Paul Hodes is out there talking up a storm about how he’s “not going to be bullied into changing his position” on Health care. I almost fell out of my chair laughing. I never realized he had his own position, but if that’s what he’s calling it fine. But consider this first because it tells you a good deal about who Paul Hodes is. Six to eight months of increasing constituent objection, all the phone calls, email, faxes, letters; the comments in the old press and the new; the declining approval of Hodes, the congress, and the president, none of that has swayed “the position” of one Paul Hodes. But the minute AHIP starts an ad campaign about the possible downside of this plot to reform health care, Hodes feels bullied?
Hodes reacts defensively to special interests but not his own voters. Nice message. And I know why, but maybe you don’t.
First and foremost, AHIP loved Paul Hodes and all the democrats, even donated to his 2008 campaign. AHIPand its many members were major players in the fashioning of a policy Hodes has already voted for. The liberals mandating millions of new customers for the insurance industry, a fixed customer pool of 300 million by law, with the US treasury as a backstop? It get’s no better. AHIP, PhRMA, they loved the stimulus and SCHIP, and they were just Ga–Ga over Obama’s budget, all of which set the table for the major players in the insurance and health care industry to dine high on the federal hog.
“We have strongly supported recent efforts by the Administration and Congress to strengthen the health care safety net, expand coverage for kids, conduct comparative effectiveness research, and invest in health information technology. Our Board of Directors has offered a comprehensive proposal that starts with us playing a leadership role in advocating for market reforms and addresses the core issues of cost, access, and quality. Health plans will continue to be constructive participants in the health care reform discussion. We recognize that to achieve reform of this magnitude, every stakeholder group will be expected to contribute and will be challenged to innovate, perform better, and be held accountable for results."
And if you look at the larger picture, the insurance and financial industries spent plenty on candidate Hodes in 2008 because those sectors are tied at the hip along with all the lawyers (major Hodes supporter) that direct the traffic in between them. And that pattern continued right into the 2010 Senate Race. Hodes has some significant investors (Goldman-Sachs, Fidelity) tied up in the health sector who would love him to pass this plan because they are invested in other companies that will reap a windfall from Paul’s favorable vote.
So Hodes’ vote can not be bullied out of him by you or by AHIP, because he’s already been bought by the financial industries investment in Wealth Care Reform and the law lobbies guarantee of a bill void of tort reform; they all benefit the sectors that love Paul most.
Hodes of course sees this a chance to crank up the rhetoric against AHIP. In fact it’s almost as if AHIP is trying to give him some leverage for the ‘fight Big insurance meme’ so that opinion will shift enough in his favor. If health care passes AHIP will make a fortune, and with a fixed government market perception matters not at all. Twenty million is a pittance compared to the potential profits of a mandated fixed market, even one managed by the government.
The next bit of Hodes hypocrisy comes from SEIU. This massive Union, also a major crafter and driver of this partisan legislation has come out to support Hodes; even spent a few million of it’s own on ad’s in support of democrats who voted for Health Care back in October but were suffering backlash at home. Hodes benefited from that. Hodes gets loads of direct cash support from unions as well; it goes Big Insurance and Big Finance, Ideological, Unions, and then Lawyers and Lobbyists. These people buy Paul Hodes every election cycle so you never had a chance. And they are all interconnected. But SEIU keeps the fires burning by giving millions to left wingers to influence policy, spending millions to keep the DC bubble filled with thin oxygen so the moon-bats don’t start thinking on their own, or worrying about the contradictions, or lord help us whatever the actual voters think. But that’s how the fabric of the left wing corporatist-socialist model gets made. Big money, big government, shared power, tiny thoughts.
So Paul Hodes, he doth protest too much.
Cross Posted From NH Insider
