The Big Question: Which matters more, healthcare or jobs?

Some of the nation’s top political commentators, legislators and intellectuals
offer insight into the biggest question burning up the blogosphere today.

Today’s question:

Which is more important to Democrats right now — healthcare reform or a jobs bill?

Dick Morris, Pundits Blog contributor, said:

Both are poisonous for the Democratic Party.  Voters oppose their health care bill by 40-55 and also oppose additional government spending on job creation.  They realize that it is the deficit which stands in the way of jobs and that any new spending just adds to the forces that are prolonging this recession.

John F. McManus, president of The John Birch Society, said:

What is most important to Democrats is whatever will get people to vote for them.  Unfortunately, too many Americans have been led to believe that government was created to be a provider, to take care of them. This has been the ruination of nation after nation throughout history.  Government’s proper purpose is to protect rights, not to take care of wants.  It is also sadly true that many in the GOP believe that they can and should be the great provider, though a more efficient one.  America needs to reverse course and realize that what made this nation so great was NOT what government did, but what GOVERNMENT WAS PREVENTED FROM DOING BY THE CONSTITUTON.
 

Peter Navarro, professor of Economics and Public
Policy at U.C. Irvine, said:

Duh.  Jobs.  Healthcare “reform” is a net vote loser no matter what they do or don’t pass.

John Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable, said:

Health care and the economy go hand-in-hand. We need a healthy economy to fund changes to health care, and an unreformed health care system will continue to drag on our economy. As the providers of coverage to more than 35 million American workers and their families, the members of Business Roundtable acutely understand that the status quo on health care is unacceptable and we have a huge stake in seeing reform done right. At the same time, these CEOs are on the frontlines of the economy and job creation – they understand first-hand the challenges to sustaining recovery and reducing unemployment. They know the interconnected nature of these issues makes it both imperative and smart to tackle both now.

In fact, we released a study last year showing that the United States pays far more for health care than our closest economic competitors – Canada, Germany, Japan, France and Britain – yet the health of our workforce trails theirs by 10 percent. That “value gap” puts American companies and workers at a huge disadvantage in the international marketplace, hurting our economy and our ability to create jobs.

The Administration has already shown its preference for a “multi-task” approach to policy challenges; they should continue on that track, tackling both of these issues simultaneously. However, we should not let haste sacrifice getting the job done right. In terms of health care, we must strengthen what works – the employer-based system, ERISA – and fix what doesn’t by eliminating inefficiencies in the system, reducing costs and expanding coverage to more Americans. In terms of jobs, we need policies that will put consumers back in the market and get credit markets working again. Critically, we must also re-engage in trade negotiations to open more markets to U.S. goods, services and investments.

Michael J. Wilson, national director of Americans for Democratic Action said:

This is as easy as answering the question, “What would you rather have, health care or a job?’

For most of American history, Congress has been able to work on more than a single issue at a time; the Congress that can’t multi-task is doomed to fail.  In the midst of the Great Recession, our government – legislative and executive – has to be able to address both issues.  Having come this far, to not complete the health care effort would be disastrous.  To not hold on to the few reforms that we have fought so hard to win would permit insurance companies to deny with impunity and continue to drive up costs for consumers, employers and the government.  Those who advocate “going back and starting again” are either fooling themselves or trying to fool us.  On the jobs issue, the real unemployment rate is 17.2% – not the “official” rate of 10%.  That’s why there is such unease in the public about the economy; nearly 1 in 5 workers are without a job and looking for work.  It’s why food stamps are up, the deficit is growing, and why state and locals governments are so deeply in the red.  A jobs bill is critical to jump-starting the recovery effort, and it will not magically happen by itself.

What would you rather have; health care or your job?  See what I mean?

Bruce E. Gronbeck, professor of Political Communication at the University of Iowa, said:

After over six months of heavy lifting, the Democrats need a healthcare bill right now.  Their political efficacy is at stake.  Then they to take a big breath and push equally hard on jobs bill that might actually show pay-off  before the November elections.

