For Senate Democrats, the goal of a bipartisan health care reform bill is slipping away, leaving them with the seemingly impossible challenge of finding enough lawmakers within their own party to agree on legislation this summer.
“The Senate is not going to pass a bill before the August recess,” declared Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., a top Republican on the Senate health care committee.
Democrats, under pressure from the Obama administration, are searching for any combination of Republicans and Democrats to “find a way to 60 votes,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., met privately with a handful of Republicans to insist that he wants a bipartisan bill, but the four GOP lawmakers who attended are unlikely to back the creation of a public insurance option, which is the centerpiece of one of two Democratic proposals being drafted this week.
“If it has a government option in it, virtually every Republican will vote against it,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah., who attended the meeting. “It’s a nonstarter.”
Democrats have little room for negotiation. If they take out the public option in favor of a health insurance co-operative owned by the people it insures, they stand to lose as many as 15 Democratic votes.
“The co-op plan doesn’t work for what we need,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
Democrats are anxious to come up with at least 60 votes in support of a health care bill, but could force through a measure on a 51-vote majority using the parliamentary tactic of budget reconciliation. But with 60 Democratic senators, such an end run would be politically embarrassing.
One of the biggest points of disagreement among Democrats is how to pay for the massive health care expansion, which comes with a price tag of more than $2 trillion, according to some estimates.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., had been drafting a proposal that would tax some health care benefits, an idea that might have attracted some Republican votes. But new polls show stiff public resistance to that idea.
“I don’t see it has having any viability,” said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., a top negotiator.
Republicans say they are ready to work with Democrats, but only if they take the government-run option off the table. “We believe a government-run plan can only have one single purpose, which is leading to a single-payer system,” Gregg said. “But otherwise we are open to other proposals.”
Baucus, who is working with Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, to come up with the bipartisan bill, said the two continued to meet in an effort to come up with a compromise. But Baucus was far less confident of Congress completing a bill by the October deadline President Barack Obama has set.
“It’s a goal,” he said. “We’ll see.”
