Final vote in a few weeks?

[R13]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Congressional Democrats drew closer on Thursday to agreement on a broad healthcare overhaul that could lead to a final vote in the next few weeks, but vowed not to be bound by White House deadlines.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said there are still issues to work out in the reform package, and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was addressing the concerns "member-by-member."

Still, Democrats said they were close to hammering out the final changes on healthcare issues like taxes and consumer affordability that could break months of legislative gridlock on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

"We have a pretty good idea of where we are going on it," Pelosi told reporters after Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, briefed members on the changes sought by Obama.

"We have to, member-by-member, address the concerns that they raise," Pelosi said.

Obama has pushed hard for a quick final vote on the healthcare overhaul, which has ignited a long-running political brawl with Republican opponents and consumed the U.S. Congress for the last nine months.

Obama met at the White House with members of the black and Hispanic congressional caucuses to keep up his lobbying effort, and will hit the road again next week to sell his plan.

But congressional leaders, who have repeatedly missed deadlines for finishing the overhaul, resisted the latest White House target of finishing work before Obama leaves on an overseas trip on March 18.

Democrats still hope to approve the legislation to expand coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans and regulate insurance industry practices before leaving for a two-week Easter recess on March 26.

"We're not going to set any arbitrary deadlines," Reid said after meeting with Senate Democrats. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs acknowledged it might take Congress a few extra days to finish the bill.

Democrats are awaiting a final cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office on the changes. They hope to keep the total cost at about $950 billion over 10 years -- up from the Senate bill's $875 billion price tag -- and have the bill reduce the deficit by about $100 billion over the same period.

Once the bill and cost estimates are complete, Pelosi said she will give House members one week to study the proposal. "But it is not something that we want to drag out," she said.

HUGE CHALLENGE

Pelosi faces a huge challenge in lining up 216 votes for final passage among Democrats unhappy with key provisions -- particularly language on the ban on federal funding for abortion -- and nervous about November's elections in which Republicans could challenge their control of Congress.

Under a two-step process, House Democrats plan to approve the Senate's version of the bill and make the changes sought by Obama and House Democrats through a separate measure.

That second bill would be passed under budget reconciliation rules requiring only a simple majority in the 100-member Senate, bypassing the need for 60 votes to overcome Republican procedural hurdles.

Reid notified Republicans of the plan and noted they had used the process many times when they were in the majority. "We will finish the job," he told them in a letter.

Republicans said the Senate parliamentarian had ruled that Obama would have to sign the Senate bill into law before Congress could act through reconciliation.

The changes are meant to ease Obama's and House Democrats' concerns about the Senate's version of the bill. They would include expanding subsidies to make insurance more affordable and more state aid for the Medicaid program for the poor.

They would eliminate a controversial Senate deal exempting Nebraska from paying for Medicaid expansion costs, close a "doughnut hole" in prescription drug coverage and modify a January deal on a tax on high-cost health insurance plans.

The bill would extend taxes for Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, to unearned income.

The House and Senate approved separate healthcare reform bills last year, but efforts to merge them into a final product collapsed in January when Democrats lost their crucial 60th vote in a special Senate election in Massachusetts.

Health insurer shares rose. The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor index was up about 1.5 percent and the S&P Managed Health Care index rose about 1.6 percent.

Key issues such as abortion and student loans, remain unresolved. About a dozen anti-abortion Democrats threaten to vote against the final measure unless it strengthens the Senate bill's ban on federal funding for abortions.

"We have a situation on abortion which neither side is particularly happy about. So I don't know how we'll resolve it, but we'll keep looking," said Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Democrats are undecided on whether to attach to the reconciliation package Obama's proposed revamp of the federal student loan program that would boost aid for the neediest students. Reconciliation can only be used on one bill this year and Democrats fear attaching the student-loan provision to the healthcare bill could hurt its chances of approval.

Democrats move closer to healthcare deal - Yahoo! News

[TheBeast]

House Democrats appear set to pass Senate bill without voting on it
By Jon Ward 03/12/10 at 1:24 PM
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks with fellow lawmakers outside the West Wing of the White House after meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010. Left to right are House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., House Education and Labor Chairman Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., Pelosi, House Rules Committee Chairman Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and House Energy and Commerce Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Republicans now expect Democrats to pass health care through the House with a trick only Capitol Hill could dream up: approving the Senate bill without voting on it.

Democrats will vote on a separate bill that includes language stating that the original Senate bill is ?deemed passed.?

