Senator Bob Casey, the senior Democratic U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, talks to Brown Political Review’s Ben Wofford. Casey was previously the Treasurer of Pennsylvania.
Brown Political Review: President Obama and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are in political hot water. Would you place responsibility for the problematic Obamacare rollout on the President’s communication, or is it a legislative failure — something Congress should have already addressed?
Sen. Bob Casey: I think most members of Congress have to be frustrated and even angry about how it’s transpired over the last couple of weeks. We’ll know soon whether the website problem is resolved or not. That’s going to be a very important moment for the ACA.
My sense is that you’re in one of two caucuses. There’s the “we’ve got to fix these problems and implement the ACA appropriately” caucus. The other caucus is the “root for failure” caucus. I think a lot of Republicans have to ask themselves: Are they just going to root for failure of the ACA? Or are they going to work with us to make sure the problem is — if not solved, then on the path to being resolved.
BPR: Do you think the president could be doing a better job as “Messenger-in-Chief”?
I think if there were one strategic problem, it’s that we probably let Republican charges go without rebut — claims that are misleading or aren’t true.
Casey: If you went through the record, the president’s probably done more health care events than any president. I think if there were one strategic problem, it’s that we probably let Republican charges go without rebut — claims that are misleading or aren’t true. The Republican strategy has been pretty simple: they want to destroy the act. We probably underestimated their determination. I think that’s a larger strategic failure.
BPR: You supported the EPA’s rules to regulate coal in a state where coal is popular. What advice would you give to anyone making a similar decision?
Casey: This is a difficult issue. I represent a state where roughly half of our electricity base is dependent upon coal. We’ve got to take steps to do everything we can to have a very diverse set of energy options. And we have to continue to invest in clean coal technology and the research that undergirds that. When the EPA regulations are promulgated, we evaluate those on a case-by-case basis in terms of the impact on Pennsylvania. As much as there’s conflict and division on some of these issues, there’s a lot more consensus than some people realize.
BPR: You initially supported military intervention in Syria this past summer. Did the outcome teach you anything for the next time the U.S. is in a similar crisis?
Casey: It’s always difficult to analogize from one national security issue to another. If we can get the result we all hope for — the destruction of the chemical weapons — that’s a significant achievement. We still have a long way to go when it comes to a U.S. policy toward Syria that is clear, that makes sense in terms of our own national security interests and the horror of more than 100,000 people being slaughtered. People believe that once we get a good result on chemical weapons, that’s the end of our debates about this. I think people are going to be mistaken.