James M. Berklan, Editor
Stop what you’re doing for a moment and just listen. Yes, that is gentle quacking you hear in the distance.
Spreading from the White House to the marbled halls of Congress, lame-duck status is about to overcome Washington. Forget about other forms of bird flu, this is the fowl pandemic that providers should be aware of for the next 10 months.
Don’t be fooled by all the flapping before that time is up. It will be just so many ruffling feathers and so much other fluff.
You can stick with your real work and forget about funding worries in Washington until at least the end of the year, and possibly a number of weeks into 2009.
This Congress is not going to be doing anything as far as Medicare rates are concerned. That became clearer than ever during a recent visit to Washington to meet with various lawmakers and their staffs.
Although ultimately any funding legislation will come down to their votes, it’s not really the lawmakers’ fault for this state of limbo. What it comes down to is Democrats and Republicans are still so close in the number of seats they hold in Congress, it remains extremely difficult to move legislation. Almost impossible if you’re trying just a straight push along party lines.
To make matters worse, this fall the entire House and one-third of the Senate is up for re-election. These are folks who will want to get home to campaign, meaning they won’t be in session in Washington as long as in other years.
Then, when they do hit the rubber chicken circuit giving speeches and kissing babies, they’re not going to want to do it after either cutting funding for seniors or approving some unpopular tax or funding mandate.
No, that would take extraordinary fortitude and courage in these trying times and they just aren’t there. Not at this point anyway. It will be much easier for lawmakers to leave the dirty work up to the next session of Congress in January.
So go ahead and roll your eyes a little more than usual when you hear about possible breakthroughs or hyperventilating about pending action. There are those whose jobs depend on creating interest for these things – and indeed they must set some groundwork for whatever funding legislation might come later.
But just don’t look for anything meaningful to happen from Congress in this area this year.