My response to the Obama presidency thus far has been a solid “meh.” But if he pushes Congress to repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act, I’ll sing the man’s praises forever. I’ll also spearhead the effort to rename McCarran International Airport to Obama International Airport.
Mr. Obama on Saturday praised the Senate bill passed by the Finance Committee last week as “a reform proposal that has both Democratic and Republican support.” Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine is the only Republican in either house of Congress to support any of the five Democratic health care bills.
The president complained bitterly about the insurers’ attack on the legislation. “The insurance industry is rolling out the big guns and breaking open their massive war chest to marshal their forces for one last fight to save the status quo,” he said.
His signal of support for reviewing the industry’s antitrust exemption put him in league with Democratic leaders in Congress pushing for repeal or revision of the McCarran-Ferguson Act, which was passed in 1945 to keep regulation of insurers in the hands of the states. Although he did not explicitly endorse overturning it, a spokesman said it was the first time he had raised the matter publicly as president.
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, testified at a Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday in favor of getting rid of the exemption. A day later, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House speaker, said, “There is tremendous interest in our caucus” in such a move.
Obama Threatens Insurers’ Anti-Trust Exemption - NYTimes.com
The great part about pushing to repeal the MF Act (and it is an MF’er) is that no average citizen will get riled up about getting rid of an antitrust exemption. I mean, 99% of Americans don’t even know it exists, and 99% of those couldn’t care less. It’s not like antitrust law gets anyone’s knickers in a twist, you know? Insurers can spend a fuckton of money to try and prevent the repeal of the act, but they’re not going to be able to get people riled up enough to call and write letters.
Still, I’m skeptical that Dems have the sac to get this done.
No comments:
Post a Comment