The Dog Days Of Health Care Reform.

I've posted about the bulging pockets of Blue Dog Democrats from health insurance industry largesse previously, and came across this item today that further drives the point home.

From McClatchey:

As the Obama administration and Democrats wrangled over the timing, shape and cost of health care overhaul efforts during the first half of the year, more than half the $1.1 million in campaign contributions the Democratic Party's Blue Dog Coalition received came from the pharmaceutical, health care and health insurance industries, according to watchdog organizations.

The amount outstrips contributions to other congressional political action committees during the same period, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit watchdog organization. The Blue Dogs, a group of fiscally conservative lawmakers, successfully delayed the vote on health care overhaul proposals until the fall.

"The business community realizes that (the Blue Dogs) are the linchpin and will become much more so as time goes on," former Mississippi congressman turned lobbyist Mike Parker told the organization's researchers.

On average, Blue Dog Democrats net $62,650 more from the health sector than other Democrats, while hospitals and nursing homes also favor them, giving, respectively, $5,680 and $5,550 more, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that tracks the influence of money in politics.

The contributions came at a time when health care and pharmaceutical companies were mounting a campaign against a government-run public health insurance option, fearing cost controls and an impact on business. The Blue Dogs' windfall also came at a time when the 52-member coalition flexed its muscle with both the White House and the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives as an increasingly influential bloc in the health care overhaul debate.

At the same time, many Blue Dogs were also rubbing shoulders with health care and insurance industry executives and their lobbyists at fundraising breakfasts and cocktail receptions that cost upward of $1,000 a plate, according to public information compiled by the nonprofit Sunlight Foundation, which advocates greater government transparency. Since 2008, more than half the Blue Dogs have either attended health care industry fundraising receptions or similar functions co-sponsored by lobbyists representing the health care and insurance industries.

In June, as Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., who heads the coalition's task force on health care, publicly expressed the Blue Dogs' misgivings about the Democratic leadership's efforts, the former pharmacy owner was feted at a series of health care industry receptions. Ross has received nearly $1 million in campaign contributions from the insurance and health care industries over his five-term career, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Calls to Ross' office weren't returned.

That month, the American Medical Association, which lobbies for health care providers and is one of the top contributors to Blue Dogs, came out against a public option.

House Republicans, however, tend to collect more than Democrats — including Blue Dogs — from insurers, health professionals and the broader health sector, the Center for Responsive Politics found.

In Democratically-controlled Washington, health care reform legislation is being partially shaped by a handful of majority party members who are largely indistinguishable from Republicans and are actively fighting a public option.

Meanwhile, 14,000 more Americans lost their health care coverage today.

In other words, our best shot at robust reform to our broken health care system is going to the dogs.

Health Care Reform Summary: Sam Sedar Interviews Rolling Stone Contributing Editor Matt Taibbi.

The Corporate Health Sector Scratched This Blue Dog's Tummy Until He Rolled Over.

Mike Ross denies its impact at the end of this clip, but in 2008 he accepted over twice as much health sector dough as the average Blue Dog. And he's proud that his coalition "held the bill hostage in committee for 10 days" and killed any chance at a single-payer plan.

Your corporate sponsors thank you, Rep. Ross; those of us hoping for robust reform don't.

Olbermann's "Special Comment" On Health Care Reform.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

JackRabbit Café has tried to post useful information on the health care debate, including details about the pocket-fillers known as "Blue Dogs"--the conservative strain of sell-outs on the Democratic side of the aisle (here, here, here, here and here.)

The sell-outs on the other side don't have a subgroup with a cuddly little name. They're just Republicans.

Blue Dogs In The Red Light District.

There's a Russian proverb that says, "If the pocket is empty, the judge is deaf."

With their PAC pockets bulging and their role as health care reform's hanging judges increasing, Blue Dog Democrats hear health care insurers loud and clear.

From the Washington Post:

On June 19, Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas made clear that he and a group of other conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs were increasingly unhappy with the direction that health-care legislation was taking in the House.

"The committees' draft falls short," the former pharmacy owner said in a statement that day, citing, among other things, provisions that major health-care companies also strongly oppose.

Five days later, Ross was the guest of honor at a special "health-care industry reception," one of at least seven fundraisers for the Arkansas lawmaker held by health-care companies or their lobbyists this year, according to publicly available invitations.

