Andy Stern:
SEIU President Andy Stern, whose union, along with other major labor organizations, is agonizing over the current state of the health care fight, told reporters today that the Senate should pass a controversial reform bill that has riven the left. In so doing, he defended President Obama from his critics, and offered a scathing critique of the United States Senate, which he says is not up to the task of governance anymore.
"We appreciate that President Obama for a year has been unflinching in his desire to get the job done when it would've been easy to take a detour," Stern said. "We believe the Senate has done all its going to do...and now it's time for a couple of obstructionists to get out of the way."
Stern went on, "it is time for the Senate to send this bill on to conference where the real work needs to be done."
Still, Stern said he opposes the Senate bill in its current form--a bold stance for a consummate insider like Stern, who has often shied away from critiquing the Democrats' agenda.
"We don't like the bill," Stern said. "It has to be improved."
Without mentioning the public option specifically, Stern said that Obama needs to take a hard line in negotiations between the House and the Senate, "to work with the conferees on the issues that he has said from the very beginning are important to him."
He did say, though, that the prospects for a public option or a Medicare buy-in seem pretty dim. "It's hard to imagine it getting it better in conference," he said.
Stern added that the clumsy, year-long fight over health care in the Senate needs to serve as a wake up call to elected officials that the upper chamber is broken.
"After this bill is passed," Stern said, "the Senate needs to take a very hard look at how it's going to deal with the future in our country."
"They have a process now that is not meeting the needs of the American people."
And what if, in conference, Stern's chief concerns (affordability, access, the financing mechanism in the Senate bill) are not addressed? It's far from clear that he'll break ranks with the Democratic party.
"There are lots of parts of the Senate bill that are really good," he said.
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