Hal Lewis, professor of Physics at UC Santa Barbara, said:

I find the political predilection for empty words unusually depressing these days. Virtually nothing any politician says has any real meaning. But some do it more eloquently than others.

Here we have healthcare reform, which is part of the same family as “change we can believe in.” Meaningless pap that can cover the full range from potentially  sensible change to potentially ruinous tampering. The word gives no information whatever, and that is precisely its purpose—to reveal nothing of what the speaker really has in mind—if anything. (I am reminded of the well-intentioned preacher who exhorted his flock to always tread the straight and narrow line between good and evil.)

And jobs—there are jobs that contribute to the national productivity and those that don’t. Creating jobs that produce nothing for the inhabitants of the country is just welfare, and puts us further in the tank—the need is to bring our country back to the robust condition it once exemplified, not to simply divvy up the treasury.

You ask about the Democrats; I hear none of them speaking in these terms.

Brad DeLong, professor of Economics at U.C. Berkley, said:

Health care is vastly more important. Fail to pass health care reform in January and it will be another fifteen years before we come back to the issue during which America will continue to get only half the value for our health care spending that every other industrialized country gets.

By contrast, the jobs bill has a much smaller effect on the country, and can be passed more or less anytime. It would be a shame if we had to stack it into the budget resolution/reconciliation process and pass it in June rather than in January, but five months is a lot less than fifteen years.

Justin Raimondo, editorial director of Antiwar.com, said:

It’s clear that healthcare “reform,” i.e. creating a government-dominated system, is more important to the Democrats. As to whether jobs ought to be more important — well, let’s just look at the real unemployment rate — now approaching around 20 percent.

Rahm Emmanuel may revel in his remark that one shouldn’t let a good crisis go to waste, but that crisis may sweep him and his party into the dustbin of history if the Democrats aren’t careful. There is a wave of populist anger building up “out there,” i.e., outside the Beltway. If Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and the White House think they can avoid a tsunami by simply pretending it isn’t there, they will have a rude awakening, and soon.

Bernie Quigley, Pundits Blog contributor, said:

Jobs. Something reality-based and bipartisan unlike the earlier White House “jobs summit.” Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana would help as he has his eye on the Panama Canal widening in 2014 which will bring advanced economy to his region. There might be a special immigration window open here to bring new immigrant families and groups of families to Louisiana and environs where jobs could flourish on various levels. Most of Obama’s advisors are academics that live in abstraction and talk of new silicon valleys or new green jobs as engines. China and India have that pretty much wrapped up. But if large new groups of families are invited over together — and the editor of India Times has suggested this — it would create an environment like that of Boston in the 1830 when millions of Irish came over together. Also, in time, they would form a natural bond between Asia and the Pacific and Gulf coasts much as the European immigrants in New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts formed a bond with Europe. Entering with large groups of families eases the transition to new world but more than that, it brings a hundred year and more employment cycle as first generation does common labor, next generation advances to college and third generation forms commerce and professional class. And incidentally, this is exactly what the Chinese are doing in the Pearl River basin; bringing in workers which will form a future commercial class.

Alan Abramowitz, professor of political science at Emory University, said:

Both are obviously very important — passage of healthcare reform is essential to energize the Democratic base and a jobs bill is essential to demonstrate concern and progress on job creation which is the number one concern of the public.

Peter Edelman, professor of Law at Georgetown, said:

Both are essential. The healthcare has to get finished right away, but the President should propose a jobs bill immediately as well, and hearings and committee work should start as soon as Congress gets back to work. The design of the jobs bill is crucial. We obviously need more money to help state and local governments save jobs, but it is equally important to put people to work doing jobs that need to be done. We know how to do that. City and county governments should play the lead role in identifying the work to be done, with particular attention to getting jobs to people who are in groups that are disproportionately unemployed. We did this during the New Deal and we can do it now. It’s not a total strategy — far from it — but it is important, practicable, and sends a message of strong response to the urgency of the situation.