Report: Dems near deal on ObamaCare before health-care summit?
posted at 2:35 pm on February 17, 2010 by Allahpundit
Here’s the state of play. Right now, leadership aides say, the White House is in talks with House and Senate leaders over the so-called “Cadillac” tax. The House wants the threshold tweaked to make it more palatable to Dem members who oppose it. Some Senators adamantly oppose this. But the leadership is discussing various tweaks that could work.
Crucially, the House leadership may sign on to the compromise even without a tweak to the Cadillac tax, according to a senior leadership aide. That’s because the compromise is not going to be voted on — it’s merely to create something to take to the summit. So this logjam may still get resolved in time…
Meanwhile, Senate Dem leaders are warming to the use of “reconciliation” to fix their bill after the summit, a senior Senate aide says.
“We’re getting closer,” the Senate aide says of reconciliation, adding that the leadership is more likely to pursue that course if the summit doesn’t yield any kind of compromise with Republicans, as expected. “People want to get rid of health care. They want it off the agenda. The simplest answer is that reconciliation may be the most expedient way to do it.”
In other words, instead of bargaining with the GOP from scratch — as Boehner and Cantor initially insisted and as 57 percent of the public wants, per yesterday’s Zogby poll — The One’s going to do the opposite by walking in, pushing a fake deal in front of the GOP, and declaring before the cameras that America’s health-care problems can now be solved unless the “party of no” insists on further obstructionism. And if they do, of course, he’ll have no choice but to save America by ramming the bill through in reconciliation. It’s not a negotiation, in other words, it’s an opportunity to frame a blame-placing narrative in which evil conservatives unite to block some sort of phony legislative deus ex machina. Which makes me wonder: Were Ed and I wrong that the GOP should attend no matter what? I think showing up and calling Obama out on this charade is more effective than a boycott, but I’m open to persuasion. Dazzle me.
Bear this in mind, though, if you’re counting on some sort of further public backlash over O-Care and the Democrats’ tactics. According to PPP, the vast majority of people opposed to the Dems’ health-care bills have already made up their minds not to vote for them in November. They’ve taken most of the hit that they’re going to take from this, in other words. In which case, why not cowboy up and go ahead with reconciliation? If you’re going to screw the public, might as well screw ‘em hard.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2 3
Here is my shot
Congress wants this off the agenda? Well an even faster way than reconciliation is apparent, drop it all together. The Senate Dems want this to go away, not the Rs, if the R’s are willing to totally douche chill O on his summit, I bet plenty of Ds will be willing to go along. At this point rebelling against the 1 might be all that saves them. The air has been sucked out of Ocare, most libs are over it.
The other problem is that using reconciliation on this bill might be challenged in court, as it requires policy alteration extraneous to future outlays. You can’t do what Ocare wants in recon, stopping denials of preexisting conditions. It also makes virtually any other piece of legislation impossible, the Rs will use every senate procedural hurdle, ie forcing all bills and amendments to be read in their entirety.
Dazzled?
snoopicus on February 17, 2010 at 4:49 PM
The individual mandate will be challenged by a new VA law and an AZ constitutional amendment to be voted on this fall. Other states are amending their constitutions to give citizens the right not to be forced to enter into a contract.
There is also a Takings challenge by the insurers. The bills include caps on insurance company profits which can be challenged under current precedent as a taking of property without just compensation.
This mess could be tied up in the courts for years, but the Dems would keep setting up the bureaucracy. The GOP could refuse to appropriate any money for it if they took back the House, and see what Obama and the Senate Dems do.
Wethal on February 17, 2010 at 4:56 PM
Screw the economy, screw the American people, screw our health care and throw in national security while they’re at it. Don’t know if they have a plan for November or not, as they’re not such hotshots at planning, or else the plan would have been passed last year.
Kissmygrits on February 17, 2010 at 4:57 PM
How does one reconcile the revenue and spending amounts of a bill that doesn’t exist yet?
anuts on February 17, 2010 at 5:05 PM
Wethal on February 17, 2010 at 4:38 PM
–Most states already have adopted medical malpractice reforms, including non-economic damage caps. See http://www.atra.org/reforms I clicked on twelve states randomly and eight already cap non-economic damages.
