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Associated Press
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to back a major overhaul of U.S. health care even if it threatens their political careers, a call to arms that underscores the issue's massive role in this election year. Lawmakers sometimes must enact policies that, even if unpopular at the moment, will help the public, Pelosi said in an interview being broadcast Sunday the ABC News program "This Week." "We're not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress," she said. "We're here to do the job for the American people." It took courage for Congress to pass Social Security and Medicare, which eventually became highly popular, she said, "and many of the same forces that were at work decades ago are at work again against this bill."
Pelosi Says She'll Get Votes Needed for Health Bill
Robert Pear - New York Times
Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she is confident she will be able to get the votes needed to pass sweeping health care legislation in the House, even if it threatens the political careers of some members of her party. In an interview carried Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Ms. Pelosi said she was working on changes to a Senate-passed bill that would make it acceptable to the House. Ms. Pelosi was asked what she would say to House Democrats who were "in real fear of losing their seats in November if they support you now."
Pelosi: GOP has had its day; confident Dems can pull together on health bill
Kim Hart and Jordan Fabian - The Hill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that Republicans have left their mark on the healthcare bill and should accept that the bill will go forward. "They've had plenty of opportunity to make their voices heard," she said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday morning. "Bipartisanship is a two-way street. A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes. Republicans have left their imprint."
Dems' Health Strategy Doesn't Add Up to a Win
Michael Barone - Washington Examiner
"More talk, no deal" was The Wall Street Journal's headline on Thursday's Blair House health care summit. "After summit flop, Democrats prepare to go it alone on Obamacare," proclaimed the headline here at The Washington Examiner. These were appropriate verdicts if you viewed the summit as an attempt to reach bipartisan agreement or even a limited consensus. But that of course was not why Barack Obama convened this unique colloquy. He did so as part of an attempt to pass some Democratic health care bill, somehow, through both houses of Congress -- and to discredit the Republicans who opposed the bills passed by the House in November and the Senate in December.
Alexander: Health Care Reform a 'Political Kamikaze Mission' for Democrats
ABC's The Note
Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander says pushing health care reform through Congress by a simple majority using the reconciliation process would be political suicide for Democrats and vowed to campaign for the repeal the bill if it passes. On "This Week", Sen. Alexander to told Elizabeth Vargas, "It would be a political kamikaze mission for the Democratic Party if they jam this through after the American people have been saying." Alexander also said, if Democrats do pass a health care reform bill, "for the rest of the year, we're going to be involved in a campaign to repeal it." He added that democrats would pay a political price for passing health care. "Every Democratic candidate in the country is going to be defined by this unpopular health care bill at a time when the real issues are jobs, terror and debt."
Conrad: Reconciliation won't work for ObamaCare
Ed Morrissey - Hot Air
No wonder the Times was so pessimistic about reconciliation. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), who runs the committee that would have to run a reconciliation push, says that the budgetary process can't be used for ObamaCare. It would only address the actual budgetary issues, which leaves a lot off the table. The Budget Committee chair told CBS' Face the Nation audience that reconciliation wasn't designed for this purpose, nor is it appropriate for such sweeping legislation:
Obama Prods Lawmakers on Health Care
Fawn Johnson - Wall Street Journal
President Barack Obama on Saturday called on lawmakers to set aside partisan differences to revive a stalled health care bill, two days after a he participated in a nationally televised marathon session with Republicans and Democrats on the legislation. "We need to move past the bickering and the game-playing that holds us back and blocks progress for the American people," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "Some of these disagreements we may be able to resolve," Obama said. "Some we may not. And no final bill will include everything that everyone wants. That's what compromise is."
Buffett says health care costs hurt US economy
Josh Funk - Associated Press
Billionaire Warren Buffett says health care costs are a major drain on U.S. businesses and act like an "economic tape worm." The head of the holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said Monday on CNBC that America's health care system needs fundamental reform to attack costs because it's not practical to continue devoting roughly 17 percent of the nation's gross domestic product to health care.
At health summit, forget Obama vs. GOP: How did freedom do?
Sue Blevins - The Christian Science Monitor
President Obama's bipartisan health reform summit was a good-faith effort to find common ground on how to cover more Americans and control healthcare costs. Democrats and Republicans agreed that our nation's healthcare system is broken and riddled with fraud and waste. But to what degree Washington should intervene further in the healthcare market was where the parties greatly diverged. It was clear from the meeting that politicians on the left believe Washington can fix the broken system through mandating coverage and creating a national health insurance pool. Politicians on the right, however, oppose the federal insurance mandate and remain weary of a government takeover of healthcare.
Democrats will have votes for health bill, Obama aide says
Anne E. Kornblut - Washington Post
Raising the prospect of a "simple up-or-down vote" on health-care reform, White House adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle said on Sunday she thinks Democrats will secure enough ayes on the measure and signaled that the administration could be moving toward trying to pass it along party lines. President Obama is planning to tell Democrats his preferred strategy this week. After letting the effort play out in Congress for many months, he recently stepped in to lead it. He issued his own proposal, held a bipartisan summit and is preparing to direct the next legislative steps.
