Health Care

Not Over Yet: Senate Must Finalize Health Care

Christina Bellantoni | March 22, 2010, 8:00AM

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden

So, what's next?

House Democrats celebrated a major victory late last night after they passed a sweeping overhaul of the nation's health care system while simultaneously approving a package of fixes to the measure. But it's not the law of the land, not yet. What happens next is both simple in that there's one major vote left. But it's a bit complicated, since President Obama actually will sign one bill and then wait for the Senate to pass the other.

Come along and I'll explain.

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Health Care

Road To Reform: The Top Five Things That Could Go Wrong

Christina Bellantoni | March 17, 2010, 6:22PM

Clockwise: Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT), President Barack Obama, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), and Rep. George Miller (D-CA)

Signs point to a done deal, and the White House says health care reform will soon be the law of the land. But the Democrats are, well, Democrats. The long slog toward passing a final health care bill has been met with potholes and partisan shenanigans. Deadlines came and went.

Confident Democratic leaders say they are nearing the end, and Republicans are resigned to the idea that the bill will pass and that their focus will soon turn toward campaigning against it. But that's not to say it's over yet. From gambling on a favorable ruling from the Senate parliamentarian to last-ditch messaging successes on the Republican side that gums up the expected House vote, there are plenty of potential pitfalls. We've given it some thought, and while these things are unlikely, here are the top five things that could go wrong between now and President Obama penning his signature on a health care bill.

I posed the question to several members today on Capitol Hill, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) summed it up. I asked, "Could something go wrong in the next week?" Blumenauer lauged: "This is Congress. You answered your own question."

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Budget Reconciliation

Conrad: Parts Of Health Care Fix Might Not Meet Reconciliation Test

Brian Beutler | March 17, 2010, 3:20PM

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)

One of the key issues bedeviling House Democrats who are still on the fence about health care reform is the unpredictability of the Senate. They wonder whether the Senate will be able to pass a reconciliation bill--making needed changes to the comprehensive health care bill--that hasn't been riddled with holes by Republican procedural bullets.

Today, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)--chair of the Senate Budget Committee--didn't provide them much peace of mind.

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Health Care

Dems On GOP Complaints About Rules: You Started It!

Christina Bellantoni | March 16, 2010, 11:16AM

Floor Of The United States House Of Representatives

Democrats are pushing back against Republican indignation over the potential path the House will use to pass health care reform this week. Despite Republicans insisting the "deem and pass" tactic is totally unprecedented, it's a maneuver the GOP should actually be familiar with.

The Democratic National Committee sends over a 2006 article from Roll Call with stats showing how the Republicans actually "set new records" for writing House floor rules that allow leadership to pass their bills with an easier path.

The article shows that this year Democrats are actually using a smaller percentage of rules that fall into this category than Republicans used when they were in charge under former President George W. Bush.

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Health Care

GOP Says Dems Turning 'Democracy On Its Head'

Christina Bellantoni | March 15, 2010, 3:21PM

Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY)

Rep. David Dreier and Republican leaders are accusing House Democrats of trying to "seriously bend the rules" to pass health care reform this week. The GOP is charging that the Democrats will try to pass a "fix" to a health care bill that they haven't voted on.

It's a bit complicated, but Republicans are using the scary label "The Slaughter Solution" keying off of Rules Committee Chairman Rep. Louise Slaughter's name. They say the Democrats can use a procedural tactic to send the Senate-passed health care bill straight to the president for a signature. Or they could "deem" the Senate bill as passed only after the House passes the fix measure through budget reconciliation. Finally they could write a rule putting a condition that the Senate bill would only pass if the reconciliation bill passes.

Those options are indeed within the rules, and just might ease the heartburn House Democrats are feeling, since many of them don't like the Senate bill without the fixes carefully negotiated by leadership from both chambers and the White House. Republicans say any of those options are fundamentally unfair, and would skip important steps in the process. But Democrats say Dreier and the rest of the Republicans are full of it, and leadership is telling rank-and-file members to ignore complaints about procedure and avoid debates about legislative process.

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Health Care

Leap Of Faith: House Dems Will Have To Vote For Senate HCR Bill Before Fixes

Christina Bellantoni | March 12, 2010, 1:05PM

The U.S. Senate in Session

Well, it's official. Wary House Democrats are going to have to trust their Senate colleagues to pass legislation fixing the problems they've got with the upper chamber's health care bill if they want reform to become a reality.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today at a press conference confirmed what's been hinted at for several days - the rules governing the legislative process known as budget reconciliation won't allow the "fix" bill to go first.

It's a leap of faith that House Democrats have been worried about for nearly two months since Scott Brown won the special Senate election in Massachusetts. But it's the rules - Congress can't reconcile something that isn't yet a law, and it won't be law until President Obama signs it. That could be one reason he opted today to delay his trip to Indonesia and Australia.

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