The White House readied its last-ditch effort to salvage health care legislation Sunday while the Senate's Republican leader warned Democrats against the go-it-alone approach.
The White House was expected to post a version of President Barack Obama's plan for overhauling health care on its Web site on Monday, ahead of his critical and daring summit at Blair House on Thursday. The plan, which was likely to be opposed by the GOP, was expected to require most Americans to carry health insurance coverage, with federal subsidies to help many afford the premiums.
Hewing close to a stalled Senate bill, it would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more. The expected price tag is around $1 trillion over 10 years.
The conference at the White House guest residence is to be televised live on C-SPAN and perhaps on cable news networks. It represents a gamble by the administration that Obama can save his embattled overhaul through persuasion — a risky and unusual step.
It was forced on the administration by the Senate special election victory of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown in January. He captured the seat long held by Democrat Edward M. Kennedy, who died last year. Brown's victory reduced the Democrats' majority in the Senate to 59 votes, one shy of the number needed to knock down Republican delaying tactics.
SOURCE: Associated Press > Yahoo News
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Obama paves the way for reconciliation in video address
President Obama’s weekly address to the nation today urged Republicans to come to the bipartisan health care negotiations next week in a “spirit of good faith,” but critics see the plea as just the kind of “political theater” the president condemned in the videotaped message.
“We know the American people want us to reform our health insurance system. We know where the broad areas of agreement are. And we know where the sources of disagreement lie,” the president said.
Absent the necessary votes to overcome a Senate filibuster, the remaining option for the administration is to push the health care reform bill into law using the budget reconciliation process, a legislative procedure that enables the consideration of certain budget-related, contentious bills without the threat of filibuster.
But such an aggressive and unilateral move would likely be highly unpopular, seeing as polls suggest fewer than 40 percent of Americans approve of the president’s handling of health care to this point. That, some suggest, is why the president is attempting to appear ‘above the fray’ with even-handed addresses like this one.
“If the president is sincere about moving forward in a bipartisan fashion, he must take the reconciliation process — which will be used to jam through legislation that a majority of Americans do not want — off the table,” House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said earlier this week.
The warnings do not appear to have fazed top Democrats.
“We’re really trying to move forward on this,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday evening on Face to Face with Jon Ralston in Nevada.
SOURCE: The Daily Caller
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