CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
– HEALTH
Aug. 4, 2009 – 3:34 p.m.
Obama Gives Democrats Health Care Pep Talk
By Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff
President Obama gave Senate Democrats a pep talk on their health care overhaul efforts Tuesday as the lawmakers prepare to counter blistering attacks from Republicans over the August recess.
“We’re ready to take on the world,” Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., said after Obama hosted the full Democratic Caucus at a White House lunch.
Reid said the meeting gave Democrats a chance to reflect on their accomplishments so far in 2009 and to prepare to rally support for completing a health care overhaul later this year.
“In spite of the loud, shrill voices trying to interrupt town hall meetings and just try to throw a monkey wrench into everything, we’re going to continue to be positive and work hard,” Reid said, referring to protests at Democratic town hall meetings on health care in Texas, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
At the president’s invitation, Senate Democrats scrapped their usual party lunch in the Mansfield Room just off the Senate chamber to dine at the White House with the president on Obama’s 48th birthday.
“It was a good spirit in there, and I don’t think it was just because it’s the president’s birthday,” White House senior adviser David Axelrod told reporters gathered outside the West Wing.
The meeting clearly was designed to get Democrats working from a common playbook over the August recess. Centrist party members in both chambers have become increasingly skittish about details of the health care bill and its price tag, as Republicans have kept up withering attacks on both.
A significant number of fiscally conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats voted against the House health care bill (
“There was absolute unity in the caucus,” Reid said of the Senate Democrats, adding that Obama received several standing ovations. “Different ideas were expressed, but every idea was that we understand that before year’s end, we’re going to have comprehensive health care reform.”
Still Seeking Bipartisan Bill
Reid said the White House and Senate Democrats agreed that they would pass a bipartisan bill if that were “in any way humanly possible.”
“We don’t want to do a partisan bill, and we hope our Republican colleagues acknowledge that,” he said. “We’ll continue to work with them as long as we have to. The American people want health care reform, and we’re going to do health care reform.”
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus , D-Mont., said Obama did not pressure him to move faster on getting a proposal through his committee. Baucus has been negotiating for weeks with two other Finance panel Democrats and three committee Republicans, including ranking member Charles E. Grassley of Iowa.
“In fact, he was very thankful for us working to get a bipartisan bill,” Baucus said.
After returning to Capitol Hill, Baucus said, “If it gets to the point where we can’t get an agreement on a bipartisan basis, then we’ll have to look at other alternatives. I mean, we all agree that that’s necessary. We can’t keep talking forever.”
He added, “We need an internal deadline and we will have one. It’s not right to set hard external deadlines, but it is important to have deadlines to force results. The world is somewhat run by deadlines.”
Baucus had discussed a Sept. 15 deadline for a deal with the small group of Finance Committee negotiators, but he backed off publicly after the Republican participants objected. The White House has set no hard deadlines.
“Sometime around the middle of September, we may have to have some serious discussions of what’s next,” Baucus said.
Reconciliation a Last Resort
Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin , D-Ill., said use of the budget reconciliation process to get a health care bill through the Senate was discussed only as a last resort.
“It is an option, but it’s not a first option,” Durbin said. “We want to try bipartisanship, but we’re not going to let this go down.”
Reconciliation bills can pass the Senate with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes needed to thwart blocking tactics by the opposition.
Democrats theoretically control 60 votes in the Senate, but the absence of Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass., and Robert C. Byrd , D-W.Va., leaves them short of that number as a practical matter.
Christopher J. Dodd , D-Conn., who has led the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s health bill efforts in Kennedy’s absence, said his committee members were “ready and willing, of course, to sit down and meld our legislation” with whatever bill Baucus’ panel finally produces, and then to “begin to work with the House” on a final product.
Baucus said Obama motivated Senate Democrats to sell a health care overhaul over the recess. “We’re going to get health care reform passed this year, working together,” he insisted.
Meanwhile, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., said he welcomed the forced delay imposed by the August recess, which the Senate begins at the end of this week.
“All indications are at this point that the American people would like for us to slow down and try to get this right, because of the magnitude of it,” McConnell said. “So August will be a good opportunity for all of us, regardless of what our leanings may be on how to deal with this issue, to go home, interact with our constituents, and come back here in September with a stronger understanding of exactly where the American people might be on this most important issue.”
Bart Jansen, Richard Rubin and Adriel Bettelheim contributed to this story.