So by voting for the first bill ? a reconciliation measure to fix certain things in the Senate bill ? that will automatically pass the second bill ? the original Senate bill ? without a separate roll call taking place.

It?s called the ?Slaughter Solution? (prepare for a weekend of endless TV gabbing about it).

And after debating House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on the chamber floor, Minority Whip Eric Cantor emerged convinced that Democrats are going to use the tactic, and that they won?t allow Republicans, and the public, to see the text of any legislation for 72 hours before a vote.

?I can infer that we?re going to see a rule that will deem the Senate bill as having passed, and at the same time not even have 72 hours to even look at what they are passing,? Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said in an interview outside his office at the Capitol.

?The outrage to me on the part of the public is going to be focused on the fact that there is not even an up or down vote, a clean up or down vote,? Cantor said.

Here?s the reason Democrats are using such a complicated procedure: many in the House completely do not trust the Senate to pass fixes to the bill passed by the Senate in December. But according to the rules of reconciliation, the House must go first in passing the Senate bill and passing a reconciliation fix.

So House Democrats have been searching for a way to alleviate members? concerns that if they vote for the Senate bill and the Senate does nothing to fix it, they will be hung out to dry as having supported a piece of legislation that many across the country dislike, either for spending reasons, or because of special provisions like the extra money for Nebraska?s Medicaid population (the ?Cornhusker kickback?).

Technically, using the ?Slaughter solution,? they?ll never have voted for the bill they find odious, even if their vote on the reconciliation legislation will have been the vote that passed the Senate bill into law.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, alluded to all this at her weekly press conference Friday.

?There are certain assurances that they want and that we will get for them before I ask them to take a vote,? Pelosi said.

The ?Slaughter solution? is named for House Rules Committee Chairman Louise Slaughter, the New York Democrat who came up with the idea. She told the Daily Caller on Thursday that the chances of her procedure being used were ?pretty good.?

Despite doubt among some on Capitol Hill on whether the ?Slaughter solution? was feasible, Cantor expressed no doubt that the tactic could be used.

?It?s a self-executing rule. It is akin to passage but hidden in a rule as a side-note, passing the 2,700-page, $1 trillion bill, oh by the way,? he said.

Hoyer rejected the idea that Republicans have not had enough time to review the legislation.

?You have had months to review the substance of that bill. You don?t like it. We understand. You?re going to oppose it. We understand that as well. The fact of the matter is you cannot say you have had no notice of each and every provision for over two months,? said Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat.

Cantor said he wanted 72 hours to review the final text of the reconciliation bill.

?The reconciliation bill is new text. He claims it?s old hat, but this is clearly where they?re reconciling differences,? Cantor said, expressing concern that Democrats would rush the final text to the House floor for a vote to keep ?sweeteners? used to buy off votes from being discovered.

Democrats are coalescing around a schedule for the bill?s route to the House floor for a vote. They are expecting a final score from the Congressional Budget Office later today.

On Monday, the House Budget Committee will mark the bill up, leading to an expected vote in the Rules Committee on Wednesday, with a final vote by the full House possible next weekend.

The question remains, however, whether Pelosi will even be able to round up enough votes to pass a bill.

Momentum continued to go the wrong direction for her on Friday, as two more Democrats said they are opposed to the bill.

Read more: House Democrats appear set to pass Senate bill without voting on it | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

[R13]

It's about time, pumped about them growing some balls and getting this passed.

[TheBeast]

Yeah let's shove this down their throats the Constitution, what they actually want and the law be damned.

[R13]

Quick question, where has this outrage been when the GOP has used reconciliation 14 out of 22 times since 81'? When it was used for the Bush tax cuts(which we all know who those cuts benefited more), where was your outrage? Were you just biting your tongue then?

[TheBeast]

I have no problem with reconciliation when it is used legally/constitutionally. It has never been used in this way by passing a bill that never gets voted on.

Best quote yet: ?the Democrats have to pass their terrible health care bill so that the American people can actually find out what's in it.? Pelosi

[simple man]

Alt plan?

[simple man]

sorry- double post

[R13]

I have no problem with reconciliation when it is used legally/constitutionally. It has never been used in this way by passing a bill that never gets voted on.

Best quote yet: ?the Democrats have to pass their terrible health care bill so that the American people can actually find out what's in it.? Pelosi

It does get voted on, just not twice by the house, you're acting like this thing will never be voted on any...wrong. And the self-executing rule has been used before, so wrong again.

I hope that was a joke.

[1inStripes]

You hope the Pelosi quote was a joke?