Rahm Emanuel ventured to the Capitol Friday evening to hash out health care strategy with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a White House aide confirmed.
The meeting comes as Democrats are searching for a way to get to the health care finish line, though neither chamber wants to move first. Senate leaders want the House to pass the Senate bill first, after which the Senate would use reconciliation to fix the legislation to the liking of the Senate. House leaders contend that the votes aren't there for the Senate bill if the upper chamber doesn't move. The House, after two centuries of watching the Senate lag behind, doesn't trust that it'll act.
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February 27, 2010
February 22, 2010
White House Health Care Reform Proposal
The White House health care reform bill, posted online at 10 a.m. today, is a modest policy proposal based on the senate bill. It frames a bold political gamble that the national summit the president is convening on Thursday will cut through the rabble-rousing rancor that has threatened to kill reform, by challenging the Republicans to consolidate and defend their own proposal in full view of the American public.
White House officials Dan Pfeiffer, Nancy Ann deParle, and Jason Furman gave an early view of the proposal described as the president's "opening bid" for debate at the health care summit on Thursday, Feb. 25. It is ready to go through a reconciliation process in the senate should Republicans choose to filibuster the bill.
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White House officials Dan Pfeiffer, Nancy Ann deParle, and Jason Furman gave an early view of the proposal described as the president's "opening bid" for debate at the health care summit on Thursday, Feb. 25. It is ready to go through a reconciliation process in the senate should Republicans choose to filibuster the bill.
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February 1, 2010
Specter: Democrats Must Use Reconciliation To Pass Health Care Fixes ‘Simultaneously’
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn.) urged his Democratic colleagues over the weekend to unite around a plan that would allow them to move forward with health care legislation using a process that requires only 51 votes.
Speaking at a Pennsylvania Progressive forum on Saturday, Specter suggested that the only way to get health care reform passed would be to placate House Democrats who were concerned about passing the Senate bill pro forma. The only way to placate House Democrats, he added, would be to pass amendments to the Senate's legislation "simultaneously" through the use of a process known as reconciliation.
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Speaking at a Pennsylvania Progressive forum on Saturday, Specter suggested that the only way to get health care reform passed would be to placate House Democrats who were concerned about passing the Senate bill pro forma. The only way to placate House Democrats, he added, would be to pass amendments to the Senate's legislation "simultaneously" through the use of a process known as reconciliation.
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January 30, 2010
Mañana for Immigration Reform
A long-promised, bi-partisan U.S. Senate bill aimed at comprehensive immigration reform will be delayed until at least March, according to a lobbyist involved in negotiations over the content of the legislation. "The timeline originally was to have a bill by February," said Sonia Ramirez, legislative representative for the AFL-CIO. "Now I think they're shooting at having a detailed outline of the direction they'd like to go in the bill by the end of February." Once the outline is agreed on, she explained, lawyers will draft the text.
The on-again, off again timetable has disappointed immigration reform advocates. Sen. Charles. E. Schumer (D-NY), Chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, who has been working on an immigration bill with South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, indicated during the summer that legislation would be introduced last year "I think we'll have a good bill by Labor Day," Schumer, told the Associated Press last July. But it never materialized.
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The on-again, off again timetable has disappointed immigration reform advocates. Sen. Charles. E. Schumer (D-NY), Chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, who has been working on an immigration bill with South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, indicated during the summer that legislation would be introduced last year "I think we'll have a good bill by Labor Day," Schumer, told the Associated Press last July. But it never materialized.
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January 28, 2010
Pelosi: Needed Changes To Senate Health Bill ‘Aren’t Minor Tweaks’
The latest Democratic plan for health reform calls for the House to pass the Senate bill in exchange for the promise of a supplementary compromise bill that, through the use of the budget reconciliation process, would only require 51 votes. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stressed on Thursday that the eventual additions and changes are going to have to be considerable.
"We're not talking about minor tweaks," Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference. "Our bills are about 75 percent the same, perhaps 80. The President optimistically says 90, and maybe he knows something I don't know about what's going to happen in the Senate. But there are some areas where we're not the same, and we have to find a way to move forward."
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"We're not talking about minor tweaks," Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference. "Our bills are about 75 percent the same, perhaps 80. The President optimistically says 90, and maybe he knows something I don't know about what's going to happen in the Senate. But there are some areas where we're not the same, and we have to find a way to move forward."
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January 21, 2010
What Democrats Need To Do About Health-Care Reform
Paul Krugman is right:
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Health care reform -- which is crucial for millions of Americans -- hangs in the balance. Progressives are desperately in need of leadership; more specifically, House Democrats need to be told to pass the Senate bill, which isn't what they wanted but is vastly better than nothing.
