U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, doesn’t believe Congress will be ready to enact health care legislation to replace Obamacare until 2020. That much time is needed to involve all the stakeholders, he says, including “the doctors and nurses, and the patients, and the insurance companies.” But more importantly, Young knows it’s imperative for the GOP and Democrats to work together to make it happen.
Unlike President Donald Trump, Young didn’t focus blame on Democrats for not cooperating with his party’s development of the American Health Care Act, a bill that failed in stunning fashion. He faulted the GOP too for proceeding without having brought any Democrats into the process.
There’s a touch of irony in the year 2020. It goes beyond Young’s hindsight into the wholly partisan Affordable Care Act that became known as Obamacare. Unlike most of his colleagues, he can reach back to a time when party members on both sides understood that compromise was essential in a society that respected different values and opinions.
Granted, it wasn’t a perfect system. Legislation Congress passed wasn’t always effective. Some only exacerbated problems. And on issues such as health care, they avoided doing anything at all.
But in his early years, Young worked among many genuine statesmen who put the nation’s interest first. Even if they risked upsetting their party’s agenda, they were relatively free to follow their conscience or vote based on the differing views of their constituency.
If the RINO (Republican in name only) label existed back then, Young might have been called one. About 25 percent of the time, and often on issues involving labor and unions, he didn’t follow his party’s leader. But I think he’d be proud to be called a RINO because he’d recognize that the derogatory title contradicts the very value of freedom he’s been elected to defend.
Ronald Reagan would have been a RINO, too. His legacy is often invoked by the party’s most loyal followers. But the truth is, during both terms as President, he worked with the Democrats who had an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives. And after they regained the Senate in 1986, Reagan and Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy worked out the largest expansion of Medicare benefits ever.
It was during the latter part of Newt Gingrich’s reign as Speaker of the House that the GOP leadership began imposing a litmus test of obedience on its members. A few years later, House Majority Leader Tom Delay pushed the bipartisan spirit over the cliff by threatening reprisals against Republicans who considered voting against the official party position.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan both entered the political arena during Delay’s tenure. It means they’ve felt the tension between freedom and party loyalty more than Young did in the 70s and 80s.
Still, Murkowski has been called a RINO many times by Joe Miller, the Tea Party candidate who beat her in the 2010 primary and ran against her as a Libertarian last fall. Miller also suggested Dan Sullivan wasn’t a true blood Republican when they opposed each other during the 2014 primary.
On the issue of health care, Murkowski never supported Obamacare. In 2010, she stood alongside every Republican when she voted against it. Meanwhile, former Sen. Mark Begich was in the unanimous pool of Democrats.
Sullivan’s first official act regarding Obamacare came while serving as Alaska’s Attorney General. He was appointed to that position by former Governor Sarah Palin, who after being nominated as the party’s Vice-Presidential candidate, became one of the most divisive political voices of our time.
Sullivan stayed on as AG for Gov. Sean Parnell after Palin resigned. In April, 2010, he wrote a legal brief for Parnell in which he argued the precedent set by Obamacare’s individual mandate could empower the federal government to force Americans to buy cars from General Motors or require everyone to purchase a federally-approved gym membership.
That kind of hyper-partisan nonsense began as the law was being debated. It’s been a constant Republican tactic aimed at undermining Obamacare ever since. But it never should have found its way into an official legal document prepared by the state’s chief law officer.
Now, if Congress follows Young’s proposal, all that will have to end. And since Obamacare will have to remain the law of the land until 2020, the truce between Republicans and Democrats should begin with a joint request that Trump rescind his executive order prefaced on repealing it.
I don’t often agree with Congressman Young. But as he approaches his 85th birthday, it’s nice to imagine his colleagues might recognize him as a wise elder and begin a true bipartisan effort to craft a health care law that will serve all Americans.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.
