Scott Brown is in the Senate. Does he have a strategy? Or is he still bowled over by the fact that he's there?
I don't usually do purely speculative blogs, because at heart I'm a reporter. But I'm fascinated by the possibilities that Scott Brown represents.
By bizarre circumstance, he's the most powerful man in the Senate. He's been wise enough to say that he plans a bi-partisan approach. That plays well here in Massachusetts -- where he'll be running again in two years. But it also means the Republican troglodytes can't completely depend on him, giving him leverage. And the Democrats can believe that they still have a prayer of getting some fraction of their health agenda through. That means that Scott Brown, the most junior Senator in the minority party has real power.
What should Scott Brown do? He should say that he's committed to responsible fiscal policy. He should say he believes in universal health care and cutting health care costs. He should say he won't get bogged down in Republican social issues.
He probably could shape one or two major national policies. I think he should demand at least one major cost-cutting initiative and one health care initiative. For example, require Medicaid and Medicare recipients to agree they won't participate in medical malpractice suits. And require the government to assume health costs for any family that spends more than one sixth of its income on health insurance.
I know Scott Brown wasn't elected to deal with all these problems. Most of his voters just want him to stop government's dramatic expansion and rein in excesses -- whether that's bank bonuses or government deficits.
He doesn't have a mandate, but he's got a temporary and unprecedented power.
It would be cool to see him use it in a positive way.
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He seems like a plain spoken, common sense guy. Seems like the whole notion of reigning in costs in healthcare has gotten lost. People don't want people messing with their healthcare availability. They would be open to reducing costs. Of course, this presupposes that as consumers we know what those costs are. Unfortunately, we don't. A little transparency would be nice, as would more involvement by the consumer in shopping for both quality and cost.
ReplyDeleteYou can't have universal healthcare and cut health care costs at the same time. They are mutually exclusive.
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