archived: 23 - 29 Jan, 2005 Back Next
KERRY’S HEALTH CARE PLAN
On Monday, Senator Kerry will announce introduction of legislation providing for universal health care for children. The approach is relatively direct, expand Medicare.
Under the Kerry plan, the federal government will pay the full costs for the 20 million children in the Medicaid program. In return, we will ask states to expand coverage to children in families with higher incomes than are currently eligible, as well as low-income adults. This plan will expand coverage to millions of people and provide much needed relief for states that are struggling under persistent growing budgetary pressures.
The plan will also simplify the health care system so we can prevent children from falling through the cracks. Right now, there are millions of kids who are eligible for federal/state health insurance programs but are not signed up.
There are lots of reasons — sometimes the enrollment forms require the skills of an accountant to figure out. Some states make parents sign up every six months in person, making it virtually impossible for a parent who cannot get time off or afford to lose a whole day of work. Some parents do not even know these programs are available.
Under our plan, kids will be signed up automatically at hospitals, community health centers, and schools. And $5 billion in enrollment bonuses will be available to states as an incentive to find uninsured children and keep them covered. Children do not choose their parents. They do not choose whether to have health insurance. Children deserve a good start—with both high quality education and health care. Under our plan, every child in America will have health insurance, and every parent will have a little more peace of mind. – John Kerry
Sen. Kerry’s plan is both good public policy and good politics. It is good public policy as it starts America on the path to universal heath care by putting its children first. Carefully note that Sen. Kerry proposes that the Federal Government pay the full cost of the plan, which has the added benefit of freeing additional Medicare funds for cash strapped states.
The proposal is excellent politics. Sen. Kerry is putting an important plank of the Democratic Party before the public. In the next few weeks, Bush will be announcing rather dramatic cuts in government spending, especially in the social services sector. Sen. Kerry’s plan should help contrast Republican policy with that of the Democratic Party. Sen. Kerry’s plan will give Democrats a focal point for positive action.
Nationally, blacks accounted for 11% of the total vote. Bush’s 2004 performance among blacks was 2% better than his 2000 performance. – CNN Viewed nationally, Bush’s marginal increase in black support seems lackluster, especially compared to the more dramatic increase in support he achieved among Hispanic males and senior white females.
If Bush had received the 9% of the back vote nationally, instead of the 11% actually received, his majority nationally would have declined by some 260,000 votes. The difference was certainly not crucial to Bush’s 2004 victory.
On a state by state basis, Bush’s increased performance is more complex. CNN exit polls indicate Bush’s 2004 performance among blacks compared with his 2000 in these states as:
Alabama
-2%
Arkansas
-6%
California +7%
Delaware
+8%
Florida
+6%
Georgia +5%
Illinois
+3%
Michigan
+2%
Mississippi
+7%
Missouri
-4%
New Jersey
+6%
North Carolina
+5%
Ohio
+7%
Pennsylvania
+9%
South Carolina
+8%
In Ohio, blacks accounted for 10% of the total vote and Bush increased his 2004 performance among blacks in the State by +7%, receiving 16% of the Black vote. The final vote count in Ohio was Bush: 2,858,687; Kerry 2,740,244, a total of 5,598,931 votes. – Plain Dealer If Bush had retained the 9% of black support he received in 2000, rather than the 16% he actually won, Bush’s margin of victory in the State would have fallen to some 76,000.
Why the shift? First, Republicans effectively used the “wedge issues.”
In the United States, “evangelical” connotes white, suburban or Southerner, conservative and Republican. The word conjures up TV ministries, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, the Moral Majority and the religious right.
This vision of “evangelical” ignores the large number of evangelical blacks. Multiple studies show that a larger percentage of African-Americans attend church than any other racial group.
While blacks have traditionally supported Democrats since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1932 election, President Bush gained a slightly higher number of black votes nationally in 2004. But the biggest jumps were in swing states of Ohio and Florida, arguably enough to boost Bush’s narrow victory margins in those states. Political scientists, while not hailing it a sea change, identify moral values as the factor that pushed black religious conservatives toward Bush’s camp.
On abortion, which is high on the religious right’s to-do-away-with list, a Zogby International poll showed that 63 percent of blacks held a pro-life perspective.
It’s another values issue, gay marriage, that is the nexus for some black Christians and the GOP. A December 2003 New York Times survey established that 75 percent of blacks oppose same-sex marriage. The marriage issue is partially responsible for Bush picking up 11 percent of the black vote nationally, up 2 percentage points from 2000. – Journal Gazette (emphasis added) (Junkie: the author’s assertion that the “biggest jumps” in black support came in the “swing states” is not entirely correct as evidenced by the CNN exit polls noted above).