The roiling debate about health-care reform has been a boon to the political fortunes of Ross and 51 other members of the Blue Dog Coalition, who have become key brokers in shaping legislation in the House. Objections from the group resulted in a compromise bill announced this week that includes higher payments for rural providers and softens a public insurance option that industry groups object to. The deal also would allow states to set up nonprofit cooperatives to offer coverage, a Republican-generated idea that insurers favor as an alternative to a public insurance option.

At the same time, the group has set a record pace for fundraising this year through its political action committee, surpassing other congressional leadership PACs in collecting more than $1.1 million through June. More than half the money came from the health-care, insurance and financial services industries, marking a notable surge in donations from those sectors compared with earlier years, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity.

The Post points out that conservative Democrats are closer to Republicans than their own party when it comes to industry dough; the average Blue Dog receives 25 percent more money from health care and insurance interests than do typical Democrats. Drug makers, insurers and health plan organizations throw more money around than do born-again Republicans at a whorehouse. And Blue Dog Democrats lay down, too.

Read the whole piece here for another primer on why politics may be this country's brand of legal prostitution, but it's the rest of us who are getting screwed.

Blue Dog Blues.

There are 51 self-identified "Blue Dogs" in the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives. That coalition is working to slow down health care legislation and water down a public option.

John Boehner must love 'em.

From Politico:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent half of Wednesday finalizing a deal with the Blue Dogs — and the other half quelling a brewing rebellion among progressives who think conservatives have hijacked health care reform.

Liberals, Hispanics and African-American members — Pelosi’s most loyal base of support — are feeling betrayed after House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) reached an agreement with four of seven Blue Dogs on his committee who had been bottling up the bill over concerns about cost.

The compromise, which still must be reconciled with competing House and Senate versions, would significantly weaken the public option favored by liberals by delinking reimbursement rates to Medicare.

Two months ago, most of the 80-plus members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) signed a pledge that they would oppose any health care bill that didn’t contain a bona fide public option that would compete with private insurers.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) predicted that House liberals, who believe they have compromised away several core issues to further President Barack Obama’s agenda, might finally buck leadership if they are force-fed a weakened public option.

“I don’t think it would pass the House — I wouldn’t vote for it,” Frank, a CPC member, told POLITICO.

He answered “yes” emphatically when asked if progressives were willing to delay the entire process as the Blue Dogs have done.

From the AP/Huffington Post:

The House changes...would steer away from using Medicare as the blueprint for a proposed government insurance option, reduce federal subsidies to help lower-income families afford coverage, and exempt additional businesses from a requirement to offer health insurance to their workers.

In the Senate, the pace of negotiations appears to have accelerated in recent days, with lawmakers all but settling on a tax on high-cost insurance plans to help pay for the bill, as well as a new mechanism designed to curtail the growth of Medicare over the next 10 years and beyond.

More problematic from the point of view of most Democrats is a tentative agreement to omit a provision in which the government would sell insurance in competition with private industry. In its place, the group is expected to recommend nonprofit cooperatives that could operate at the state, regional or even national level.

Even if the negotiations succeed before the Senate's vacation, which starts next week, it isn't clear when the Finance Committee would vote.

Meanwhile, back on Main Street, 12,000 Americans are losing health care coverage each day.

Where There's A Will...

"I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat."--Will Rogers

From The Hill:

House healthcare negotiations dissolved in acrimony on Friday, with Blue Dog Democrats saying they were “lied” to by their Democratic leaders.

In advance of a subsequent press conference called by House leadership, Blue Dog liaison Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) said the healthcare bill should be staying in committee.

"I expect the committee process to proceed," Cardoza said.

The seven Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce Committee stormed out of a Friday meeting with their committee chairman, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), saying Waxman had been negotiating in bad faith over a number of provisions Blue Dogs demanded be changed in the stalled healthcare bill.

“I’ve been lied to,” Blue Dog Coalition Co-Chairman Charlie Melancon (D-La.) said on Friday. “We have not had legitimate negotiations.

“Mr. Waxman has decided to sever discussions with the Blue Dogs who are trying to make this bill work for America,” Melancon said.

"Waxman simply does not have votes in committee and process should not be bypassed to bring the bill straight to floor,” Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the lead Blue Dog negotiator, said on Friday. “We are trying to save this bill and trying to save this party.”

"Save this party?" So resign and let a Democrat whose hands aren't in health insurers' pants take your place.

Harry Reid Won't Like This.

