The politics behind the Bush veto

President George W. Bush has sent a message to millions of sick, injured and disabled people: He is willing to trade their hopes for a scientific cure in order to advance the narrow religious interests of part of his reactionary political base.

On July 19 Bush used his first veto in five and a half years to crush a bill that would have allowed federal spending on embryonic stem cell research. The bill had been passed by a large majority of both houses of Congress.

Of course, he did it in the name of being “pro-life.”

According to a recent poll, 58 percent of the public favors embryonic stem cell research, while only 30 percent opposes it. (ABC Beliefnet poll) Celebrities, including Michael J. Fox and the late Christopher Reeve, have heightened public focus on the issue.

Even conservatives like former first lady Nancy Reagan, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn), a Harvard-trained surgeon, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) supported the bill. “It blows me away,” said Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican. “What a horrible circumstance: The president is going to make his first veto something that will stand in the path of scientific progress.”

It is certainly true that the science of stem cell research offers great promise and hope for medical breakthroughs that could greatly alleviate human suffering.

Research on stem cells, especially those from early embryos, is especially promising because they offer a way to turn back the biological clock. Current drugs can do no more than slow the progress of degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Stem cells, however, may one day replace cells and rebuild tissues, perhaps even organs, helping to restore patients to the way they were before they became ill.

European researchers for the first time have now identified muscle stem cells, suggesting a treatment for muscular dystrophy, according to a recent report published in the journal Nature. Among other tissues that could be repaired are those of the central nervous system and spinal cord, offering hope to millions who suffer from brain and spinal cord injuries and diseases.

Stem cell treatments already exist for stroke and scientists are looking for cures for diabetes and heart disease.

In 2001, Bush killed most research on embryonic stem cells by limiting federal funding for the research to 15 lines that had already been developed from frozen embryos left over from in vitro fertilization attempts. He explicitly disallowed the use of any additional embryos, even though they are slated to be destroyed anyway.

The bill that he vetoed didn’t even challenge this. It differed from Bush’s policy only in that it would allow additional frozen embryos to be used from the same stock of in vitro leftovers.

Politics vs. profits

Republican leaders moved quickly to minimize whatever political damage they thought might emerge from the president’s veto. Within 24 hours they had passed two symbolic bills that Bush could sign, and the Republican-dominated House of Representatives quickly voted on, and defeated, an override of the veto so as to “move beyond the issue as quickly as possible.”

However, the question remains: Why are some of the most reactionary sections of the ruling class divided on this?

Many pundits attribute Bush’s veto to his low standing in the polls and his fear of losing his only remaining base of support—the religious right. “There could be a silver lining for Republicans,” says Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press. “The president’s opposition to embryonic stem cell research is a popular move among his most conservative supporters—the same bloc that has been angry over Bush’s immigration policies.”

Richard A. Viguerie, a conservative direct-mail fundraiser, said Bush is in “serious trouble” with his base.

“If he were not to veto this legislation, you could see the administration come unraveled very quickly,” Viguerie said. “It would really wreak havoc with his ability to govern with the conservative base there.”

The hope among Republican strategists is that the stem cell veto will reinvigorate conservatives to get to the polls in the midterm, when turnout is traditionally lower.

However, there is another side to the debate, at least as far as the big business advocates in the House and Senate—which is practically all of them—are concerned. And that is the literally billions of dollars that could potentially flow out of stem cell research.

“With strict limits on federal funding, scientists must rely largely on private money. But venture capitalists have largely stayed away from stem cell companies because most are still in early stages. VCs [venture capitalists] enter after the research is completed,” says Robert Bellas Jr., a general partner at Morgenthaler Ventures. (Red Herring, June 20, 2005)

In other words, the biomedical corporations want to profit from stem cell research, but they don’t want to risk their own money. They want the government to pay for the research and then turn it over to them, so they can patent it and charge sick people enormous sums for the new lifesaving technology!

Frist, who tried to push the vetoed bill in the Senate, represents this wing of the medical business establishment.

Frist entered the Senate already a millionaire, thanks to his father and brother. They founded what has become HCA, Inc., the largest hospital chain in the U.S., with over 200 hospitals and revenues of $21.8 billion in 2003. His family is currently leading a consortium of private investors who are trying to carry out the largest leveraged buyout in history.

Over the years, HCA derived about one third of its revenue from the federal government’s Medicaid and Medicare programs.

In addition to owning the largest number of hospitals, HCA has another dubious distinction: The company had to pay the government $631 million in penalties for defrauding Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE, the military’s health care program, of more money than any other health care provider in the U.S. (Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele, “Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business and Bad Medicine”)

Frist and his allies would like to cash in on the new research, but they were stymied by the president’s political difficulties, caused in large part by the administration’s bloody adventures in Iraq and elsewhere—which both Democrats and Republicans in Congress supported.

So progressive and working people not only have to resist the religious bigots who seek to hold back scientific progress and the politicians who use them as shock troops. The other challenge is to see that the fruits of science are not appropriated for the benefit of a few profiteers, and insure that the promise of stem cell research can truly benefit humanity.