Allahpundit:
Nice catch by Michael Warren, spotting a key bit in this new New York piece. Can Senate Dems get the votes to block Price’s confirmation as the new chief of HHS? Er … no. Not a chance. Can they inflict some pain on Trump and the GOP even in a futile effort, though? You betcha.
Instead, we are about to witness the most significant term of Schumer’s career. He has already earned the allegiance of Democratic senators by naming a number of them to newly created leadership posts. (“It’s like Oprah,” jokes one Senate aide. “You get a new leadership post! And you get a new leadership post!”) And it’s likely that Schumer will hold the caucus together during the confirmation process for Trump’s nominees. Senate Democrats appear to be unanimous in their opposition to Tom Price, Trump’s choice for Health and Human Services secretary, and they hope to raise such a ruckus about Medicare during Price’s hearings that at least three Republicans decide to vote against Price, too, thus handing Democrats their first scalp of the Trump era.
According to various Senate aides, Schumer doesn’t believe his party has a chance of torpedoing any other Trump nominees, but he hopes to make their confirmations as bruising — and, with smart floor management, as prolonged — as possible. (Schumer himself declined to comment.) “The goal will be to show the public how controversial these nominations are,” explains a Senate Democratic aide.
Schumer’s right that virtually all of Trump’s nominees should sail through, even Rex Tillerson thanks to the strong support he’s gotten from the Republican establishment. (I’d keep an eye on Steve Mnuchin, though, whose history as a mortgage banker might spook some Senate Republicans.) As for Price, which three Republicans are supposedly going to help Democrats Bork Trump’s handpicked choice to oversee the overhaul of ObamaCare, the most consequential domestic policy reform of his first term? Price’s defeat wouldn’t just be a humiliating defeat for Trump, it would upend the nascent “repeal and replace” effort before it’s begun. A strict party-line vote is probable, but thanks to Harry Reid’s filibuster reform in 2013, that’s all the GOP needs to confirm Price. And Schumer knows it. So what’s this really about?
It’s about Medicare. Since the day Price’s nomination was announced last month, Dems have been salivating at the thought of hanging entitlement reform around Trump’s neck. Here’s the NYT on November 30th:
“We say to our Republicans that want to privatize Medicare, go try it, make our day,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the incoming Democratic leader, mustering his best Clint Eastwood/Ronald Reagan impersonation…
Mr. Price is not only a leading proponent of repealing the Obama-era health care law, but he has embraced Republican efforts to move future Medicare users into private insurance programs and raise the eligibility age. He told reporters shortly after the Nov. 8 election that he anticipated Republicans would embark on a substantial Medicare overhaul within the first six to eight months of Donald J. Trump’s presidency.
Senate Democrats intend to press Mr. Price on this subject during his confirmation hearings. They see a wide opening for political gain, given the 57 million older Americans who rely on Medicare — including many white Midwesterners with financial worries who voted for Mr. Trump.
One of the key Republican attack lines on ObamaCare before the 2010 midterms was that it would end up siphoning off critical funding for Medicare. As you may recall, the GOP did okay in November of that year. Now Democrats want to turn it around on them, keying off of Price’s support for a voucher system as a potential replacement for Medicare. The subject reportedly came up at a dinner held at Heidi Heitkamp’s house a few weeks ago for Democratic senators from red states who are facing difficult reelections in 2018. If you’re expecting Heitkamp, Manchin, McCaskill, etc, to join the GOP in voting for Price’s confirmation, think again: “The Democrats at Ms. Heitkamp’s dinner discussed how to highlight and, potentially, block Mr. Price’s appointment, according to an attendee.” The older blue-collar Americans who rely most heavily on Medicare are a pillar of Trump’s national support and, needless to say, a key bloc in the states these centrist Dems are running in. The surest way to get them to rethink voting GOP two years from now is to convince them that Trump and the new, even more Republican Senate will take away their Medicare if they do. It’s hard to think of another policy, foreign or domestic, that could do more damage to Trump more quickly than Medicare reform — if Democrats win the messaging war over it, that is.
The demon-crats are evil to their cores the demon donkey needs a dose of holy water and watch it turn to dust
Price nom equals no problem
Perhaps I missed it, but I don’t recall Trump ever talking about “privatizing” Medicare. A desire to “privatize” Social Security” came from the establishment side of the GOP, no doubt to help these politicians own insider information managed personal investment plans by screwing the suckers.