Obama May Abandon Effort to Reach Health Bargain With Republicans
The president and his advisers have started devising a strategy to pass a measure by relying only on the Democratic majority in each house of Congress, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In a separate interview, former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle said Obama is losing patience with negotiations between three Democrats and three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, the only congressional panel seeking a bipartisan consensus on a plan to remake the nations health- care system.
“Hes waited and waited,” Daschle said yesterday after meeting with the president. “He has indicated, much to the chagrin of people in his party, that virtually everythings on the table. And hes gotten almost nothing in return for it.”
A move by Democrats to seek a partisan bill may provoke a backlash from Republicans and weaken public support for the health-care overhaul, Obamas top domestic priority. It might also result in watered-down legislation.
Former Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole told reporters earlier this summer that while he believed the Democrats could pass a bill on a party-line vote, it would be a mistake.
“If theres not a Senate Republican vote for the package, then the American people are going to be very skeptical,” Dole said.
Pressing for Legislation
Obama, who declared Aug. 20 “were going to get this done one way or another,” is pressing the lawmakers to revamp a health-care system that accounts for about a sixth of the nations economy and leaves about 46 million people uninsured.
The effort has been stalled by debates over whether to create a government-run insurance program to compete with private insurers, mandate that employers cover workers, and impose potentially unpopular new taxes, from a surtax on the richest Americans to a levy on the most-generous health plans.
While three House committees and one Senate panel have passed legislation, talks among the so-called Gang of Six negotiators on the Senate Finance Committee have dragged on for months. Senate Democrats such as Charles Schumer of New York have said that if the negotiators cant strike a deal by Sept. 15, the party may go it alone.
Holding Out Hope
Yet Daschle said, “theres a realization that we have to be prepared for a Plan B” — a legislative maneuver known as reconciliation.
That process allows the Senate to pass, with 51 votes instead of 60 typically needed for contentious legislation, measures intended to cut the federal budget deficit either through spending cuts or tax increases.
While the Democrats control 60 seats in the Senate, enough to quash Republican efforts to block action on the bill, they cant rely on all those votes because of the illnesses of two lawmakers, Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Robert Byrd of West Virginia.
Reconciliation is complicated, though “its not without precedent,” Daschle said. He said both across-the-board tax cuts during President George W. Bushs first term were enacted through the process.
Feeling Left Out
The other finance committee negotiators are Democrats Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. Annoyance has grown among some senators who feel excluded. One lawmaker, John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, has publicly criticized the Baucus-led talks.
“There are 94 other senators that probably want to be involved in this process,” Daschle said.