Now it’s Evan Bayh’s turn

For a town with a liberal reputation, Bloomington has pretty moderate representation in Congress.

How Rep. Baron Hill, D-9th District, and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., were going to approach health care was a big question as reform legislation was initially being crafted.

So far, Hill has been very supportive of health care reform, including the controversial public option. Bayh, however, has been cautious to offer his support to the various bills circulating through Congress or even to offer particulars about where he wants the debate to go.

Perhaps he’s been too cautious.

Hill represents a wide swath of southeastern Indiana that includes conservative areas along with liberal Bloomington. He is also a leader in the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate and conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives.

There was a lot of concern about cost coming from that coalition, and Hill had an early influence on the direction of reform from his position on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Hill voted a bill out of that committee and voted in favor of the health care bill passed out of the House last Saturday.

The bill included the controversial provision of a government-run insurance option.

Supporting the bill was a brave move that could arouse anger in his moderate district if health care reform doesn’t show positive results quickly.

But at least the people in Hill’s district know where he stands.

Bayh is the real wild card on reform. He has expressed some indifference toward the public option, while he has shown concern about how versions of health care reform levy fees on medical device manufacturers, many of which have operations here in Indiana.

He recently said he would not vote to overturn a filibuster just to get a procedural vote if he didn’t support the overall bill. 

In the area of cost control, Bayh has made some good contributions. Expressing concern about excessive government debt, Bayh has joined a group of Senate Democrats and Republicans voicing support for a commission that would draft proposals to control the long-term costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Those proposals would get a quick up or down vote from members of Congress.
This is a good idea and an example of how Bayh doesn’t need to accept the status of health care reform as it looks now, but he needs to be clearer about how he wants it to look.

So far he has been too coy about the details. But now it’s crunch time.