Using Reconciliation Is Politics, Not Leadership
TPM
It's fairly understandable why the Democrats are so desperate to roll the dice on their last chance at passing some kind of mashed health care overhaul. Whether it passes or fails, they're going to lose at the polls in November so there's no sense in NOT trying to pass something. But chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), explained in clear terms on CBS "Face the Nation" why going the route of reconciliation is actually a mistake. "The major package of health care reform cannot move through the reconciliation process. It will not work," he said. The reason it will not work is because under the rules of reconciliation, only items that can be budgeted are able to pass.
Sunday Snapshot: Get Ready To Reconcile, Baby
Marc Ambinder - The Atlantic
The White House and Democrats had one mission today: prepare the political class for the President's announcement, probably Wednesday, that he thinks the Senate ought to proceed with reconciliation to ****pass or modify**** a comprehensive health care bill (passed by the House or Senate first? Not sure.). But Democrats still don't agree: Kent Conrad, the budget committee chairman, says that the House must pass the extant Senate bill (with all the bad stuff in there) first; the House wants to see if the Senate has the votes for the Obama bill (with all the bad stuff taken out), and Conrad said today that reconciliation can't be used to pass #HCR.
McConnell: GOP best, brightest shone at summit
Missourian
The Senate's Republican leader says the White House's health care summit was important because it allowed GOP lawmakers to show their expertise on the issue and explain their opposition. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky also predicts that all 41 Republican senators will vote against the health care overhaul legislation if it comes to a vote.
Through the Health Care Looking Glass
The Speaker's Lobby
President Obama announces how he intends to move health care reform through Congress this week. And Disney releases Tim Burton's version of "Alice in Wonderland" on Friday. A coincidence, perhaps? The course Democrats may choose to pass the health care bill may seem like something right out of the topsy-turvy world depicted in the Lewis Carroll classic. The tale is emblematic of the arcane, parliamentary jabberwocky people will hear the next few weeks on Capitol Hill. The hurdles that Congressional leaders must clear to approve the bill would make the Red Queen's Race look fair.
White House calls for vote on health care
Associated Press
The White House called for a "simple up-or-down" vote on health care legislation Sunday as Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed to House Democrats to get behind President Barack Obama's chief domestic priority even it if threatens their political careers. In voicing support for a simple majority vote, White House health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle signaled Obama's intention to push the Democratic-crafted bill under Senate rules that would overcome GOP stalling tactics. Republicans unanimously oppose the Democratic proposals. Without GOP support, Obama's only chance of emerging with a policy and political victory is to bypass the bipartisanship he promoted during his televised seven-hour health care summit Thursday.
Republican Reaction To Health Care Summit
Big Government
Washington News Observer spoke with various outspoken Republicans. Some Republicans claimed that Republicans came out on top at this summit, while other dismissed it as a waste of time. The following clips feature Reps. Michelle Bachmann, Steve King and Brian Bilbray.
Reconciliation showdown ahead on health care?
CNN
With the health care summit showing no sign of getting either side to budge, lawmakers are staking out positions in the battle many believe is imminent: a presidential effort to push legislation through without Republican support. On the political talk shows Sunday, Democratic and GOP leaders fought over budget reconciliation, the parliamentary procedure that could allow a vote in the Senate and circumvent a GOP filibuster. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told CNN's "State of the Union" that he and other lawmakers "do not think something of this magnitude ought to be jammed down the throats of a public that doesn't want it through this kind of device."
Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote
Sheryl Stolberg and Robert Pear - New York Times
The future of President Obama's health care overhaul now rests largely with two blocs of swing Democrats in the House of Representatives -- abortion opponents and fiscal conservatives -- whose indecision signals the difficulties Speaker Nancy Pelosi faces in securing the votes necessary to pass the bill. With Republicans unified in their opposition, Democrats are drafting plans to try on their own to pass a bill based on one Mr. Obama unveiled before his bipartisan health forum last week. His measure hews closely to the one passed by the Senate in December, but differs markedly from the one passed by the House.
Democrats have a health-care plan, but do they have the votes?
Ben Pershing - Washington Post's 44
For the last several months, Democrats have been arguing amongst themselves over not just the substance of health-care reform but also the process. For better or worse, the latter argument is over. "The White House called for a 'simple up-or-down' vote on health care legislation Sunday," the Associated Press writes, adding: "In voicing support for a simple majority vote, White House health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle signaled Obama's intention to push the Democratic-crafted bill under Senate rules that would overcome GOP stalling tactics. Republicans unanimously oppose the Democratic proposals. Without GOP support, Obama's only chance of emerging with a policy and political victory is to bypass the bipartisanship he promoted during his televised seven-hour health care summit Thursday."
| Latest Polling |
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Rasmussen Reports March 1, 2010 52% of U.S. voters continue to oppose the health care plan proposed by the president and congressional Democrats. |