U.s. Senators Ask For More Time to Work On Health-care Overhaul
In a letter sent yesterday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, six senators who have cast deciding votes in previous legislative battles said the impact of the legislation will “last for generations,” and that it is “imperative to proceed thoughtfully and responsibly.”
Obama, in remarks at the White House yesterday, urged lawmakers to press ahead and held firm to his timetable for action in the House and Senate before Congress recesses in August.
“The last few miles of any race are the hardest to run,” Obama said. “Now is not the time to slow down.”
Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat who was among those signing the letter to Reid and McConnell, said in an interview yesterday that he fears health-care legislation will fail to win bipartisan support if more time isnt taken to address cost- saving measures. Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf has said the current House and Senate bills would not rein in health-care spending.
“Theres common ground in making sure that we dont rush to something that just simply cant get bipartisan support,” said Nelson. He advised Obama to forget about an August deadline for passing bills in the Senate and House and drop the bid for a government-run insurance option, a hallmark of the presidents proposal.
Class Warfare
“I just dont see how thats going to work,” Nelson, 68, said after meeting yesterday with Obama at the White House. He was also critical of a House measure that would fund the program with a surtax on couples making more than $350,000 a year, calling it a form of “class warfare.”
Nelsons advice could be critical as the Senate Finance Committee works to produce a bill that could garner some bipartisan backing.
Obama, in his remarks yesterday, said there was more work to do on cost-cutting measures and repeated his stance that the legislation would not add to the deficit.
Two House committees early yesterday approved overhaul legislation that includes the proposed surtax of as much as 5.4 percent on the nations wealthiest households to pay for it.
The measure must now be voted on by a third House panel, the Energy and Commerce Committee, which began debate on it yesterday. House Democratic leaders expect to win approval of the bill by the full House before the August recess.
Senators who joined Nelson in signing the letter urging more time in their chamber for crafting an overhaul plan were Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut.
The letter underscored the peril Obama faces on the health care issue.
If he sacrifices the so-called public option insurance program, he risks a backlash from progressives in the Democratic Party such as Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and one- time Democratic National Committee chairman who recently threatened to challenge the re-election of Democrats who dont support that proposal.
And if Obama allows the August deadline he imposed to slip, he may risk greater odds the entire initiative will implode as critics are given more time to argue against it.
Bipartisanship
It is crucial for the legislation to be bipartisan, said Senator Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat who sits on the Finance Committee. “For it to be sustainable in the long term, theres got to be some measure of Republican support for this,” he said.
At the same time, the odds of crafting a bill with broader Republican support appear to be declining.