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July 22, 2009
Pelosi Claims Votes to Pass Health Care ~ Durbin Says Aug. Deadline NOT Possible!
More Pelosi Lies??
Pelosi claims votes to pass health care ( I saw this at Drudge )
Jul 22, 3:33 PM (ET)
By DAVID ESPO
WASHINGTON
Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Democrats have the votes to pass health care legislation in the House, even though negotiations are under way to make changes in the bill to satisfy some of its critics.
The House’s top Democrat declined to say when she will call for the vote on President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority. She says she wants to see what the Senate’s plans are.
The California Democrat made her comments at a news conference Wednesday. She spoke as conservatives and the White House seek changes to impose greater cost controls on health care. Other members of the rank and file seek additional changes.
Pelosi Says She Has Votes to Pass House Health Plan
-- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has the votes to pass legislation overhauling the U.S. health- care system as Democratic Party leaders moved closer to an agreement with rebellious members of their own party.
Leaders are “making progress” with Democrats who want more cost cuts in the legislation, Pelosi told reporters in Washington today, a day after President Barack Obama met with a group of Democrats to try to convince them to back the plan.
“I have no question we have the votes on the floor of the House to pass this legislation,” Pelosi said.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman said he plans to meet with members of the Blue Dog Coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats again today after the group moved closer to consensus on health-care legislation.
“We want to reach an agreement and go to markup in our committee,” possibly as early as tomorrow, said Waxman. “We have not resolved our issues but we are getting close.”
Obama is looking for movement on Capitol Hill before holding a news conference at 8 p.m. today Washington time, where he is likely to press for his plan to carry out the most sweeping changes in U.S. health care in more than four decades.
Talks have proven so difficult that Pelosi, Waxman and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer left open the possibility Congress may fail to meet Obama’s August deadline for passage.
Hatch Quits
The overhaul effort suffered a fresh blow today in the Senate, when Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah quit bipartisan talks aimed at reaching a compromise.
“With some of the provisions in there, I just can’t do it,” Hatch told reporters, referring to the bill’s potential $1 trillion price tag, among other issues. He was one of a group of just four Republicans working closely on the plan.
Obama yesterday spent more than an hour meeting with Blue Dogs and other Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has yet to pass its part of the legislation.
The Blue Dogs on the panel “can’t support the bill as it stands,” Representative Mike Ross of Arkansas, one of the group’s leaders, said in an interview after the meeting.
To help win them over, Waxman agreed to a provision to create an independent commission that would set reimbursement rates for Medicare providers each year. Ross said such a body would take politics out of decisions on the federal insurance program for the elderly, giving Congress an up-or-down vote on any changes, without amendment.
‘Favorable Attitude’
During the White House meeting, Obama asked lawmakers to take “a favorable attitude toward his proposal” to set up the five-member commission, Waxman said.
Today, one Blue Dog member, Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper, called the idea “definitely better than doing nothing” because “Congress will never address these issues on its own.”
Pelosi said the proposed commission is “appealing to a broad sector of our caucus” concerned about cutting costs. “But we want to do it in a way that respects the prerogatives of the Congress” and the president, she said.
The current House plan, unveiled on July 14, would expand insurance coverage to 97 percent of Americans while adding $239 billion to the federal budget deficit over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The Blue Dogs considered the CBO estimate “a real hit across the bow” that gave them ammunition to insist on more cost cuts, said Indiana Representative Baron Hill, another Blue Dog Democrat who attended the meeting with Obama.
Durbin says August deadline not possible
6:22 PM EDT
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said for the first time Wednesday that its no longer possible for the Senate to pass a health-reform bill before leaving for the August recess – which would defy President Barack Obama’s wish that both houses approve the legislation before summer break.
Durbin’s comments, confirmed by his office, are the strongest signal yet of what’s become increasingly apparent on the Hill – that the Senate Finance Committee is well short of being able to negotiate a compromise in time to clear the full Senate.
Now, with August fading as the goal for passing health care legislation in the Senate, Democratic officials are moving towards a new definition of victory: a bipartisan bill out of the Finance Committee by the recess.
The Senate Finance Committee is still days, if not a week, away from reaching an agreement. This timeline makes it almost impossible to hold a markup, merge the bill with one approved by the Senate health committee and schedule a floor vote – unless the recess was significantly delayed or a confirmation vote on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was pushed back to September.
The new Democratic thinking is that Obama can legitimately claim progress if two Senate committees and three in the House approve bills by the August break. But even this goal is still not forgone, as lawmakers continue to grapple over major issues.
Wild Thing's comment....
So many lies and so little time. I have no idea what the heck is going on. And Obama the camera hugger will speak tonight if one can call it speaking, about his death care bill.
Posted by Wild Thing at July 22, 2009 06:40 PM
Comments
All we can do at this point is call, call and call Senators and Congressman.
Posted by: Mark at July 22, 2009 07:39 PM
Mark, you right, that is so important.
Posted by: Wild Thing at July 22, 2009 08:35 PM
