Cleveland
Plain Dealer...
What would Sherrod
do? And Kevin and Josh?
By Stephen Koff, The Plain Dealer
Friday, May 06, 2011
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- After Sherrod Brown yesterday sent a letter to the
White House saying that at least 50 Senate Democrats won’t accept a GOP
budget with Medicare vouchers, the Republican Party responded with a
question that essentially asked: OK, Mr. Liberal Democrat, where’s your
plan for saving Medicare?
It is a fair question. We put it to Brown.
But we also thought it was fair to ask anyone else who has filed a
statement of candidacy or statement of organization with the Federal
Election Commission. These are necessary before raising money in order
to challenge Brown in next year’s U.S. Senate election.
So far, two Republicans -- Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel and former state
Sen. Kevin Coughlin -- are asking people to donate thousands of
dollars. Presumably before getting out their checkbooks, the donors ask
where these candidates stand on the issues.
We’re asking without writing a check. Why? Because when the National
Republican Senatorial Committee, an arm of the party, asked the
Medicare question of Brown yesterday, it was acting as a proxy for any
Republican who might challenge him. That’s fine but we’d rather skip
the middle man.
We asked another question, too. Ohio’s new law restricting union
bargaining rights for public employees may play a role in next year’s
election, and it’s an issue that galvanizes opinion, like statewide
questions on abortion or gay marriage. So where do the Senate
candidates stand?
Brown has already answered the question at length. Coughlin was glad to
discuss it when we talked with him earlier today.
Mandel, however, did not return messages left on his cell phone and
with his spokesman at the treasurer’s office.
We also sent an e-mail to Ken Blackwell, the former Ohio secretary of
state who has teased that he, too, might run for the Republican
nomination to take on Brown. Unlike Mandel and Coughlin, Blackwell has
not filed any FEC paperwork for the office. No word, though, from
Blackwell , on the questions.
On to the answers. Or not.
MEDICARE
The U.S. House of Representatives budget would turn Medicare into a
voucher program for anyone now under age 55. On retirement, they would
get a federal voucher to use for health insurance in the private
market. Republicans including the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Paul Ryan of
Wisconsin, say this would put the brakes on runaway Medicare spending.
Without bold action, Ryan and other Republicans say, Medicare’s
expenses will outstrip income within a decade.
Brown: The GOP proposal amounts to privatization, and would leave
seniors at the mercy of insurance companies that would raise premiums
as high as possible, Brown says. Seniors would have to fork over
thousands of extra dollars a year in order to get insured, Brown says.
He’d prefer a multi-prong approach that includes realizing $417.5
billion in savings from efficiencies and cost controls written into
last year’s health reform bill. (Republicans don’t believe those
savings are real.) Brown also would cut Medicare’s prescription drug
costs by allowing safe re-importation of medicines now sold more
cheaply in countries such as Canada. He’d authorize the government to
negotiate better prices from drug makers, something the GOP has blocked
for fear it would give the government too much power over the industry,
effectively dictating the entire industry’s prices.
Coughlin: The GOP House proposal, which is considered dead on arrival
in the Democratic Senate, is a responsible approach that starts getting
the country’s spending under control, Coughlin says.
“I support it,” he said in a telephone interview. “I think it’s
encouraging that for the first time in a long time we recognize that
you cannot address the budget issues by just looking at the 18 percent
that is discretionary.” (The 18 percent figure excludes military
spending.)
The only way to attack the broader problem of excessive spending is to
include entitlements like Medicare, Coughlin said. “The problem is that
that discussion only goes as far as the House doors with this Senate
that we have.”
What about the claims that with vouchers, seniors will get hit with
thousands of dollars worth of premiums that they can’t afford?
“Look, I’m about to turn 41 years old,’ Coughlin said. “There are very
few people my age who believe Medicare is going to be around” or in its
current form “when we retire.” A “reasonable and responsible” approach
is needed, and the House GOP budget takes that approach.
OHIO’S COLLECTIVE BARGAINING LAW
The state law, passed by Republican lawmakers and signed by Gov, John
Kasich, restricts the collective bargaining rights of public workers.
It bans them from striking and will require many of them to pay a
greater share of their health care and pension premiums.
Brown: Well known as a supporter of the labor movement, Brown opposed
the state bill and has sent e-mail, issued statements and gone on TV to
denounce it as an affront to teachers, police officers, firefighters,
and working people throughout the state. It may be a state law, but it
could play a role in next year’s congressional and presidential ticket
in Ohio.
“Collective bargaining is a 75-year plus tradition in this country,”
Brown told Chris Matthews on “Hardball.” “It’s a moral question. It’s
why we have a middle class...There’s nothing to me more American than
that value of working hard and being able to have a middle-class
lifestyle as a result.”
Coughlin: He was no longer in the state Senate when the bill came up,
but Coughlin says he would have voted for it had he been there.
“Everyone agrees,” he said, that public employees need to pay more
toward their health care and pensions, and that there was a need for
greater checks and balances on the rights of public employees.
The bill was not perfect, he said, adding that he didn’t care for all
its provisions covering cops and firefighters. “People who charge into
buildings and save lives can’t be paid enough,” Coughlin said. But in
general, the public has given away too much, and it was time to get
public spending back under control.
Coughlin said the Senate race through November 2012 could cost $18
million to $20 million per candidate. That’s why it’s necessary to get
started now, he said. While he won’t say how much he’s gotten - his
first disclosure reports won’t be due until mid-July - he said he’s
glad to discuss issues at this early stage.
Not every candidate feels that way. Like Coughlin, Mandel has hedged
his bets by saying he is considering a run but he has not actually
declared his candidacy. Declaring one’s candidacy, however, is a matter
of opening one’s mouth and saying “I’m running.” There is a legal
requirement, too: Filing a Statement of Candidacy with the FEC. Mandel
signed his on April 5.
Read it at the Cleveland Plain Dealer
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