Pelosi Says Democrats to Have Votes for Health Bill (Update2)
By Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, still shoring up support for legislation to overhaul the U.S. health- care system, vowed that Democrats will be ready to pass the bill when the time comes.
“When we bring the bill to the floor, we will have the votes,” Pelosi told reporters yesterday. Leaders plan for the House to vote later this week, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters today.
Representative John Larson of Connecticut, chairman of the House Democratic caucus, agreed that the leadership will get enough votes, although he said, there’s “tremendous anticipation and certainly anxiety” among lawmakers.
Democrats are awaiting a cost estimate for the legislation from the Congressional Budget Office that they had expected as early as last week. They’re looking for the CBO to determine that their bill can reduce the federal budget deficit.
The plan calls for the biggest changes to the U.S. medical system since the Medicare program for the elderly was created in 1965. Americans would be required to get insurance, with subsidies and purchasing exchanges to help. Insurers such as Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. would get millions of new policyholders and be required to accept all customers.
Avoiding a Vote?
Democrats are trying to pass the legislation over the unanimous opposition of Republicans and polls that show public opinion against them.
The House has to approve an $875 billion bill the Senate passed in December and clear a set of changes to that measure through a process called reconciliation. The changes are needed because House Democrats object to parts of the Senate bill. The Senate would then pass the reconciliation bill.
Pelosi may try to shield her members from a vote on the Senate bill by using a mechanism that would “deem” the legislation passed without a full vote.
That idea drew fire from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who said today the Democrats had “concocted a way to pass it without actually casting a vote on it.”
“The plan that Speaker Pelosi has hatched for getting this bill through is to try to pull the wool over the eyes of the public,” McConnell, of Kentucky, said on the Senate floor.
Waiting for Leadership
Democrats say the procedure is common and has been used more by Republicans than their own party. Pelosi said yesterday no decision would be made until members can see a CBO cost estimate and legislative language.
“When we have the substance, then we will decide on the process,” the California Democrat said. “But that would be one option; there are others.”
President Barack Obama, in a speech yesterday, focused on the benefits Americans would see immediately after the bill became law and called on lawmakers to have the “courage” to vote for it.
“They’re waiting for us to lead,” Obama said of the American people during his visit to Strongsville, Ohio. “They don’t want us reading polls. They want us to look and see what is the best thing for America and then do what’s right.”
Obama delayed a planned trip to Indonesia and Australia this week to keep up pressure for passage before Congress leaves March 26 for a two-week recess.
He traveled yesterday with Representative Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat who voted against the House’s version of a health-care bill last November. The legislation lacked the type of government-run health-care program Kucinich supports. Obama said he and Kucinich talked about the issue aboard Air Force One.
Winning Over Lawmakers
Kucinich told a reporter at the Cleveland airport he wouldn’t comment on his current position on the bill.
Obama and Pelosi probably have to win over lawmakers who voted against the original House legislation because of vacancies and provisions in the Senate bill opposed by some Democrats. Among other things, they are battling concerns about abortion funding and a new student-loan provision added to the measure.
Democrats are using reconciliation, which is designed for budget matters, because it only requires a simple majority vote in the Senate. Most major legislation needs 60 votes in that chamber, and Democrats control 59 seats.
The House Democratic leadership is working with the CBO to make sure the reconciliation legislation meets “the precise requirements” for deficit reduction, Hoyer told reporters last night.
Starting the Process
The House Budget Committee kicked off the process of moving the reconciliation legislation yesterday, with a 21-16 vote to advance instructions for a package to the Rules Committee. Two Democrats who opposed the original House bill, Allen Boyd of Florida and Chet Edwards of Texas, voted against it.
The meeting was a formality because actual language for reconciliation won’t be put forth until later this week.
Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan, the panel’s top Republican, said the placeholder language was a “legislative Trojan horse” that begins an unprecedented drive to push through legislation affecting one-sixth of the economy.
“We begin the final chapter of this health-care debacle,” Ryan said.
The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops yesterday reiterated the group’s opposition to the Senate bill because of concerns it would allow federal funds to be used for purchasing insurance that included coverage for abortions. The original House bill would have banned that possibility.
Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, said in a statement that while the conference has “long and consistently advocated for the reform of the American health-care system,” the group “regretfully” urged opposition to the bill in its present form.
Traders on Intrade, an online exchange for futures contracts on political outcomes, placed 77 percent odds on Obama’s health-care plan becoming law by June 30.
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