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Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery - Washington Post
President Obama's endorsement Wednesday of a risky legislative maneuver to complete health-care legislation sent Democratic leaders scrambling to settle policy disputes and assemble the votes necessary for passage in the coming weeks. In a speech at the White House, Obama urged Congress to "finish its work" on health care and indicated support for a strategy that includes the budget maneuver known as reconciliation, which would protect the final product from a Republican filibuster in the Senate. Obama told an audience of medical professionals that Congress "owes the American people a final vote on health-care reform."
Obama Now Selling Judgeships for Health Care Votes?
John McCormack - The Weekly Standard
Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he's obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson's brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Video: Then-Senator Obama dumps on "50-plus-one" approach to governance
Allahpundit - Hot Air
Most of you have seen this on Drudge, but if not, carve out three minutes and drink it in. Naked Emperor News salvaged it from the rubble of the Great Liberal Realignment, a sort of time capsule of a moment when The One not only expected to sweep to power but to have his agenda passed with such overwhelming public support that no one could deny America had been well and truly transformed.
Forget Reconciliation, Why the Real Fight Is In the House
Phil Kerpen - Fox News
If the House passes the Christmas Eve version of the Senate health care reform bill, the game is up and the American people lose. If, on the other hand, the House rejects the original Senate bill, it's all over. Opponents of Obama's so-called health care reform are understandably up in arms at the president's embrace of reconciliation as a way to force changes to his bill through the Senate. --It feels as if Scott Brown's election had never happened. Reconciliation, part of the budget process designed to raise or lower revenues or spending, was never designed as a way to change the rules to pass controversial policy changes that otherwise would fail for lack of 60 votes needed to invoke cloture. But as outrageous as reconciliation is, ultimately it's a distraction, and free-market activists who focus on it may miss the real fight in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Obama's audience for health care: House Democrats
David Jackson - USA Today's The Oval
A group of health care professionals watched President Obama's speech yesterday at the White House; cable television networks also tuned in. But neither the live crowd nor the television viewers appeared to be his primary audience. Instead, Obama seemed to speaking to wavering House Democrats -- particularly the more conservative Democrats -- who hold the keys to the "up-or-down" health care vote that the president demanded.
Stupak: 12 Dems ready to oppose health care bill
Erica Werner - Associated Press
A congressman who has played a key role in the long-running health care debate says he and 11 other Democrats will vote against the overhaul unless a provision subsidizing abortion is removed. Rep. Bart Stupak argued Thursday that the provision in the Senate-passed version has language that would permit the federal government to "directly subsidize abortions."
Some Dems are wary of Obama's final health push
Erica Werner - Associated Press
Rank-and-file Democrats in Congress remain wary of health care legislation in spite of President Barack Obama's closing argument for overhauling the system, well aware that success is far from assured and political perils abound. "I think he has succeeded in prying open a window of opportunity, but it's a very narrow window," said first-term Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. "And he and the leadership here had better clamber through that narrow window while they can."
Obama seeks to push healthcare to final vote
Patricia Zengerle - Reuters
President Barack Obama began a final push for healthcare reform on Wednesday, urging Congress to vote on the plan in the next few weeks even if it means passing the measure with a narrow Democratic majority and no Republican support. Although much uncertainty remains on the path to passage of the legislation, Obama opposed Republican calls to throw out broad bills passed by the House of Representatives and Senate last year and begin again with a more step-by-step approach.
Rep. Brian Baird still not sold on healthcare reform
Mike Madden - Salon's War Room
As House Democratic leaders cast around for votes to pass the Senate's healthcare reform bill (followed by a reconciliation measure that "fixes" parts of the bill), the three Democrats who voted against the bill last fall and plan to retire after this year are prime targets for lobbying. But if Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., is any indication, that may mean the bill is in trouble.
Gregg talks repealing health reform
J. Taylor Rushing - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
A top Republican senator on Wednesday proposed the possibility of repealing any healthcare law that is passed by congressional Democrats using the reconciliation strategy. Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said it is not surprising that Democrats would use reconciliation to pass their healthcare bill. The parliamentary technique would require only 50 votes plus a tie-breaker by Vice President Joe Biden, instead of the 60 votes that would be required instead.
Don't use reconciliation to pass health care bill
Editorial - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/ The Salt Lake Tribune
Congress should, if public service and integrity have any meaning, approve health care reform. The inequities in the system are legend. It is shameful that so many have no insurance. But the effort ought to be genuinely bipartisan. Passing a bill using reconciliation -- in which a simple majority would suffice in the Senate -- would be the opposite of that. Yes, we know bipartisanship presumes two sides willing to negotiate in good faith, glaringly absent in this debate. And it would be comical were it not so hypocritical that a Medicare system that Republicans had long planted a bull's-eye on is now, in GOP talking points, a virtuous service falsely portrayed as being in imminent danger of demise because of reform.
