July 27, 2009 in City

Pelosi vows health reform

Amid unrest from Democrats, speaker says she’ll restart talks
Shailagh Murray And Paul Kane Washington Post
 

WASHINGTON – Defying skeptics in her party, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., vowed Sunday to overcome lingering obstacles and pass health care reform in the House, restoring momentum to President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority and order to her own unruly Democratic caucus.

“When I take this bill to the floor, it will win,” Pelosi said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This will happen.”

The speaker, who has struggled to overcome a series of recent setbacks, raised the stakes by planning to restart talks today among bickering Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee, one of three House panels with jurisdiction over health care and where the bill stalled last week. Democratic leaders are newly confident that these differences can be resolved, possibly in time to bring a House bill to the floor before lawmakers depart Friday for the August recess, although Pelosi did not commit to a timetable.

The chaos underscores the difficulty of transforming a major sector of the U.S. economy in a single piece of legislation, and also the perils of rushing Obama’s first-term priorities through Congress before concerns about the 2010 midterm elections take hold.

“What we don’t want is for the process to bog down here,” senior White House adviser David Axelrod said on the same CNN program. “We want to keep moving forward, and I believe we will.”

Although the Senate will not vote on its plan until after Labor Day, a Senate Finance Committee deal this week would reassure several dozen anxious House Democrats who are wary of the more liberal course their leaders have taken on health care. Feeling burned by a tough vote on climate-change legislation that is languishing in the Senate, these House Democrats sparked an uprising last week that Pelosi is struggling to contain.

A health care victory in the House this week would be a stirring moment for Obama and allow more breathing room for the Senate, where finance negotiators are trying to write a bipartisan bill that must be melded with a separate health committee version. A defeat would be a devastating setback for Obama and Pelosi. Regardless of the outcome, rank-and-file Democrats are bracing for an intense August at home as their constituents are hit with a wave of advertising from business groups opposed to the legislation and liberal interest groups supporting it.

“I think the people are shellshocked,” said Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-N.Y., linking the recent passage of the $700 billion financial bailout, the $787 billion economic recovery package, climate change and other major bills approved this year. “So much is happening so quickly that what is happening is people are blending it all together,” said Arcuri, who was elected in 2006.

Most troubling in the short term is how few in the caucus of 256 House Democrats understand the emerging 1,000-page bill. Leaders organized a five-hour seminar to brief lawmakers today.

“The bill is so complex,” said Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., a co-author. When staff agreed to hold the session, Rangel said, “Response was overwhelming.”

The House and Senate are working on proposals that would expand coverage to up to 50 million people over the next 10 years, at a cost of about $1 trillion. Obama has insisted that the legislation be deficit-neutral and that it begin to “bend the curve” of skyrocketing health care costs. To that end, Congress is seeking to cut up to $500 billion out of Medicare and Medicaid, while improving their efficiency. The remainder would be covered by tax increases.

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One comment on this story so far. Add yours!

  • greyhound2 on July 27 at 7:20 a.m.

    By the time the stakeholder lobbyists for the AMA, Hospital Assns, insurance and drug companies get done with the health care reform, it will probably look a lot like other reforms like:

    The Prescription Drug giveaway to the drug companies, the Energy Reform giveaway to the oil companies and the Income Tax Reform giveaway to the top 10% income brackets.

    Obama stated he would veto any watered down giveaway bill which reaches his desk. I hope he does what he says.

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