The “Art of the Possible” No Child Left Behind, the Affordable Care Act, and Bipartisanship in the 21St Century
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY HONORS COLLEGE The “Art of the Possible” No Child Left Behind, the Affordable Care Act, and Bipartisanship in the 21st Century Jesse M. Crosson Spring 2013 Honors Thesis – PSC 100 Advisor: Dr. Meena Bose -------------------------------------- Committee Members: Drs. Meena Bose, Richard Himelfarb, and Rosanna Perotti ii Table of Contents INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................... 2 Research Approach, Organization, and Overall Thesis ................................................................................................... 4 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................................................... 5 Presidential Leadership of Congress .............................................................................................................................. 5 Richard Neustadt and James Pfiffner on the President’s Basic Methods of Influence ................................................. 5 One Final Consideration: Andrew Rudalevige and White House Organization ........................................................ 10 Congressional Leadership ........................................................................................................................................... 11 Skill versus Context: Floor Leadership in Congress ................................................................................................. 12 A Decentralizing Force: Committee Leadership in Congress ................................................................................... 14 Outside Forces: Interest Groups................................................................................................................................... 15 Constant Contact: Interest Groups’ Basic Methods for Influencing Congress .......................................................... 15 Strategic Differences in House versus Senate Lobbying ........................................................................................... 17 A Note on Negotiation ................................................................................................................................................ 18 CONTEXT 1: PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP OF CONGRESS ............................................................................ 21 George Bush and NCLB.............................................................................................................................................. 21 Moving Fast—Without Surprises ............................................................................................................................. 21 Accountability: The One-Size-Fits-All Frame .......................................................................................................... 22 Delegating Authority to Congress ............................................................................................................................ 23 Principled-Negotiator-In-Chief: Guiding Debate and Communicating a Clear Position .......................................... 25 Finding a Winning Coalition: Building from the Center, Outward ........................................................................... 27 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................................. 28 President Obama and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act .......................................................................... 29 Off to a Solid Start: Moving Quickly with Few Surprises ......................................................................................... 30 Cost v. Coverage: Missing the Mark with Health-Reform Issue-Fram ...................................................................... 31 Working with Congressional Leaders: Ensuring a Congressional “Buy-In” ............................................................ 33 The Passive Negotiator: Obama Leaves Congress Guessing .................................................................................... 35 iii Building Support from the Outside, Inward: The Obama Coalition-Building Strategy .............................................. 37 Presidential Leadership of Congress: Final Analysis and Conclusions ......................................................................... 38 CONTEXT 2: CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP .................................................................................................... 39 The “Big Four” and NCLB .......................................................................................................................................... 39 Building Upon Consensus ....................................................................................................................................... 40 The Ascension of Principled Compromiser .............................................................................................................. 42 A Winning Organizational Strategy: Utilizing an “Informal” Committee System ..................................................... 47 Congressional Leadership and PPACA ........................................................................................................................ 49 Bypassing Consensus: Congress’s Fixation on the Public Option ............................................................................ 49 PPACA and Principled Prudence: A Dearth of “Principled Compromisers” ........................................................... 50 The Informal Committee System and the “Gang of Six ............................................................................................. 54 Congressional Leadership: Summary and Conclusions ................................................................................................ 56 CONTEXT 3: SPECIAL INTERESTS ........................................................................................................................ 57 NCLB and Interest Group Influence ............................................................................................................................ 57 Business Savvy and Civil Rights: NCLB’s Unorthodox Interest-Group Coalition ..................................................... 59 Navigating Congress’s Relations with Interest Groups ............................................................................................ 62 The “Silent” Strategy: Avoiding Explosive Controversy .......................................................................................... 63 Summary and Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 65 Interest Groups and PPACA ........................................................................................................................................ 65 Maintaining a Broad Coalition: Close, But No Cigar .............................................................................................. 66 From the White House with Love: PPACA’s Overly Centralized Negotiation Scheme .............................................. 68 Silent No More: Obama’s Negotiation Strategy Creates More Tension .................................................................... 70 FINAL CONCLUSIONS AND SUMMARY ................................................................................................................ 73 A Common Core: Coalition-Building from the Center ................................................................................................. 73 President and Congress: Achieving a Balance of Power ............................................................................................... 74 Building a Credibly Broad Support Group ................................................................................................................... 75 Implications for Political Science and Future Research, Final Thoughts ....................................................................... 76 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................. 83 1 “I'm a uniter, not a divider. I don't believe there's a deep divide. […] It's been my record. It's what I've done as governor. I know how to unite people. I don't like the politics of pitting one group of people against another, the politics of pointing fingers.” - George W. Bush, Republican Primary Debate, February 29, 2000 “Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us -- the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of "anything goes." Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America.” - Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention, July 27, 2004 “All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.” - Edmund Burke, Irish Statesman, in Speech on Conciliation with America, 1775 2 INTRODUCTION For the past two decades, American politics has experienced a period of near partisan parity in both government and the electorate. Indeed, since 1993, the US House of Representatives alone has changed hands three times—before