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Pelosi: Votes Aren’t There For Senate Health Care Bill
Don't bet on the House rubber-stamping the weaker Senate health care reform bill, Speaker Nancy Pelos (D-Calif.) said Thursday.
"I don't think it's possible to pass the Senate bill in the House," Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference. "I don't see the votes for it at this time."
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"I don't think it's possible to pass the Senate bill in the House," Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference. "I don't see the votes for it at this time."
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Clear Path vs. Clear Meltdown
Democrats have an absolutely clear path to passing a strong health care reform bill quickly that will re-establish their image for being able to deliver real change, begin to rebuild their bond with their base, and allow them to move on to dealing with jobs and the economy. To fail to take this path will lead to a worse meltdown and beat-down than the 1994 or 1980 elections. What they have to do is buck up their courage, stop acting out, and get the deal done.
The path, which has been suggested by many other people as well as me, is to simply pass the full Senate bill, and then immediately pass a clean-up bill through the reconciliation process, which requires only 51 votes in the Senate. The clean-up bill could include the provisions that progressives in the House and Senate, as well as wide majorities of the American people, have been demanding: the compromise on the benefits tax issue, more affordability for low and moderate income folks, ending insurers' exemption from anti-trust laws, a national insurance exchange instead of the weaker fragmented state run exchanges, and yes, some form of that public option that voters and activists keep saying we want. Doing this kind of double bill approach would allow all the good insurance regulations and other provisions in both the Senate and House versions of the bill that can't be passed through the reconciliation process because of Senate rules to still get done, while making the bill far more politically popular with voters and healing the rifts caused with the base because of all the bad compromises forced by Lieberman and other Democratic conservatives in the Senate.
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The path, which has been suggested by many other people as well as me, is to simply pass the full Senate bill, and then immediately pass a clean-up bill through the reconciliation process, which requires only 51 votes in the Senate. The clean-up bill could include the provisions that progressives in the House and Senate, as well as wide majorities of the American people, have been demanding: the compromise on the benefits tax issue, more affordability for low and moderate income folks, ending insurers' exemption from anti-trust laws, a national insurance exchange instead of the weaker fragmented state run exchanges, and yes, some form of that public option that voters and activists keep saying we want. Doing this kind of double bill approach would allow all the good insurance regulations and other provisions in both the Senate and House versions of the bill that can't be passed through the reconciliation process because of Senate rules to still get done, while making the bill far more politically popular with voters and healing the rifts caused with the base because of all the bad compromises forced by Lieberman and other Democratic conservatives in the Senate.
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January 20, 2010
Congress on Health Reform: From Out in Front to Out Of Touch
Though we were the first to report the fall in support for the health care reform bill(s) - to 50% con, 42% pro in June - we were surprised to find, in our December 23 survey of 1641 registered voters, that 60% want Congress to pass neither the House nor Senate bill, but start over. Only 32% favor passage of either bill or the emerging compromise. Strong opposition was registered by 49%, vs strong support by a mere 19%. If these new data prompt even one House or Senate Democrat to vote against the final bill, it will not pass (unless previously opposed legislators switch).
 We were surprised because we had reported an uptick in support - to dead even - after President Obama's widely viewed September speech to Congress. But our surveys have repeatedly suggested that reform's advocates have not been emphasizing what Americans want in a reform bill. Americans believe coverage should be expanded without new taxes or bigger deficits. They believe this can be done by greater efforts to reduce fraud and waste, and incentives for better medical care, especially for prevention.
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 We were surprised because we had reported an uptick in support - to dead even - after President Obama's widely viewed September speech to Congress. But our surveys have repeatedly suggested that reform's advocates have not been emphasizing what Americans want in a reform bill. Americans believe coverage should be expanded without new taxes or bigger deficits. They believe this can be done by greater efforts to reduce fraud and waste, and incentives for better medical care, especially for prevention.
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Dear President Obama: Time to Stop Letting Corporations Write the Health Care Bill
When Max Baucus unveiled an early version of the Senate bill in September, an ex-WellPoint VP named Liz Fowler was listed as the author. Only a few weeks earlier, the Huffington Post exposed the sweetheart deal negotiated between the White House and PhRMA in exchange for $150 million in political advertising. And Harry Reid kept Byron Dorgan's popular drug reimportation amendment off the floor of the Senate until PhRMA could whip enough votes to defeat it because it violated that deal.
Dorgan accused the White House of tanking the amendment and retired shortly thereafter. And last night, Martha Coakley paid the price for those deals too. The only real question this morning is, how more Democrats will lose their seats before they decide to stand up to the corporations?
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Dorgan accused the White House of tanking the amendment and retired shortly thereafter. And last night, Martha Coakley paid the price for those deals too. The only real question this morning is, how more Democrats will lose their seats before they decide to stand up to the corporations?
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