Democrats were accused of exploiting the death of Senator Edward Kennedy yesterday after immediately trying to use his name to revive President Obama’s flagging attempt to overhaul the US healthcare system.
Within hours of Mr Kennedy’s death on Wednesday leading Democrats were trying to turn it into a rallying point for healthcare reform — something that he had called the “cause of my life” — and suggested that any legislation should carry his name.
“[It was] the passion of his life,” David Obey, the Democratic chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said. “Above all else, he would want us to redouble our efforts to achieve it.”
Robert Byrd, the senior Senate Democrat, called for the passage of healthcare legislation that would bear Mr Kennedy’s name, and Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, said: “Ted Kennedy’s dream of quality healthcare for all Americans will be made real this year because of his leadership and his inspiration.”
Their comments came as mourners gathered at the Kennedy compound in Cape Cod for a private Mass commemorating the senator, who died of brain cancer.
He will be buried tomorrow evening close to his assassinated brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, in Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac river from Washington.
Attempts to use the emotion of the moment to revitalise hopes of healthcare legislation quickly ran up against the harsh political realities of Washington and the immediate practical impact that Mr Kennedy was perhaps the only politician on Capitol Hill who could have forged a bipartisan compromise.
His death, and the news that a special election to fill his seat will not take place until January, also means that Mr Obama will be without a 60th majority Senate vote in the critical weeks ahead, when the fate of his healthcare plan will probably be decided.
Republicans were happy to praise Mr Kennedy but none appeared ready to embrace the healthcare reform plans to honour the memory of the political giant.
Three Republican senators who were close to Mr Kennedy — John McCain, Orrin Hatch and Judd Gregg — said that healthcare legislation would be much closer to passage if Mr Kennedy had been able to be involved in negotiations in recent months, when he was fighting the brain cancer that eventually killed him. “I think we may have made progress on this issue if he had been there,” Mr McCain said.
“He had this unique capability to sit people down at a table together and really negotiate, which means concessions. And so, he not only will be missed, but he has been missed.”
Mr Hatch said: “We would have worked it out on a bipartisan basis.”
Ed Feulner, the president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, chastised Democrats for invoking Mr Kennedy in their push for healthcare reform.
He said: “It is wrong and tactless to use Senator Kennedy’s death, or anyone’s, simply to advance a particular policy agenda. This is a time for genuine tribute, not crass politics.”
Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk-show host, said: “The Left is exploiting him, his death and his legacy, and they are going to do it, as predicted, to push healthcare through.”
Liberal pressure groups joined the calls for a drive on healthcare after Mr Kennedy’s death. MoveOn.org called on its supporters to “recommit ourselves to achieving the thing that mattered most” to the senator.
Mr Obama, who is on holiday in Martha’s Vineyard, made no reference to healthcare in his tributes to Mr Kennedy on Wednesday. Yet he and his aides will be acutely aware that the senator’s death could help them in solving one of the thorniest problems in the healthcare debate: the splits within the Democratic Party.
Mr Obama not only faces opposition from Republicans but many moderate Democrats who are skittish about voting for a government-run health system, something that the powerful liberal caucus in the House insists has to be included.
The split has complicated Mr Obama’s attempt to get a Bill through Congress. Yet Mr Kennedy’s death might persuade the factions within the party to put their differences aside and unify behind some sort of healthcare legislation.
Mr Obama might well have to end up ramming a Bill through Congress without Republican support, something he will struggle to do without a unified Democratic Party.
Life’s work helping vulnerable
1962 Edward Kennedy elected to the Senate from Massachussetts
1971 Becomes chairman of Senate Health Sub-committee and proposes universal health insurance plan financed through payroll taxes
1972 Helps to pass programme to give poor pregnant women and under-5s food and health benefits
1977 Lambasts new Democratic President, Jimmy Carter, for not delivering on health insurance, the “missing promise”
1980 Challenges Carter for the Democratic presidential candidacy. Loses to Carter, who is beaten in turn by Ronald Reagan
1990 Successfully co-sponsors Bill to ban discrimination based on disabilities and another to provide grants for families hit by Aids
1996 Successfully co-sponsors Bill to ban cancellation of health insurance because of illness
1997 Secures health insurance for millions of children through increase in cigarette taxes
1998 Co-sponsors Patient Bill of Rights, which becomes key to citizens’ fightback against denial of treatment because of inability to pay
2001 Introduces Rare Diseases Act. Beats opposition from President Bush to pass law giving patients right to sue over denial of care
2006 Secures law to force insurers to provide mental health coverage
2008 Diagnosis of brain tumour. Just a month after surgery makes Senate appearance to ensure Republicans are prevented from cutting Medicare fees to doctors
June 2009 Submits Affordable Health Choices Act, the healthcare plan that has the US in uproar, only two months before his death
Source: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
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