Democrats Split As Nancy Pelosi Betrays Seniors

Nancy Pelosi’s irrational behavior regarding the Medicare “doc fix” is creating rifts between Pelosi and other Democrats. For the past several months we’ve had a repeated pattern of the Democrats taking the lead in trying to fix the problem while the Republicans have blocked passage. Suddenly it is Nancy Pelosi who is jeopardizing Medicare.

The Senate passed a six month temporary fix last Friday which differed from the House proposal. While far from perfect, the Senate bill would have at least bought some time to again work on a long term solution. It was initially assumed that the House would quickly approve the Senate bill but instead Pelosi has insisted she will not act upon a Medicare fix which does not also include the jobs proposals in the House bill.

While fighting for the jobs proposals are admirable, this should not be done at the expense of passing the Medicare fix. Failure to pass the fix endangers the Medicare program and will cause seniors, the disabled, and military families to have difficulty getting access to health care. (Medicare directly covers seniors and the disabled while Tricare, which covers active members of the military and their families, bases its fee schedule on the Medicare fee schedule).

As Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid took differing positions, Politco reported this morning that  Congress battles as Medicare burns. There even appears to be some disagreement with Pelosi among the House Democratic leadership, as reported by The Hill:

Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.), the Chair of the Education and Labor health panel, tells The Hill that Congress should quickly pass a bill delaying cuts to Medicare physician payments. The comments seem at odds with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) statement Monday that the House should hold off on taking up the Senate’s Medicare doc fix until the Senate passes a tax extenders bill, which some House members fear might go nowhere if it’s uncoupled from the must-pass doc fix.

“Leverage is less important than ensuring seniors can see their doctors,” Andrews said as he was entering a meeting in the office of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). “So I think it’s important to pass it.”

As I said earlier as my Facebook status, also posted to Speaker Pelosi’s FB page (and on Twitter in an abreviated 140 character version):

Nancy Pelosi: We expect Democrats to fight to preserve Medicare, not give Republicans political cover to destroy it. So far it has been the Republicans who have been blocking the payment fix, but if you follow through with threats not to pass the latest temporary fix passed by the Senate the Democrats become responsible for endangering Medicare, and risk losing the senior vote.