Obama Makes Last Push for Healthcare Reform
Kenneth T. Walsh

 

Reviving Healthcare Reform

Democrats are considering using the controversial reconciliation process to push through reform

President Obama has begun his last stand on healthcare. "Every idea has been put on the table," he said last week. "Every argument has been made. Everything to say about healthcare has been said, and just about everybody has said it. I believe the United States Congress owes the American people a final vote on healthcare reform."

Obama has taken a year to reach this point. He has long argued that without massive change, the public will face higher premiums, the government will amass more debt, and tens of millions of Americans won't have any health insurance at all. What is new, White House officials say, is the president's acknowledgment that he needs to get a bill passed now or nothing will be done anytime soon. He also has accepted the idea that there probably will be no Republican support so he will have to win passage with only Democratic votes.

This will be a big challenge. Republican legislators so far are united against "Obamacare," which the president's strategists see as part of a larger pattern. "It isn't about policy. It's about politics and a calculation from the Republican leadership that their best bet for their party was to do everything in their power to oppose the president and gum up the works"--all to thwart Obama's ability to govern, says White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer.

Obama began a final campaign-style swing today to promote healthcare legislation with a spirited speech at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania. He promised not to "allow the insurance industry to run wild in this country."

"The United States Congress owes the American people a final up or down vote on healthcare," he said. "It's time to make a decision. The time for talk is over. We need to see where people stand. And we need all of you to help us win that vote. So I need you to knock on doors. Talk to you neighbors. Pick up the phone. When you hear an argument by the water cooler and somebody is saying this or that about it, say, 'No, no, no, no--hold on a second.' And we need you to make your voices heard all the way in Washington, D.C."

He added: "They need to hear your voices because right now the Washington echo chamber is in full throttle. It is as deafening as it's ever been. And as we come to that final vote, that echo chamber is telling members of Congress, wait, think about the politics instead of thinking about doing the right thing."

But the Democrats haven't yet found a way to compromise among themselves on the conflicting House and Senate versions of the bill. One obstacle became clear last week when Rep. Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, told ABC's Good Morning America that 10 to 12 House Democrats, including himself, would probably vote against any healthcare bill that contained liberal provisions allowing federal funding for abortion, which could result in the overall measure's defeat. "I want to see healthcare, but we're not going to bypass some principles that we believe strongly about," Stupak said. Other legislators have equally strong concerns about other provisions.

To facilitate matters, Obama is now backing a controversial procedure in the Senate called "reconciliation," which would allow for revisions to the healthcare legislation to pass with only a bare 51-vote majority instead of the supermajority of 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans say the Democrats will pay a severe price if they ram a bill through in this way because most Americans oppose the Democrats' approach, according to the polls. "Every election in America this fall will be a referendum on this issue," McConnell told reporters, and many Democratic strategists agree that the healthcare question might make it tougher for them to hold on to their majorities in the House and Senate.

But Obama strategists say failure to pass a healthcare bill would be the worst of all worlds. They note that the Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the White House, and if they can't push their top domestic priority through, voters will wonder if they are capable of governing under any circumstances.

 

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Healthcare Reform - Obama Makes Last Push for Healthcare Reform | Kenneth T. Walsh

 

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