Was it strange to turn on the TV in August and hear Glenn Beck spinning wild tales about "death panels"?
I was stunned. And I still am stunned. It's reflective of the discourse. People want us to reform the health-care system, but they're not sure we can get it right. And that's understandable, to be honest with you. I don't think Congress has lived up to the standards that elected officials in the U.S. Congress should have in these monumental times. If I think back to Social Security and Medicare, for example, they did garner broader support in terms of passage.
Medicare and Social Security were much more liberal than anything we're discussing now, and they still had much more bipartisan support. Are we dealing with a different political system?
Unfortunately, the political system today preys more on people's fears than their hopes. We have an impending crisis, and we can't seem to muster the political capacity or will to forge political consensus. I don't expect it to be easy, but I would expect there would be more willingness to work together. Read Ezra Kleins Q&A with Snowe here.
Snowe on a transitional tax credit, which would give people benefits sooner:
If the bill passed $900 billion, but did so in a deficit-neutral way, could you support that?
Yes, if you could do it in a neutral way. I was talking to Senator [Debbie] Stabenow [D-Mich.] the other day about bringing some of these benefits forward in some way.
So they would begin before 2013?
Maybe a transitional tax credit that gives people a means to access health insurance. We did that in the Medicare prescription drug benefit -- we gave them a drug card worth $600 before the full program was implemented. It was a transitional benefit. Otherwise, people will be wondering why they're not realizing benefits sooner. But we'd need money for that.
I also think we should include something on medical malpractice. I can't imagine why we wouldn't. Maine has a very successful dispute-resolution process. It's been in force for 25 years. That's one dimension that has contributed significantly to rising costs.
