Edwards' Health Care Gambit

by Michael Kuykendall [courtesy of Blog for America]

Clearing up misconceptions about former Senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' plan to pull health care from lawmakers if universal health care is not passed by July, 2009.

Factcheck.org ran a piece on Senator John Edwards' idea to try and use the power of the presidency to remove health care for the president, all cabinet officials, and Congress if some form of universal health care is not passed by July 20th, 2009. In it, they try to debunk his claims that he could use presidential power to do such a thing, citing separation of powers doctrine;

All Edwards could do as president is to push Congress to legislate away its own health-care coverage. And in fact, that's as far as he goes when stating his position on his Web site. According to a campaign press release from earlier this fall:

Edwards press release: Edwards said on the first day of his administration he would submit legislation that ends health care coverage for the president, all members of Congress, and all senior political appointees in both branches of government on July 20th, 2009 - unless universal health care legislation that meets four specific, non-negotiable principles has been passed by that date.

That doesn't sound like much of a threat, does it? Congress would have to pass a law in order to exempt itself, or the president, or the Cabinet, or any other federal employee, from health care coverage. Readers can judge for themselves how far such a bill would get.

It may make a tougher-sounding political ad for Edwards to threaten Congress outright "to take your health care away from you." But it's a threat that is misleading and empty. Edwards, who's a lawyer, should know better.

As usual, the simplistic, surface approach of most media nowadays has been applied. The author does not think past the knee-jerk separation of powers argument to more subtle uses of presidential power. Here's Edwards explaining exactly what he means on Face the Nation, emphasis mine;