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