Obama, Democrats Consider Bypassing Republicans On Health Care
The options include passing a bill with just a few Republican votes or passing a bill using the so-called reconciliation process, which would require only 51 votes, said Schumer, a Democrat. The president and his advisers have started devising a strategy to pass a measure by relying only on the Democratic majority in each house of Congress, according to a source who spoke last week on condition of anonymity.
A move by Democrats to seek a partisan bill may provoke a backlash from Republicans and weaken public support for a health-care overhaul, Obamas top domestic priority. It might also result in watered-down legislation.
Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican who also appeared on the program, said passing a bill on reconciliation would be “an abuse of the process.”
Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, speaking on CNN, called it “a real mistake to try to jam through” the total health overhaul package when the public is “nervous” about it.
Lieberman, an independent, favors an incremental approach to health care overhaul, comparing it with other great changes such as the civil rights movement. He said the focus should be on bringing down costs.
Public Option
While the Democrats control 60 seats in the Senate, enough to quash Republican efforts to block action on the bill, they cant rely on all those votes because of the illnesses of two lawmakers, Senators Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Robert Byrd of West Virginia.
The overhaul effort has been stalled by debates over whether to create a government-run insurance program to compete with private insurers, a mandate that employers cover workers, and disagreement over whether to impose potentially unpopular new taxes that could include a surtax on the richest Americans or a levy on the most generous health plans.
Americans are “rightly skeptical” about the presidents plan and a price tag that could reach $1 trillion, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Litmus Test
“They have produced a measure that they cannot sell even to their own members,” the Kentucky Republican said in an e- mailed statement. “Wed like to start over with a genuine bipartisan approach,” he said, citing bipartisan agreement on ending junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals, promoting wellness programs and creating tax advantages for individuals who purchase insurance.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats have called the public option essential to any final bill. Obama, at an Aug. 15 town hall meeting in Colorado, said the public option is “just one sliver of” health legislation.
Bringing Competition
Schumer said that Obama isnt backing away from the public option.
“I believe at the end of the day well have a public option,” he said. “What is the way to bring costs down? The good old-fashioned way is to bring competition,” said Schumer. “It is indeed essential to getting the costs down, which is our number one problem.”
Hatch said he hopes Obama will drop the effort.
“The president realizes the public option isnt the last answer to everything,” he said. “If we go to a public option, tens of millions of people will go into the government plan.”
“The costs of the government plan will be astronomical,” and those costs will be transferred to individuals who have private insurance, he said.