{"id":17043,"date":"2016-12-10T04:38:42","date_gmt":"2016-12-10T04:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=17043"},"modified":"2016-12-10T04:46:50","modified_gmt":"2016-12-10T04:46:50","slug":"democrats-vow-to-keep-pressing-coal-miners-health-care-debate-after-shutdown-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/democrats-vow-to-keep-pressing-coal-miners-health-care-debate-after-shutdown-showdown.html","title":{"rendered":"Democrats vow to keep pressing coal miners health care debate after shutdown showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Democrats vow to keep pressing coal miners health care debate after shutdown showdown<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Democrats vow to keep pressing coal miners health care debate after shutdown showdown:-<\/strong> The Senate voted late Friday night to approve a must-pass spending, ending the threat of a short-term government shutdown.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Senate voted 63 to 36 to approve they year-end legislation less than an hour before the midnight deadline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Democrats used a standoff they the year-end spending bill to appeal to the working-class white voters they lost to President-elect Donald Trump by threatening a short government shutdown over health care benefits for coal miners.<\/span><\/p>\n

Red-state Democrats up for reelection in 2018 forced the showdown and late-night vote to insist on health-care benefits for retired coal miners and requiring the use of American steel in infrastructure projects.<\/span><\/p>\n

Democrats said they would continue to press these issues when Congress returns early next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re alive today, for most of your life, over 50 percent of your energy has been given to you, has been delivered to you because of coal,\u201d Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who led the effort to delay he bill, said on the Senate floor. \u201cWe need to bring attention to the people who have done the work. They\u2019re forgotten heroes. In West Virginia we feel like a Vietnam returning veteran. We\u2019ve done everything that our country has asked of you, and now you won\u2019t even recognize us, don\u2019t even understand what we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re fighting for,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fight is the first sign of an emerging strategy for Democrats who are looking to force their Republican counterparts to respond to Trump\u2019s campaign promises. Forcing the coal-country fight into the government spending debate allowed Democrats to publicly shame Republicans \u2014 although it\u2019s unclear where Trump stands on the measure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schumer told reporters Thursday that the issue could easily unite Democrats and Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope our new president-elect, who talked and got to know the miners, will speak out,\u201d Schumer said. \u201cWe don\u2019t care about partisanship.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Senate Democrats also wanted funding for the \u201cBuy American\u201d program included in a water resources bill that is slated to come up for a Senate vote after the spending bill is complete. Republicans have been willing to support the provision as part of temporary spending bills but have resisted including it in more-permanent legislation such as the water bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

That tension puts Republicans at odds with Trump, who backed the concept at a rally last week.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s producing steel, building cars or curing disease, we want the next generation of innovation and production to happen right here in America and right here in Ohio, right?\u201d Trump said in Cincinnati.<\/span><\/p>\n

Senate Democrats wanted Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), who hails from Kentucky, a big coal-mining state, to agree to a one-year extension of a program to help fund health care for miners. No deal was struck, but McConnell has said he plans to address the issue next year before the benefits expire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manchin \u2014 a candidate for energy secretary in Trump\u2019s Cabinet \u2014 canceled a scheduled Friday meeting with the president-elect to continue negotiations in Washington, but he is expected to visit Trump Tower on Monday. Manchin has been joined in the push by Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). All but Warner are up for reelection in states that Trump won.<\/span><\/p>\n

The measure would affect about 23,000 miners and retired miners who get health-care coverage from plans that are running out of money. Approximately 60 percent of those retired miners were employed by companies that are no longer in the mining business and therefore don\u2019t have current employees to help support the fund.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at stand up or shut up,\u201d Manchin said at a news conference Thursday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heitkamp called out Trump by name as she left a Thursday meeting between Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and several of the Democrats who represent states Trump won.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe think there has been a renewed interest in these kind of issues with President-elect Donald Trump,\u201d said Heitkamp, who recently met with him in New York. \u201cWe\u2019re hopeful that we\u2019ll be able to get relief and be able to deliver a Christmas present to some of the most sympathetic working people in America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Republicans have taken note of which Democrats led this fight and which bloc of voters this issue would appeal to in the midterm elections two years from now.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to look at the people who are doing it, and Senator Brown and Senator Manchin are both up in 2018,\u201d Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate leadership, told reporters Thursday. \u201cObviously they\u2019d like to show they\u2019re fighting on behalf of their constituents.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Other Democrats, including Casey and Heitkamp, that have taken lead roles are also up in 2018. Trump won many of their states in last month\u2019s presidential election \u2014 ranging from the narrowest of margins in Pennsylvania, less than one percentage point above Hillary Clinton, to an overwhelming margin of 42 percentage points in Manchin\u2019s West Virginia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump won those states by running up huge margins among white working-class voters, including many union workers or former union members whose support these Democrats will need to win back to get reelected. In that regard, some Democrats believe their stand trying to help mine workers \u2014 a symbolic embodiment of the white working class \u2014 might demonstrate to those voters now that they have not been forgotten by senators facing reelection in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

One senator suggested that the Midwestern Democrats initially acted on their own to start this fight in the middle of what is a slightly awkward vacuum at the top of the caucus, with Reid retiring this week amid many gala celebrations and his trusted deputy, Schumer, still being deferential to Reid until he formally leaves office.<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent days, Schumer became more involved in the strategy and worked closely with the Democrats who are up for reelection in 2018 \u2014 many of whom hold special significance to him because they were first elected in 2006 when Schumer was the party\u2019s campaign chief.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:- https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/powerpost\/wp\/2016\/12\/09\/red-state-democrats-flirt-with-a-brief-government-shutdown-over-coal-miners-healthcare\/?utm_term=.6dcf972d981c<\/span><\/div>\n

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