Obama feeling the heat

President Obama sought on Monday evening to assuage organized labor's misgivings about the health-care overhaul, even as several key union leaders warned that the bill's final outlines could severely dampen their enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket in this year's elections.

It's not just a bank problem,  though the favoritism the administration has shown towards Wall Street has stirred up both Democrats and tea parties.  (Not Republicans.  Republicans don't mind taking money from our pockets and giving it to corporations and the guys at the top of the economic scale.)

Now Obama's got a political problem that includes the behaviors of our biggest financial institutions but extends to health care reform, Obama's in trouble with some of his most important supporters over a tax on their "cadillac" health plans.

Obama invited 10 labor leaders to the White House to discuss the negotiations aimed at reconciling the Senate and House bills, which are not heading in organized labor's direction in the three areas that it had identified as priorities. The final bill will not include the House's government-run insurance plan, or "public option"; it will probably include the Senate's new tax on high-cost health plans that could affect many union members; and its penalties for employers who do not provide insurance coverage will probably be closer to the more lenient terms in the Senate bill.

Three hours earlier, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a hard-edged speech at the National Press Club that discontent with the final bill, when combined with a general perception that Obama and Congress have been insufficiently populist in responding to the recession and financial crisis, could demoralize his members. ...Unions prefer the House approach, an income tax surcharge on families earning more than $1 million....WaPo

It's not just the unions who prefer the House bill.  Probably the majority of Democrats do.  The party now risks the probability that the Democratic majority in Congress will take a hit as some independents, progressives and union members withdraw their support.