Second, Bush used funds from his Faith Based Initiatives program to court black religious support. Consider this example from the swing state of Wisconsin:
Bishop Sedgwick Daniels, one of this city’s [Milwaukee’s’] most prominent black pastors, voted Democrat in national elections past, backing Bill Clinton and Al Gore for president.
This fall, however, the bishop’s broad face appeared on Republican Party fliers in the battleground state of Wisconsin, endorsing President Bush as the candidate who “shares our views.”
What changed?
After Bush’s contested 2000 victory, Daniels felt the pull of the most powerful of worldly forces: a call from the White House. He conferred with top administration officials and had a visit in 2002 from the president himself. His church later received $1.5 million in federal funds through Bush’s initiative to support faith-based social services.
Daniels’ political conversion, and similar transformations by black pastors across the nation, form a little-known chapter in the playbook of Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign -- and may mark the beginning of a political realignment long sought by senior White House adviser Karl Rove and other GOP strategists.
Daniels says it was not the federal money that led him to endorse the Republican candidate this year, but rather the values held by Bush and other party leaders. The pastor dates the beginning of his political conversion to the 1980s, when his church first opened a parochial school and stepped to the front lines of a nationwide battle over vouchers and school choice. Back then, he voted for Republican Tommy Thompson in the Wisconsin governor’s race.
“This is not some new conversion,” Daniels said.
He said Bush’s championing of church ministries, religious education and moral clarity was evidence to many religious blacks that the GOP could be an appealing home.
That’s exactly the way many conservative Republican and evangelical leaders hope the faith-based program will work.
“The political benefits are unbelievable,” says the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the conservative Traditional Values Coalition, which helped shape the administration’s faith-based strategy and the GOP’s outreach to black Christian voters. “The Democrats ought to have their heads examined for voting against this.”
The money that flowed to Daniels’ church was part of a broader effort inspired by Bush’s contention that religious groups can do a better job than government in providing such services as counseling, education and drug treatment. In 2003, the administration awarded more than $1 billion to hundreds of faith-based groups, some of which hadn’t received such public funds in the past.
The White House adamantly denies that the faith initiative is a political tool. But the program has provoked criticism that the GOP is seeking to influence new supporters, especially blacks, with taxpayers’ money. The Rev. Timothy McDonald of Atlanta, a prominent black minister with Democratic ties, dubbed the program an “attempt to identify new leadership in the black community and use the money to prop these people up.” – The Repository (emphasis added)
With elections increasingly hinging on “small numbers,” Republicans are increasing their share of black voters. It presents a paradox for the Democratic Party, whose core base depends in large part on blacks of strong religious faith facing a Republican challenge on the “wedge” issues. It is a paradox that requires a resolution if the Republican inroads with blacks who have strong religious views is to be abated.
JOE TRIPPI
Joe Trippi, one of the chief architects of Governor Dean’s campaign, is not supporting Gov. Dean for Party Chairman.
Trippi envisions the role of the next DNC Party Chairman in basic terms:
The Democratic Party has a big tent, and under that tent are a disparate assortment of interests and ambitions. For the Democratic Party to have any chance at building a competitive apparatus and organization that can win elections, everyone has to put their own interests aside.
What we need to do now, regardless of who our next chairman is, is bring all the elements of our party, and all the talent in our party, including the grassroots, into one room— put the past in the past— and move this party forward. – Joe Trippi
Based on his assessment of the Party’s needs, Trippi champions Simon Rosenberg. Trippi’s reasoning:
If our party is to win in the 21st century, we have to have a strategist who knows how to practice 21st century politics. That means expanding participation, embracing technology, and building an apparatus that can counter the Republican machine. Simon Rosenberg was among the first in politics to acknowledge the power of the movement we built with Dean for America and he wasn’t afraid to speak up about how we were fundamentally changing politics. He knows that in the age of the Internet, our politics must be interactive and participatory to engage citizens. He knows the Internet is not just an ATM for candidates and parties, but a tool for bringing in millions of Americans who want to be a part of the political process. – Joe Trippi
Rosenberg is founder of the New Democratic Network. Rosenberg has an impressive website dedicated to his candidacy that can be found here: -- Simon For Chair
Rosenberg’s site lays out his very detailed vision of how to rebuild the NDP. His ideas are well worth consideration.
Reports from the various DNC Candidate Caucuses being held across the United States seem to suggest that the Chairman’s race is narrowing to Gov. Dean and Rosenberg. The last regional caucus will be in Washington DC next week.
Last Update: 03/23/2006