Jimbo3 on February 17, 2010 at 5:09 PM
–You have the House bill and the Senate bills.
Jimbo3 on February 17, 2010 at 5:10 PM
I hope they have a golden parachute of say wheels up to a Caribbean retreat 5 minutes after they do this. Me thinks going home after a stunt like this would be seriously uncomfortable for them (Tar and feathers come to mind).
chemman on February 17, 2010 at 5:11 PM
–Well, then let the GOP show up and say what they’re willing to support.
Jimbo3 on February 17, 2010 at 5:11 PM
–I’d prefer they didn’t. But I’m okay with it if the GOP won’t come to the table.
Jimbo3 on February 17, 2010 at 5:12 PM
Not only that but this is Obama’s meeting. IOW: He talks, they listen. He is shot from cameras placed down low, shooting up, back lit so as to appear to have a halo. The chastised republicans are shot from the back of the room (so of course, all we see are the backs of their balding heads–Senator Boxer included.)
This is a train wreck in the making. Repubs need to stay away! They also need to send another strongly worded letter like they did before, but this time, get a freakin’ spine and stick to their guns!
Chewy the Lab on February 17, 2010 at 5:14 PM
Which one passed both?
anuts on February 17, 2010 at 5:17 PM
The House bill passed the House. The Senate bill (not bills, sorry) passed the Senate, anuts.
Jimbo3 on February 17, 2010 at 5:23 PM
YOU WERE *W*R*O*N*G*.
Go ahead, just list a handful of Republicans who would theoretically attend and just what they would say that would be – in the eyes of the American public – an effective “slap in the face” to Obama and his policy.
FORGET IT.
Unless there is a Republican (I doubt it, can ya tell?!) with a hidden trump “speech/phrase” – and here’s the other sarcastic-but-realistic qualifier – that the Lamestream Media will play, you can forget about such a High Noon confrontation.
Based on such feigned naivete, I’m still not convinced that Allahpundit isn’t auditioning for a position at The New York Times or some such venue.
Lockstein13 on February 17, 2010 at 5:25 PM
They weren’t invited to the table in the first place.
So it’s okay for the party in power to dictate policy without caring what the people want, right?
Juno77 on February 17, 2010 at 5:36 PM
So amendments can still be added from the other chamber, right?
anuts on February 17, 2010 at 5:37 PM
From http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33011.html
Myth No. 1: Republicans were sidelined in Congress
“We weren’t even involved in this process; we weren’t even asked.” — Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in a Jan. 24 appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union”
The way many Senate Democrats saw it, Republicans had more influence last summer in writing the Finance Committee bill than they did.
Until September, two of the Senate’s most conservative members and moderate Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) helped pull the bill further and further away from the liberal Democratic ideal. Snowe and Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Mike Enzi of Wyoming spent 63 hours negotiating with Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and two other moderate Democrats, Sens. Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico.
Hatch himself participated in the talks until July.
If anyone was sidelined at this stage of the health care reform debate, it was progressives, whose impatience with the bipartisan process often boiled over when Baucus met with Democratic Finance Committee members during tense private sessions.
And in public, Obama bucked up the bipartisan approach. He spoke by phone daily with Baucus throughout the hot summer negotiations, invited the Gang of Six into the Oval Office for updates and defended the bipartisan talks at a particularly critical juncture. During an August visit to Montana, Obama embraced Baucus’s strategy — at a time when most congressional Democrats were furious about it.
To be fair, there was no comparable outreach in the House, where the Democratic chairmen of the three relevant committees did not engage in bipartisan negotiations.
“Individual members working together is a very different process than the leadership sitting down” with Republicans, said David Winston, a political consultant who advises House Republican leaders.
Jimbo3 on February 17, 2010 at 5:51 PM
–I think so.
