers and Democratic volunteers in a fiery speech at a pep rally and picnic here Sunday. "Then we'd put 60 billion new dollars a year into the health insurance industry that is busy taking away your health insurance when you need it most, stopping you from getting health insurance, taking it away if you lose a job and not giving it back to you if you get it back."
"We all voted for change we can believe in. If we don't get it, we'll get some more change in 2010," Dean roared, the crowd applauding between bites of hamburgers, hot dogs and macaroni salad.
'WE'VE GOT TO GET IT DONE'
In a wide-ranging interview Sunday on his way to the rally, Dean said he believes his appearances, many of which are organized by the Service Employees International Union, help support Obama's stated preference for a publicly financed insurance option.
"I think Obama's plan is very good," said Dean, a former physician who has made health care a key focus of his political career. "In fact, I think it's the most practical, most likely-to-succeed plan I've seen in 30 years, and we've got to get it done. This is the time."
"Any bill is not going to be a victory," Dean added, noting that he considers one without a public option a "terrible waste of money. The fiscal conservative side of me is saying, 'Oh my God, what are we doing here?' "
But in his appearances, which are not coordinated with the administration, Dean is helping to fuel what could become a calamity for the White House.
"What Howard is doing is principled but destructive," said a Democratic strategist and former Dean adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the intraparty debate. "If health-care reform goes down because of the public option, it's going to be the liberals that bring it down, the Democrats doing it to themselves."
Dean, 60, has become a politician without an office. Seven months removed from the DNC chairmanship and seven years away from being governor of Vermont, he appears to enjoy the freedom to speak his piece. And on this day, he did not appear concerned about the potential consequences for Obama.
"This vote is not about Democrats versus Republicans and conservatives and liberals and all that stuff," Dean said, his voice growing louder and his cadence faster. "This is about whether you're going to vote for the people who donated to your campaigns -- the health insurance industry -- or you're going to vote for the people who pay your salary. And we're going to be watching, because there are going to be 535 people casting that vote."
FREE TO SPEAK OUT
These days, Dean moves without the trappings of Washington -- or even of Montpelier, the Vermont capital. He traveled to Maine alone, flying commercial from Ohio, where he had spoken the day before. His flight got in late, and he checked into an Embassy Suites at the Portland airport, but despite being a "diamond" member of the chain's frequent-guest program, Dean was stuck with a room that reeked of cigarette smoke.
In the morning, for the 40-minute drive to Poland Spring, Dean rode not in a Town Car but in a Toyota Prius driven by a local Democratic activist. "I've cursed the stimulus package more than once as I've been trying to drive in various places," Dean joked from the front seat as the car meandered past orange construction cones.
Progressive Democrats in Congress, and the volunteer activists who helped put them there, revolted this week over comments from top administration officials that Obama was willing to give up a public insurance option to strike a deal with Congress. Some are frustrated after working for years to help Democrats win back the White House and big majorities in Congress.
"They are like, 'What's the fruit of our labor?' " said Joe Trippi, a Democratic strategist who managed Dean's 2004 upstart presidential campaign but has publicly feuded with him since. "Howard's giving that voice. He's definitely speaking out for a legitimate, sizable portion of rank-and-file progressives."
On Sunday at the Androscoggin County Democrats picnic, many showed their displeasure with any health-care deal that does not preserve a public option.
"I would like to see single-payer health care in this country," said Randy Huber, 64, a retired state government worker from Canaan. "To me, the public option is only a start."
Marianne von Nordeck, 29, a labor organizer from Portland, added: "We think real reform means a public option, and [Dean] has the freedom to get up there and advocate with us."
'NO MORE COMPROMISES'
Dean received a hero's welcome when he addressed hundreds of progressive bloggers last week at the Netroots Nation convention in Pittsburgh. He was their favored messenger in 2004, when his innovative campaign fueled the rise of the "Net roots" in the Democratic Party. Now, five years later, Dean is speaking for them again.
"The president has put together the best health-care [proposal] I've ever seen," Dean said. But, he added, the public option itself is a compromise between liberals who supported a government-run single-payer system and moderates. "We have already made our compromise, and there will be no more compromises in this bill."
Asked in the interview whether he sees himself as a spokesman for the progressive wing of the party, the man who ran for president saying that he represented the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" replied, "I don't spend a lot of time seeing myself in general."
A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE
Dean, who was a family doctor for two decades, has a unique perspective on the issue. In 1991, then-Lt. Gov. Dean was examining a patient when he received a call telling him the governor had died and that he would take over. As governor, he helped pass laws ensuring near-universal coverage for residents younger than 25.
"Health care was the primary driver of him getting into politics a long time ago," said his brother, Jim Dean, who chairs the Democracy for America political action committee. "He's very committed to getting health care for everybody. He tried it nine ways, sideways, here and angled a way to do it for kids. But he really views this as being a core issue for him."
What Dean is selling is his latest book, or at least the proposal outlined in it. "Not to shill for my own book, but if you have $12.99 or whatever it is to spare, 'Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform' actually explains all this in plain English in about 130 pages, and you can get through it in a good afternoon," he told the Poland Spring crowd.
'HE DIDN'T WALK AWAY'
As DNC chairman, Dean campaigned hard for Obama, and former aides said he was interested in working for the administration, perhaps as health and human services secretary. Asked if he would rather be in Washington, Dean demurred but did not hesitate to tout his credentials. "I know this stuff from a public policy point of view pretty well inside out," Dean said, "and I've also got a reasonably good political sense."
"I think Howard Dean would've loved to have been in the room hashing out health-care reform, whatever the role," Trippi said. "I think he would've relished that. He's passionate, he's a doctor, he knows it. But, look, that wasn't in the cards, and to his credit he didn't walk away. He's leading the charge on issues he cares about."
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