Analysis: Obama the 'outsider' from inside DC
Ron Fournier - Associated Press
The throw-the-bums-out mentality is so strong in American politics that even the ultimate insider - the president of the United States - is running against Washington. Casting yourself as an outsider from inside the White House is no easy trick, especially when your party controls both houses of Congress. But that doesn't stop Barack Obama from trying. "At stake right now is not just our ability to solve this problem," Obama said Wednesday, referring to the U.S. health care system, "but our ability to solve any problem. The American people want to know if it's still possible for Washington to look out for their interests and their future."
Key House liberal may vote against healthcare bill
Mike Madden - Salon's War Room
An influential House progressive says he's less likely to vote for the final healthcare reform bill now that the White House has incorporated Republican ideas -- which could indicate a serious problem is brewing among liberals as Democratic leaders try to figure out a way to finish work on the legislation. "As I weigh it, I think -- for me -- a 'no' vote is something that I continue to lean toward," Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told Salon in a brief interview off the House floor Wednesday. "Especially the last additions -- that was kind of a slap in the face for all of us who fought for the public option."
Stupak: 12 previous health bill supporters could flip over abortion
Michael O'Brien - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
The Senate's healthcare bill would lose 12 Democratic votes in the House, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said Wednesday. Stupak, the sponsor of an amendment to the House healthcare bill that barred federal subsidies for health plans covering abortion, said that 12 lawmakers who had previously supported healthcare reform legislation in the House would be ready to switch.
Obama steps up health care pressure
Susan Milligan - The Boston Globe
President Obama increased the pressure on Congress yesterday to take an up-or-down vote on his health care package, calling on Senate Democrats to bypass a Senate filibuster and revive the stalled legislation over the objections of Republicans. Despite polls that signal that strategy holds dangers for Democrats, the president is gambling that the voters who sent him to office want action on health care and share his impatience with inaction in Washington.
McConnell to Dems: Vote for Health Care at Your Own Risk
Stephanie Condon - CBS News' Political Hot Sheet
If the Democrats' health care bill passes, every Republican running in an election this fall will campaign on repealing it, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said today. President Obama said today, "Congress owes the American people a final vote on health care reform," and he gave Democrats his approval to pass it with reconciliation, a way of bypassing Republican opposition. The passage of the bill, McConnell said today after the president's remarks, would lead to the "closest we've ever had in this country to a national referendum."
Will Obama's Big Health Care Push Work?
ABC News
President Obama -- with several whitecoat professionals as his backdrop, pictured above -- said today that the time for talk about health care reform is over. The ideas and arguments have been laid out, by both Democrats and Republicans, and now it's time to act, the president implored. "I believe the United States Congress owes the American people a final vote on health care reform," he said. The president, however, may not have the votes to pass the legislation, which he claims will cover the uninsured, lower costs and end what he called the "worst practices" of insurance companies.
Liberal Group's' New Strategy on Health Care: Just Get it Done
Stephanie Condon - CBS News' Political Hot Sheet
Some progressive groups and Democratic congressmen are applauding President Obama's appeal for an up-or-down vote on his health care reform proposal, even though it falls far short of the goals they once had for reform. The president today said he has asked Congress to vote on his proposal within a matter of weeks because Congress "owes" that to the American people. The plan is for the House to pass the Senate bill and then for both chambers to take an up-or-down vote on a separate "fix it" reconciliation bill.
Obama Calls for 'Up or Down Vote' on Health Care Bill
Sheryl Gay Stolberg adn Robert Pear - New York Times
President Obama, beginning his final push for a health care overhaul, called Wednesday for Congress to allow an "up or down vote" on the measure, and sketched out an ambitious -- and, some Democrats said, unrealistic -- timetable for his party to pass a bill on its own within weeks. "I believe the United States Congress owes the American people a final vote on health care reform," Mr. Obama said during a 20-minute speech in the East Room of the White House. He said there was no point in starting over, as Republicans are demanding, and called on nervous Democrats to stick with him, declaring there was no reason "for those of us who were sent here to lead to just walk away."
Obama's Remarks on Health Care
David Herszenhorn - New York Times' Presciptions
The Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, is rebutting the assertions President Obama made in his remarks. "In discussing where he is, he left out a few things," Mr. McConnell began. And he offered a list of omissions: tax increases; cuts in Medicare; a huge increase in government spending. Mr. McConnell said the president was defying the will of the public by pushing forward. "This is not an argument between Democrats and Republicans," he said. "This is an argument between Democrats and the American people."
A Health Insurance Mandate With a Choice
Paul Starr - New York Times
DESPITE President Obama's letter on Tuesday offering to consider several Republican health-care provisions, hope for bipartisan progress on the issue has quickly faded. Republicans have already dismissed the changes as merely cosmetic, and the president has signaled his support for passing the final changes to the legislation through the budget-reconciliation process, which would require only Democratic votes. But the Democrats could modify one key provision of their legislation -- the mandate that individuals buy insurance -- in a way that goes to the heart of conservative and libertarian objections.
Obama missed an opportunity to be bold
Martin Schram - The Reporter
As the Republicans filed into Blair House to begin President Barack Obama's numerically bipartisan health-care reform summit last week, this was their secret worst nightmare: Obama and his advisers would have realized there was something the president could say at the summit's start that would knock Republican leaders off their game plan and put them instantly on the defensive.
| 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. |