E-mail a friendSen. Jeff Bingaman
airdate September 21, 2009
Elected to the U.S. Senate in '82, Jeff Bingaman is New Mexico's senior senator. His committee assignments include the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which he chairs, and the Joint Committee on the Economy. He's also a member of the Finance Committee, where he is a part of the so-called "Gang of 6" that's been working on a healthcare reform compromise measure. Sen. Bingaman graduated from Harvard and earned a law degree from Stanford. He was previously in private practice and served as the state's attorney general.
Senate Finance Committee member explains the differences between a public option and co-ops. (1:36)
Full interview (10:15)
Sen. Jeff Bingaman
Tavis: Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico holds a unique seat in this healthcare reform debate as a member of both the Senate Finance Committee and the Health, Education and Labor Committee. If all goes according to plan, the Senate Finance Committee could begin voting on a healthcare bill this week. Senator Bingaman joins us tonight from Capitol Hill. Senator, nice to have you on the program, sir.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman: Nice to be with you, Tavis.
Tavis: How realistic is that, that we might start voting on this this week?
Bingaman: I think we're going to start voting on amendments tomorrow, on Tuesday. We will be trying to complete all of the proposed amendments some way or other this week and finally report a bill by the end of the week. I think that's Senator Baucus' hope.
Tavis: Last I read, and I'm sure the number may be higher now - the last I heard there were about 564 of these amendments. How do you weed through all that and get to a vote by the end of the week? That's like five days from now.
Bingaman: Well, it obviously is going to take a lot of difficult work. I hope that many of those amendments will be acceptable to the chairman and I hope others may - the people proposing the others may decide to back away from those. There are clearly some issues that we're going to have to have debate and votes on, and that's as it should be.
Tavis: You mentioned the chairman a moment ago; of course, Max Baucus, the chairman here. If you were talking to constituents in New Mexico and trying to explain to them in layman's terms what Baucus' bill is, what would you say? Help me understand it.
Bingaman: Well, I would say that it tries to accomplish the major objectives that President Obama has been talking about and many of us have been talking about, and that is that it tries to reform the insurance markets and that is so that when companies are selling insurance policies they can't prohibit - they'd be prohibited from denying you coverage for preexisting conditions, that sort of thing.
It also tries to reform the payment system in Medicare and Medicaid so that we can save some additional money in those programs, money that's currently being lost. It also expands coverage to about 30 million Americans who currently don't have coverage, and it does so in a way that is budget neutral and in fact reduces the budget deficit over 10 years and also reduces the growth in healthcare costs over the next couple of decades.
Tavis: You said a moment ago that it tries to do much of what the president has asked for, and you're right - a lot of what the president's talked about is in this bill. There's some things left out of it, namely, and the thing most talked about, of course, the public option. Talk to me about your position on that and how this thing gets passed without a public option.
Bingaman: Well, as the president described in his speech to the joint session of Congress a week or so ago, the public option is one of the ways that people would have to obtain healthcare insurance. I voted for a public option in the bill. We reported out of the Health and Education Committee I support a public option.
This bill does not have that. This bill has instead a proposal to establish co-ops and to assist organizations in establishing co-ops that would sell healthcare insurance in competition with private companies.
Now, I think a public option would be better, but you could get to much the same result through the co-op effort if that's what winds up being adopted by the Congress. I know there's also a thought on the part of some, I think Senator Snowe has talked about having a backup for a public option in the sense that if by a certain date healthcare coverage has not expanded and people are not able to obtain affordable coverage, then there would be a public entity established that would go ahead and sell insurance in a way that would make it affordable.
Tavis: There are some that - notwithstanding the point you made a moment ago, there are some who do not believe that co-ops are a good - my phrase here - a good stand-in, a good replacement, a good option for the public option as it's been discussed. But tell me that you believe that what's going to ultimately pass is going to have some means in it for everyday people to have an option through some means that allows for competition, fair competition, with the industry.