Comments
A majority American people both Democrat and Republican, are saying No to the Health Bill! Why are the politicians still trying to push through what the people don't want? We don't buy this left right paradyne political sell out anymore and don't want "Elitist" Government dictating to us! While we are at it we may as well Audit and abolish The Fed! The People Tell everyone you know about HR 1207 and S 604 ask them to support the bills and to contact their representative as well. Link to this page and to CampaignForLiberty.com. Link: http://www.ronpaul.com/on-the-issues/audit-the-federal-reserve-hr-1207/
Well, Paul Revere, you can get on your horse and ride off in all directions, but in fact more than 70% of Americans do want health care reform. I live in a fairly small town in a mixed area (rural and conservative, but not as much as before--majority voted for Obama). I went to a town hall led by my senator this weekend and only a small minority wanted no change at all. There were several tea-bagger types in the audience but of four possible outcomes--status quo, single payer, public option, only insurance company policies--the majority voted for a mixture of private insurance and public (govt.) option. Change IS coming--remember that the Republicans cried wolf over Social Security in the 30s and Medicare in the 60s, and few of them would want to give those up now.
According to the scoring of CBO on the prevention & wellness program, all fitness centers around the world should close down immediately and all media have to end reporting health tips about prevention. Immune System & Levee System : All of the excellent health systems seem to have one thing in common, a expansive, systematic preventative program requiring immense investments. I think a prevention system works as a 'levee' built against flood by the government, similarly, it also needs non-profit investments from the government 'on a large scale'. This might offer us the clue of why all of the free states have public insurance policy in place. It won't be easy to draw some specific numbers on the economic effect of the 'levee' , but the flood measure lacking a stable 'levee' would be a house on sand, as the too high level of 'preventable' chronic diseases in America shows. At present, about 75 percent of each health dollar goes to treating chronic conditions. When tests reveal patients are at risk of a chronic disease, physicians have no benefit to help them make necessary changes to stay healthy. Rather, the system today is designed around treating patients once they become sick. If current health care system could shift a small percentage of total spending into programs that help prevent people from getting sick in the first place, in combination with the KEY 'pay for OUTCOME' reimbursement reform based on IT SYSTEM, it would dramatically reduce the overall cost of care. Thankfully, the health care reform bill currently before Congress makes several key investments in preventive care, and those pieces of the PUBLIC OPTION must be maintained. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.", said Benjamin Franklin , and 'Early Detection' goes beyond monetary value as we see the recent case. As far as I'm concerned, the congress affected by the special interests has impeded the budget request for prevention program in Medicare & Medicaid. Let's imagine the costs and invaluable lives following the levee breach. Time is ripe for CHANGE ! To see the forest, get a big picture, massive job creation, promising stem cell research, several times more economic effects of 'from bed to work' , relief on the mental stress and keep-eating-habit caused by deep-seated financial anxiety, which are the epicenter of a number of different diseases, and beyond lie ahead, to be sure. Thank You !
-Scare tactics from verbal to physical- 1. 'Takeover and Rationing Cliche' lost ground, as this spoiled menu did the opposite for too long. Like freedom of press, Public Well-being as a right, a nation took root in every free nation as a natural part of life. The debate about it is most likely to puzzle people all around the free states. And with so many people uninsured or underinsured, the humanitarian foreign aid ahead will confuse them, too. 2. Arbitrary Market Theory, Not Fair Market Theory, should not apply to a fundamental human right. This last spring, due to the demand decrease, the peak fuel price came down below $40 per barrel, though, the 'Similar' insurance premiums keep on rising, accordingly the inaction could bankrupt family, business, and government 'BEYOND this recession' , as all across the spectrum agree. Basically, as demand diminish, the price tends to reflect it, nonetheless, the insurers that formed a cartel through consolidation have replenished the loss by exercising inhumane malpractices involving denying, capping, rapid premium increase and the like. And this runaway premium ended up in the collapse of middle class ranging from finance to mental health, alongside the peak fuel price and fast-growing mortgage rate, as all of us know. They could be cited as an objective for anti-trust or anti-corruption. 3. The Deficit-sensitive groups have a distinctive common ground, they all have a Deficit-driven background out of question. Therefore, I'd say they have nothing to say about deficit unless they come up with a legitimate plan. 4. These Deficit-sensitive and yet Deficit-driven allies struggle to ignore the positive effects involving massive job creation, promising stem cell research, several times more economic effects of 'from bed to work' , relief on the mental stress and keep-eating-habit caused by the deep-seated financial anxiety, which are the epicenter of a number of different diseases, and beyond, as in the case of sustainable energy investments & the following savings. 5. To see the forest, get a big picture, it might be a way to go. German firms on Monday 13 July launched a renewable energy project designed to provide European households with electricity from the Sahara. Utilities giants RWE and E.ON, electro-engineering group Siemens and Deutsche Bank are among the dozen companies involved in the 400- billion-euro (552-billion US-Dollar) Desertec Industrial Initiative Dii. Using high voltage direct current transmission lines, the energy could then be transferred to Europe where it could supply 15 per cent of the continent's electricity needs.
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