Hill Democrats brush back White House health deadline
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
March 10, 2010
As House Democrat leaders struggle to round up the 216 votes needed to pass President Obama's health care plan, they have all but set aside the March 18 deadline set by the White House and are hinting the debate could extend well past the upcoming Easter recess.
A delay would likely make it even more difficult for the Democrats to pass a bill.
"I believe that if members of Congress go home for two weeks, they will hear from the American people what they really think about the bill and they will be less likely to vote for it when they come back," Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Democrat leaders have yet to begin negotiating with approximately one dozen pro-life Democrats who comprise one of the biggest obstacles in the House.
Hoyer also discounted the deadline put forward last week by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
"None of us have mentioned the 18th, other than Mr. Gibbs," Hoyer said.
Hoyer said Democrats are still wrangling with how to pass the Senate health care bill in the House and then follow with a smaller bill that makes corrections to the Senate bill. House Democrats are refusing to back the Senate bill unless it is done concurrently with a second bill that would purge several special deals cut for certain senators as well as an excise tax on expensive insurance plans.
Hoyer called a pre-Easter vote "an objective, not a deadline."
Without some kind of concurrent passage of both bills, it will be nearly impossible for House Democrat leaders to come up with the votes because House Democrats don't trust the Senate to follow through with the corrections bill once the Senate health care bill is signed into law by Obama. The Senate would have to take up the second bill under budget reconciliation rules in order to pass it with just 51 votes, which could be difficult and politically dangerous, depending on what's in it. But senators on Tuesday said they are committed to taking up the second bill.
"I can tell you this," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said. "Nobody wants to stab the House in the back. Every one of us understands the position the House is in. I guess what we ask is that the House understand our position as well."
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who voted for the Senate version against his constituents wishes, said the national polls don't matter as much as the sense he gets from his constituents. The majority in Nebraska, he said, "do not" support the Democrat health care plan, but will decide whether to back it as soon as the bill is written and given a price tag by the Congressional Budget Office.
"I'm not going to say I'm going to support something I haven't seen," Nelson said.
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