This spot by Organizing for America will run in 12 congressional districts represented by conservative Democrats and 3 Republican districts. All are members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been critical of Democrats targeting other Democrats.

Tough shit.

Blue Dog Democrats are poised to gum up the works of real health care reform by clinging to vestiges of the status quo and bucking actual change.

Those 3 Republicans? They just say "no" out of habit.

You Ain't Nothin' But A Blue Dog, Cryin' All The Time...

That's the invitation to a party for conservative Democrat Mike Ross, thrown by the Alpine Group, a lobbying firm who represents several private health care interests. As I've pointed out previously, it is Blue Dog Democrats such as Ross who are the biggest obstacle to real change in our health care system.

From NASDAQ.com:

U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., a leader of fiscally conservative House Democrats, said Wednesday a House plan to overhaul the U.S. health-care system is losing support and will be stuck in committee without changes.

"Last time I checked, it takes seven Democrats to stop a bill in the Energy and Commerce Committee," Ross told reporters after a House vote. "We had seven against it last Friday; we have 10 today."

Three House committees are slated to begin considering the $1 trillion-plus bill this week, but the Energy and Commerce looms as the biggest challenge. That's because it counts among its 36 Democratic members seven members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a fiscally conservative bloc that is opposing the House Democrats' effort.

Ross said the bill, introduced Wednesday by House Democratic leaders, doesn't include provisions adequate to curb rising health care costs, including what the government spends on healthcare.

"The current bill would have to be substantially amended before we could consider supporting it," Ross said.

The Energy and Commerce panel is scheduled to meet Thursday afternoon to kick off its review of the legislation, but its session is expected to stretch into late next week.

Ross said Blue Dogs have been meeting every day to craft amendments that will be offered during that meeting, but offered no details on what those amendments are. He said those amendments could number in the dozens.

Ross said he expects Blue Dogs will meet with the panel's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., soon to discuss their specific proposed changes.

Call me cynical, but I visited the Sunlight Foundation's "The Party" blog to check out Ross's campaign contributions from the health industry over the years. That's where I saw this about Ross's Alpine shindig:

Several lobbyists working for the Alpine Group–Rhod Shaw, Greg Means, Jim Massie, and Charles Barnett, planned a dinner on May 20 for Rep. Mike Ross, a Democrat from Arkansas. Their clients include the Biotechnology Industry Association, the Medical Imaging Contrast Agent Association, and the Council on Radionuclides and Radiopharmaceuticals. Ross has collected more than $833,000 in campaign contributions from health care interests over his years in Congress.

The kennel doors are swung wide open, and Blue Dog Democrats could leave their party chasing its tail over real health care reform.

Health Care Blues.

From the AP:

The drive to remake the nation's health care system suffered yet another setback in Congress on Thursday when a pivotal group of House Democrats demanded changes in legislation the leadership was drafting on a fast track.

The emerging bill "lacks a number of elements essential to preserving what works and fixing what is broken," 40 members of the Blue Dog Coalition of moderate to conservative Democrats wrote party leaders. To win their support, they said, any legislation would need to be much more aggressive in reining in the growth of health care as well as in addressing a disparity in Medicare payments they said adversely affects rural providers.

A group of the moderates met into early evening with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and arranged to sit down with committee chairmen on Friday to go over proposed changes. Officials said the public release of the bill, originally set for Friday, would occur no earlier than Monday.

It was the second setback in three days for President Barack Obama's top domestic priority, although it was unclear whether it would amount to anything more than a brief delay for a bill of enormous complexity and controversy.

From Roll Call:

Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the chairman of the fiscally conservative Blue Dogs’ health care task force, warned leadership in a Thursday night meeting that lasted more than two hours that the vast majority of the group could not support the bill unless major changes were made.

Forty Blue Dogs signed a two-page letter communicating a series of demands ranging from more aid to rural areas to more cost-cutting to protections for small businesses.

But the fiercest opposition is to a public plan option based on existing Medicare reimbursement rates.

“We cannot accept a public option based on Medicare rates,” Ross said. Ross said regional disparities in Medicare would have to be fixed for Blue Dogs to consider such an idea, because payment levels are too low in many parts of the country.

Ross said that the Blue Dogs would meet with the three committee chairmen writing the bill on Friday to try to address some of their demands. Ross said some concerns could be addressed before the bill goes to markup and others could potentially be dealt with via amendments in committee.

Blue Dog Howl.

Harman is my district's representative. She lost my vote a long time ago.