Bingaman: Well, I think we're committed to trying to get a bill through the Congress that contains that increased competition in it and that also contains a structure that will, to the extent that people are required to obtain insurance and people would be required to obtain insurance if they could afford to, it helps them afford it. It helps provide some government assistance to people who have incomes up to 300% of poverty and in some cases 400% of poverty to defray some of the cost of the insurance that people would obtain.
Tavis: Since this bill - the Baucus bill we're talking about now - unless you know something I don't know, which is very, very possible, to my mind, though - to my ears, at least - I've not heard any Republican support for this. So is this going to go down as a strictly partisan bill, should it pass the Senate?
Bingaman: Well, I hope that it does not become just a strictly partisan bill. Senator Baucus has gone the extra several miles to work with three Republicans, Senator Snowe from Maine, Senator Grassley from Iowa, Senator Enzi from Wyoming.
I think that Senator Snowe is very committed to trying to see healthcare reform enacted, and I hope that in the final analysis she will support the bill. I think Senator Grassley and Senator Enzi have stated more substantial objections to what has been proposed. I don't know where they'll finally come out.
Tavis: Is it worth getting passed, to your mind, without bipartisan support?
Bingaman: Well, I think that the reform proposals that we're talking about here are very important to try to get enacted. I would prefer to see it done on a bipartisan basis. If that's not possible, I think clearly we need to see if the votes are there on the Democratic side to enact this legislation or some major part of it.
Tavis: That raises serious questions, given all that we saw take place in these crazy town halls over the summer. The issue you raise now about getting Democratic support, is that a foregone conclusion?
Bingaman: No, I would say nothing is a foregone conclusion in this process. I do think that most Democrats are trying to work with the president to see if legislation can be enacted that accomplishes the major goals that he's set out. Now, the details of this bill or any bill, people have not signed onto yet, people have not had to commit themselves to yet, and so it's very much a work in progress.
Tavis: You realistically think, as people keep talking about that there can be a bill on the president's desk on this issue for him to sign before this year ends?
Bingaman: Well, I certainly hope there is a bill on the president's desk for him to sign, and as I say, I hope it contains the major reform elements that he's been talking about and that many of us think are very important. So time will tell here. I think this week will be important, but this effort in the finance committee to get a bill that we can bring to the floor, hopefully in a bipartisan way, is just one step in a multi-step process, and we'll see where it all comes out.
Tavis: Two other quick things. Given that Democrats control the White House, of course, the House, and the Senate, and given that Democrats made this a central issue during the president campaign, if Democrats, with all that control, cannot deliver meaningful healthcare reform to the country, what ought to happen to them in the midterm elections? What will happen come midterm elections, you think?
Bingaman: Well, what I would like to see happen is that we get a few more Democrats elected. If Democrats are not able to enact healthcare reform it's not because we've got too many here, it's because we don't have quite enough. In the Senate you need 60 votes in order to get over the threshold. We hope that Massachusetts has acted to find a replacement for Senator Kennedy, whose loss was a terrific loss here for us in the Senate, but we hope we are back to having 60 Senators who will vote to go ahead with this legislation, but time will tell on that as well.
Tavis: And finally, Senator Bingaman, I could have started our conversation here but a great place to end, I think. What did you make of the - I can't even call it a trifecta, since he did five shows yesterday - what do you make of the president's outreach on these five programs yesterday? Beyond the media buzz, did he accomplish anything?
Bingaman: Well, I think he did. I think that people who watch those shows came away with a better understanding of what he's trying to accomplish, and with an appreciation for the seriousness with which the president is approaching the issue. I think he has demonstrated time and again that this is his top priority, and I know those of us who are working here in the Congress to get to the same place the president wants to get to are persuaded that it's his top priority as well.
Tavis: Democrat of New Mexico, Senator Jeff Bingaman. Senator, thank you for your insight and for coming on. I appreciate the time to talk to you.
Bingaman: Thank you. Nice talking to you.
Back to September 21, 2009