November 3, 2009

Waiting for Obama

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Politico reports on the timeline for healthcare reform:

Democrats have blown so many deadlines for getting health reform done this year that insiders are increasingly skeptical they can finish by year’s end — and some even suggest the effort might slip to a new deadline, before the State of the Union address.

….In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid is still wrangling with his moderate members to corral 60 votes just to get the debate started. And on Monday, Reid sent a letter to Republicans acknowledging that he is waiting on the Congressional Budget Office’s cost estimates and analysis to finish drafting a bill….Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad said he spoke with CBO Director Doug Elmendorf last week and that it sounded like “it would be quite a while” before the estimates were ready. The news makes a Christmas completion “a challenge,” Conrad said.

Regular reader RPH emails in response:

Was talking to some of the local Democratic Party organizers in Lancaster County, Virginia, aka my parents, and the feedback they hear is that Obama is quickly coming to be viewed as a ditherer, unable to timely make decisions or close the deal.  That he doesn’t seem strong enough to push key programs through, etc.  This is the backdrop for why so many Ds in Va this year seem apathetic about voting.  Lancaster is also fairly conservative so I think many Ds are just parroting what their R friends keep spouting, I’m sure, with increasing volume, with the reality being the economy which is devastating that area of Virginia.  For what it’s worth, everyone is extremely frustrated by the Ds poor showing in Va this year.

But still.

O needs to get some big things under his belt and soon.  If he can get Afghanistan off his plate, that might buy him some time on Health Care without running the risk of a dangerous loss of momentum.  But right now, every thing seems stuck in an endless loop.  Part of this is the media cycle of course, but that’s unfortunately the reality of governing now — where the steady perception of action, decisiveness and competence are key.

Is RPH right?  Is this soon to become the new conventional wisdom?  I certainly don’t blame Obama for healthcare, where his leverage to kick the Senate into action is limited, but even I’m getting a little antsy about Afghanistan.  Yeah, I want him to get it right, but there’s a limit to how long this stuff can stay simmering on the cooktop.

Anyway, I’m only passing this along, not really endorsing any of it.  Just some raw data to chew over.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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