By STEVE ERKENBRACK
There are two schools of thought as to how the president should approach Congress to bring COVID relief to the country. One is to negotiate a bipartisan package with Republicans; the other is for Democrats, having won control of both Houses of Congress and the White House, to pass a bill on a partisan basis, without Republican input or support. Tempting as it is to flex political muscles, such a single-party approach can have unforeseen and unproductive consequences.
Santayana observed that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it, a concept more succinctly stated by Yogi Berra: Its dj vu all over again. Guided by such wisdom, it may be prudent to consider two pertinent precedents when a new president was leading our country out of a crisis.
Lesson No. 1: Healthcare in 2009
As Barack Obama took office, health-care reform was his top agenda item, after his immediate efforts to arrest the worst impacts of the financial crisis of 2008. Obamas initial strategic steps were planned to engage both parties in Congress, incorporate both Republican and Democratic ideas, preempt turf wars, craft bills in the House and in the Senate that would pass those respective chambers, and then iron out the differences in a conference committee.
The complexity of health care created numerous issues that took time to address. As months passed, many Democrats became impatient, and the Tea Party arose among Republicans. Partisanship supplanted problem-solving, and contention replaced compromise. The impassioned base of each party bristled at bipartisanship, with the result that health-care reform was enacted without a single Republican vote.
It was a short-term win with long-term ramifications. Republicans vowed to undermine the law. Even the good parts of the act expanded coverage, transparency in insurance pricing, limits on insurance profits, protections for consumers were attacked. Repeal and replace became the theme of the next three congressional campaigns. When Rs took power, they de-funded every thing they could, and a few things they couldnt.
The aftermath of the law and its contentious implementation was a decade of health-care policy marked by stumbling, grumbling and bumbling. Small employers and consumers endured double-digit increases in costs year after year. Smaller entities in the health-care delivery system whether hospitals, physician practices or community health plans struggled. Many failed, others merged and lost their identity.
Things have finally settled down, but the parties still cannot find a way to revisit the law, and improve it to address lessons learned and markets changed. Most significantly, partisanship has precluded addressing what is still the key problem: the high cost of health care.
Lesson No. 2: Civil Rights in 1963
The true test of being a Baby Boomer is the ability to answer the question: Where were you when John Kennedy was shot? That assassination is indelibly etched in our minds, because it traumatized the nation. Lyndon Johnson succeeded JFK, and faced both a country in shock and a civil rights movement about to explode. And while his Democratic Party controlled both houses of Congress, conservatives had blocked JFKs agenda on tax cuts and civil rights.
White House staff had spent two years trying to steamroll congressional opponents. LBJ had a shrewder approach. He started with the tax bill, which had been held up by the chair of the Senate Finance Committee. He met with the man. He talked. He listened. He learned that the senator opposed the bill because of the ever-increasing federal budget. Johnson asked where the committee chair wanted to set the federal budget, and was told it should be cut to less than $100 billion (ah, those were the days.) Johnson found ways to cut the budget to the desired level, and the bill became law.
The president then built on the momentum of the tax bill, and addressed civil rights. He assembled a bipartisan coalition of Northern progressives and Western senators (whose support was contingent on unrelated issues). Again, Johnson listened to the opposition, and softened or delayed some of the provisions. The result: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting racial segregation in public facilities, which passed with a higher percentage of Republican support than Democrats.
A Lasting Legacy
The sustaining value of bipartisanship is seen in the years that followed. Voters strongly supported such collaborative problem-solving, and strengthened LBJs hand in the next election. The bridge-building of those first months set the stage for sweeping accomplishments over the next two years: the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, among others, all with bipartisan support. Hungry children could now get a decent meal. Ailing seniors on fixed incomes could now see a doctor.
The heart-felt passion of partisans in both political parties is admirable until it morphs into a condescending certainty of holding both the moral high ground and a monopoly on legitimate perspectives. COVID is too calamitous for such hubris. Building a bipartisan approach, listening to the reasons why opponents have concerns, and resolving those issues, creates a platform for collaboration on which to build sustainable solutions to both the acute crisis of the pandemic and the chronic problems of tomorrow.
Steve ErkenBrack is an attorney in western Colorado, where he settled in 1979, after clerking at the Colorado Supreme Court. He has served as a trial attorney, as the elected District Attorney, as a health insurance CEO, and as Colorados Chief Deputy Attorney General. He was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995. He is currently Of Counsel at Hoskin, Farina & Kampf in Grand Junction.
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