Jimbo3 on February 17, 2010 at 5:52 PM
I don’t think that the GOP should go. I do think that they should send a counter offer to negotiate. In the counter offer they should state that they trust the judgment of the hard working, intelligent, American people, and that is why they cannot vote for ObamaCare. The people don’t want it therefore, as their Constitutionally elected representatives they cannot and will not vote for ObamaCare. If the Dems really want to include the GOP in the health care debate it must be on an even footing, otherwise it thwarts the wishes of the American people. Therefore ObamaCare must be tossed out, because the intelligent American People want a bipartisan reform. The Dems did not value bipartisanship until, as a result of Brown’s election, it was required. The American people have always valued bipartisanship, therefore the GOP should be willing to meet with the Dems as equals. And therefore will not show up at a theater after the Dems have made all the decisions on the health care bill, as that would thwart the wishes of the American people. And the intelligent American people would see though such a charade.
——————————
In short – the GOP should keep hitting the points that:
1. The American people don’t want ObamaCare.
2. The GOP is the party of NO, because that is what the American people want.
3. The Dems are the condescending, nanny party. The party that does not trust the American people. The party that won’t listen to their people even when the people are shouting at them.
HIT BACK!!
4of8 on February 17, 2010 at 5:59 PM
So nothing final exists to be voted on. That makes it somewhat difficult to reconcile spending and revenue amounts, does it not?
anuts on February 17, 2010 at 6:00 PM
No, if the House amends the bill, it must go back to the Senate for a new vote, which must pass the 60-vote requirement.
Reconcilation applies to a bill that has already been passed in identical form in both houses. Thus, the House must pass the Senate version unchanged, that is, with the Cornhusker Kickback, Louisian Purcahse, etc.
Once both houses pass the same bill, then they move to reconciliation, which has limits on what matters can be addressed. That’s the rules, assuming they follow them.
Wethal on February 17, 2010 at 6:03 PM
They already have shown Obama what they’ll support. The House GOP held up their bill during the Obama Show in the joint session. He knows what they will and won’t support. This summit is a PR farce.
Wethal on February 17, 2010 at 6:05 PM
So Again, it’s okay for the party in power to dictate policy without caring what the people want, right?
Juno77 on February 17, 2010 at 6:08 PM
Only problem with ‘reconciliation’ is that, like Barry’s promises, it comes with an expiration date.
GarandFan on February 17, 2010 at 6:39 PM
So– Democrat hate is already baked in, therefore they can just do what ever they feel like? Doesn’t quite work that way, but they can make noises if they like.
leftnomore on February 17, 2010 at 6:39 PM
Will you please send this suggestion, along with your resume to the minority leadership and ask for a position as a strategist for them? Also, copy Michael Steele.
This is exactly what I was talking about at
Chewy the Lab on February 17, 2010 at 7:02 PM
Read your own links sometime. As has been pointed out, there was no Dem outreach to Repubs in 4 out of the 5 committees that drafted the bills in the two houses. The only one with any Repub representation was Senate Finance and Snowe voted to pass it out of committee.
The Repubs were shut out, except where they worked together with the Dems (aka bipartisanship). Deal with it and quit repeating your whiny legalistic BS on every health care thread.
Missy on February 17, 2010 at 7:54 PM
Ooh, states should be encouraged! And Congress should consider! Now that’s medical malpractice reform with teeth, right there!
Missy on February 17, 2010 at 8:02 PM
The House would first still have to vote on the Senate bill before anything else can happen and there’s no way, no way, house congresscritters are going to vote to pass this POS after Brown and Bayh and Christie and all the other electoral events of the past month or so. We’re now that much closer to November, house races are shaping up already, and they’re not going to support POTUS or Pelosi or Reid, all with plunging poll numbers, by signing their own electoral death warrant. Nancy’s done if she tries to bring this to a vote.
PatMac on February 17, 2010 at 9:06 PM
I don’t believe they have the votes either. This is just bluster and fear tactics employed by the loser liberals. The GOP should have a press conference and just tell the President if he won’t start over as the American People have asked, then he can forget his pointless photo op summit.
dogsoldier on February 18, 2010 at 7:33 AM
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2 3