BL: Obama Faces Friction Among House Democrats Over Push for Health-Care Bill
By Kristin Jensen and Laura Litvan
March 1 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama, taking charge of health-care legislation, is facing resistance from lawmakers in his own Democratic Party over the prospect of pushing the bill through Congress.
Obama plans to announce a way forward this week on the biggest overhaul of the U.S. health system in 45 years in a bid to break an impasse on the bill. Some House Democrats are uneasy over the likely use of a procedure called reconciliation that would sidestep Republican opposition by requiring only a simple majority vote in the Senate.
“It looks like we’re trying to cram something through,” said Representative Baron Hill, an Indiana Democrat who voted for the original House bill.
Hill said he might not back a measure if it goes through reconciliation, which is intended for budget matters. A “sizeable number” of the 54 fiscally conservative Democrats who call themselves Blue Dogs are also concerned, said South Dakota Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who yesterday said “time is up” for Congress to pass the legislation, can ill afford to lose votes. The first House bill passed 220-215 in November, and Democrats have lost at least three “yes” votes since then. Other party lawmakers are objecting to the substance of a new plan Obama released on Feb. 22.
Next Steps
Pelosi, of California, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, will meet with fellow Democrats this week to talk about the next steps, said Jim Manley, a Reid spokesman. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said the goal is to pass a bill before Congress leaves for a two-week break on March 26.
“We’re going to get this done,” Durbin told reporters on Feb. 25.
Obama and aides may add proposals from Republicans to a revised version of their plan, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Feb. 26. Today, he wouldn’t say whether Obama would support use of reconciliation, telling reporters that Republicans could avoid the use of the tactic by agreeing not to employ a filibuster to derail the legislation.
“The president believes that an up-or-down vote is necessary,” Gibbs said. He also said Obama will announce his plan on how to move forward “likely on Wednesday.”
Undone by Massachusetts
Democrats were days away from passing a House-Senate compromise when Republican Scott Brown won a Jan. 19 special Senate election in Massachusetts, depriving Democrats of the 60th vote they needed to pass a bill.
At stake is a measure that would give drugmakers such as Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co. and insurers including Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. millions of new customers. Insurers, in turn, would accept all customers, even with preexisting conditions; drugmakers would help the elderly afford medicines.
Obama would require Americans to get insurance, offering new purchasing exchanges and subsidies to help. The White House estimated the proposal, based largely on a Senate bill passed in December, would cost $950 billion over 10 years and cover 31 million uninsured Americans.
With reconciliation, Senate Democrats could pass changes to their measure with 51 votes. The House would also approve what lawmakers call a “fix” to amend parts of the original Senate bill. One concern for House Democrats: They might have to act first, without a guarantee the Senate will pass the changes.
‘Consternation’
“There is some consternation,” said New York Representative Louise Slaughter, a Democrat who runs the House Rules Committee.
Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, said on ABC TV’s “This Week” yesterday that use of reconciliation “would be a political kamikaze mission” for Democrats.
Representative Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said Democrats face a challenge in the House. “Right now, they don’t have the votes,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, didn’t dispute that, saying on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program, “I don’t think we have the votes in terms of a specific proposal because there’s not a specific proposal on the table yet.”
He also said, “Within the next couple of weeks we are going to have a specific proposal and start counting votes.”
‘Gut Feeling’
Representative Brad Ellsworth, an Indiana Democrat who voted for the original House bill said his “gut feeling” is that the “House is committed to continue to push for health- care legislation, but it doesn’t feel as strong about the reconciliation process.”
Ellsworth said he’d favor a series of incremental bills instead. He also said language designed to prevent federal funds from being used for abortion isn’t strong enough in the Senate bill.
Michigan Representative Bart Stupak, a Democrat who led efforts to get stricter abortion language into the original House bill, said he won’t vote for the new one without changes. The problem is that language in a reconciliation measure must be related to the budget, and abortion may not qualify.
The vote count may get tricky. Representative Joseph Cao of Louisiana, the only Republican to support a bill, says he probably won’t vote for the final House measure.
Three Democratic House votes were also lost. Florida Representative Robert Wexler resigned in January to head a research group; Pennsylvania Representative John Murtha died last month; and Neil Abercrombie is leaving to campaign for governor of Hawaii.
And Democrats facing tight elections might abandon the party on what they see as an unpopular issue.
“I see a risk of some people who are vulnerable being made more vulnerable,” said Representative Alcee Hastings, a Florida Democrat.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net; Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 1, 2010 15:07 EST
