Wall Street Journal praises Wyden health care bill
The Wall Street Journal ran a lengthy editorial today praising Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) for the Healthy Americans Act, a health care bill he created as an alternative to the public plan being proposed by Barack Obama. Wyden’s bill, the WSJ’s Collin Levy writes, would tighten regulations but leave the decision on whether to buy health care coverage to individuals. It is co-sponsored by Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett. Levy and Wyden call it a bipartisan solution.
“People can’t be tricked into fixing health care.” If you want to bring the country together, he continues, you have to aim for 70 votes and the kind of bipartisan strength that the Healthy Americans Act has with 14 senators sponsoring the bill.
Worth noting, as shown by data tallied by blogger Nate Silver, is that Wyden has received $674,117 in campaign contributions from the health care industry, 3.7 percent of his total campaign funding, which is a higher portion than about three fourths of the Senate. Only nine Democrats get a higher percentage of campaign money from health industry groups.
“Senators whom the health care industry seems most inclined to give money to are not necessarily those who are complete deadweight on the issue,” Silver writes. “Rather, it’s those like Enzi and Conrad who are pushing solutions which are invariably described as bipartisan but which are in fact likely to lock in an industry-friendly plan.” Note the headline of Levy’s editorial: “Wyden’s Third Way,” and the piece’s emphasis on its bipartisan support
The plan is drawing fire, though, from labor unions. A political action committee paid for the following television ad opposing Wyden’s bill and in favor of Obama’s plan:
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