House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she is through making deals with the various disgruntled factions of her caucus and will push ahead with president’s health plan. Pelosi will, however, try to help Democrats take cover if they vote for the bill.
As Democratic leaders ratchet up pressure in an effort to find 216 votes needed to pass President Obama’s health plan, they are also trying to spare members from having to take a recorded vote on the bill, which was written by the Senate and is unpopular in national polls.
Democratic leaders are now devising a legislative tactic that would allow them to take a vote on a bill that makes changes to the Senate plan without ever voting on the Senate bill itself. Republicans are in an uproar of the proposal, which would “deem” the Senate bill passed, even though lawmakers will not actually put their names on the record in favor of it.
“That would be one option,” Pelosi confirmed Monday. “We have several.”
House Republicans decried the plan as “subterfuge” and said it would prevent any debate on the bill on the House floor.
“Every amount of energy that is being applied today is trying to avoid the accountability from an up or down vote on this process,” said Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., the top Republican on the House Rules Committee, which is stacked 9-4 in favor of Democrats. It will decide as early as Wednesday whether to use such a tactic to pass the bill.
Despite behind-the-scenes hints Congress will vote on the bill by this weekend, Pelosi declined to say when the House will take up the bill, pointing out that members have not seen the bill language or a price tag from the Congressional Budget Office.
The timeline depends almost entirely on whether she can round up some “yes” votes from a long list of undecided lawmakers. A few more Democrats on Monday signaled they would vote against it, including Reps. Allen Boyd, of Florida, and Chet Edwards of Texas, two Democrats to vote against a placeholder version of the bill as it moved through the Budget Committee on Monday. Another Democrat, Scott Murphy of New York said, he might change is mind and vote for it.
Democrats could take up the president’s plan as early as this weekend, but they face potential opposition from the left and right flanks of their 253-member caucus. Pro-life Democrats are threatening to vote against it because they believe the bill would fund abortions with federal dollars and members of the Hispanic caucus may hold back support because they want the bill to allow illegal immigrants to participate in newly created health care exchanges.
Pelosi said she can’t fix those problems, because in order to circumvent Senate rules allowing a minority filibuster Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is using a legislative maneuver that limits what kind of issues can be considered.
“What we are talking about here is passing this bill,” Pelosi said at an event with staged with a large group of young mothers and their children that was aimed at touting the health care reform bill’s benefits. “It is not about abortion and it is not about immigration.”
