OPINION:
Last week’s Democratic National Convention demonstrated how the most significant policy battle of this presidential election cycle might not come from Donald Trump and Joe Biden, but rather Kamala Harris and Mike Pence.
The convention aimed to cement health care as a focal point for the Democratic ticket’s 2020 campaign, a misdirect to distract from words like “riots” and “Marxism.” Nearly all of the event’s keynote speakers highlighted what they categorized as the Trump administration’s mishandling of the nation’s health care system, both before and during the pandemic.
Sen. Harris’ attempt to position herself as a health care-reform advocate in Democratic circles is one of the primary reasons Mr. Biden selected her as his running mate. The first Senate sponsor of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All legislation, Ms. Harris’ activism in the health care arena extends beyond that. She is one of the leading proponents for price controls on drugs and even wants to let bureaucrats void patents through government force to suppress their cost.
In many respects, this focus may turn the election into a battle of health care politics between Ms. Harris and Vice President Pence. From day one of the Trump administration, Mr. Pence played an instrumental role in constructing its health care policy. As governor of Indiana, he created the national model for Medicaid reform and is an accomplished health care reformer in his own right.
But, unfortunately for the Trump campaign, political insiders and bureaucrats quickly undercut Mr. Pence’s free-market approach to solving the nation’s health care problems. Now in 2020, the administration’s perceived lacuna of health care accomplishments has created a massive political vulnerability for Ms. Harris and Mr. Biden to exploit in the middle of this unprecedented pandemic — one that high-profile Trump donors like oil magnate Dan Eberhart have labeled the president’s “Achilles’ Heel.”
The level of bureaucratic undercutting that got Messrs. Trump and Pence into this bind is enormous — even by today’s galling standards for the administrative state.
One particular thorn has been Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, who followed the vice president from Indiana to Washington. According to reports, she has worked to torpedo the administration’s drug-pricing plan, been “at odds” with the White House’s efforts to fix Obamacare, and embarrassed the administration with headlines about trying to boost her public profile and getting the taxpayer to reimburse her for almost $50,000 in stolen jewelry and clothes.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone if voters start asking themselves if Ms. Harris’ shiny new big government health care proposals might be worth a try.
Of course, health care is a threat to the reelection prospects of anyone who wants to address it realistically compared to say those who make outrageous, magical promises. But if the administration pivots, they can outmaneuver the Democrats and their media allies.
First, the administration should send a clear message to voters by ridding itself of bureaucrats who have undermined its America First health care agenda over the last three years. The public needs to be assured that the Trump White House, in its second term, will be able to address health care better than it could in its first.
Secondly, the Trump campaign must aggressively expose the hidden costs of the Harris-Biden health care plan to the American people. The Democratic ticket may argue that they will deliver on their promise to revolutionize the health care industry. But what they’re not telling voters is that the policies they support, like Medicare for All, have been found to cost trillions of dollars and could lead to higher taxes for Americans at almost every income level.
That represents a change from the status quo but in the wrong direction. The voters need to be made aware of these massive tax increases that they will incur during this pandemic should this ticket replace the existing administration.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the president should quickly release all of the health care proposals that bureaucrats held up over the last three years. Doing so would mark the easiest, surest way to assuage COVID-19-minded voters before November.
The last time Democrats were given the keys, they gave us Obamacare, which has mainly been a giveaway to insurance companies who are raking in record profits.
God save us from what they’d do next.
• Jared Whitley has worked in the White House, the Senate and in the defense industry.
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