Democrat Infighting on Health Care

Not all is well with Obamacare, the effort to nationalize health care. The AMA, the nation's largest organization of physicians, has come out against it, and even among Democrats there is no unity:

President Barack Obama's plan for a government health insurance program has touched off an increasingly fierce Democratic civil war on Capitol Hill, as liberals fearful about squandering the chance to achieve that goal are taking aggressive steps to keep moderates in line.

When Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) called the public plan a deal breaker, a progressive group co-founded by Joe Trippi launched a campaign in Nebraska accusing the senator of being a "sellout" for special interests.

After a strategy memo by the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way cautioned Democrats on overreaching on a public plan, Daily Kos bloggers went on the attack, and Third Way now faces a coordinated effort to pressure Third Way donors.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) is the next target. On Tuesday, she said she opposed the public plan. By Wednesday, the liberal Health Care for America Now was drawing up a plan to change her mind.

"It is all about Democrats," said Adam Green, chief executive officer of Change Congress, which launched the Nelson campaign. "We only need 50 votes. We could conceivably have 60 votes on our own if we keep Democrats unified. It is a matter of convincing Democrats whose conventional wisdom is based on the old political order. This is an extremely popular proposal spearheaded by an extremely popular president, and it is OK to support it."

Amid the signs of party discord, Obama is stepping up his personal efforts to push a public plan, with his first health-care town hall event Thursday in Green Bay, Wisc. On Monday, he’ll travel to Chicago to address the annual meeting of the American Medical Association, which is not on board with a government insurance program.
AMA President Nancy Nielsen has raised concerns that the public option would underpay doctors, and the New York Times reported Thursday that the organization will oppose the proposal, which would deal a serious blow to Obama's effort to convince lawmakers and voters that a government plan is the way to go.

Still, the White House appeared to be testing out a new sales-pitch Wednesday, with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs saying of the debate on Capitol Hill, “You're likely to hear two very important words: choice and competition. A public option . . . is nothing more than the ability to provide more choice through competition.”

How is there going to be "competition" when the government will have the ability to subsidize costs in a way private insurers cannot? "Competition" is the word the administration will use, but fair competetion is not what's going to happen. With the government offering plans at a lower cost than private insurers, the private companies will be run out of business...as intended, leaving only the public option.

Democrats from red states may have a hard time selling their support of this plan back home.