NO I'M NOT CALLING.
July 22 (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has the votes to pass legislation overhauling the U.S. health- care system, as congressional leaders and President Barack Obama work to mend fissures among Democrats over the effort.
Leaders are “making progress” with Democrats who want more cost cuts in the legislation, Pelosi told reporters in Washington today, a day after Obama met with a group of House Democrats to try to quell a rebellion over the plan.
“I have no question we have the votes on the floor of the House to pass this legislation,” Pelosi said.
Negotiations over the most sweeping changes in health care in more than four decades have proven so difficult that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer left open the possibility Congress may fail to meet Obama’s August deadline for legislation. And a congressional committee delayed drafting its part of the plan.
The effort suffered a fresh blow today in the Senate, when Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah said he’s ending his participation in bipartisan talks aimed at reaching a compromise on the legislation.
“Right now, with some of the provisions in there, I just can’t do it,” Hatch told reporters, referring to the cost of the legislation, among other issues.
Obama yesterday spent more than an hour talking with Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has yet to pass its part of the legislation. Seven of the participants were also members of the Blue Dog Coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats.
‘Can’t Support’
“The seven of us can’t support the bill as it stands,” Representative Mike Ross of Arkansas, a Blue Dog leader, said in an interview after the meeting.
To help win over the Blue Dogs, Committee Chairman Henry Waxman agreed to include a provision to create an independent commission to set reimbursement rates for Medicare providers each year. Ross said such a body would take politics out of decisions on the federal insurance program for the elderly, giving Congress an up-or-down vote on any changes, without amendment.
Waxman, a California Democrat, postponed plans for his panel to debate the legislation today so talks can continue.
During the White House meeting, Obama asked lawmakers to take “a favorable attitude toward his proposal” to set up the five-member commission, Waxman said.
‘Personal Misgivings’
Acknowledging his own “personal misgivings,” Waxman said such a panel would have a lot of power to cut health-care costs. He said he couldn’t speculate on how much authority Congress would ultimately surrender to a commission.
“The Blue Dogs members thought that committee made a lot of sense,” Waxman said. He called the agreement to include such a committee “a major turning point of discussions.”
Ross said the group arrived at the White House with 10 Blue Dog demands and spent most of the time on two priorities: producing a deficit-neutral measure and containing costs.
The current House plan, unveiled on July 14, would expand insurance coverage to 97 percent of Americans while adding $239 billion to the federal budget deficit over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Blue Dogs say it doesn’t do enough to control the spiraling costs of Medicare and Medicaid, a program managed by the states for low-income people.
Obama has insisted that the overhaul avoid adding to the deficit. The White House budget chief, Peter Orszag, yesterday said the House plan would meet that goal because the White House is using a different yardstick than the nonpartisan CBO.
‘Interesting Concept’
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat who is also working on a bipartisan compromise on health care, was dismissive of Orszag’s comments. “That’s an interesting concept,” he told reporters. “Just call CBO and ask them that question -- they’ll tell you.”
The Blue Dogs considered the CBO estimate “a real hit across the bow” that gave them ammunition to insist on more cost cuts, said Indiana Representative Baron Hill, another Blue Dog Democrat who attended the meeting with Obama yesterday.
Pelosi said today that the Blue Dog concerns are “issues that we are all concerned about: reducing costs” and said she supports their bid to find more savings.
Obama ramped up the pressure amid concern that deadlines are slipping. He has asked the House and Senate to pass their versions before their summer breaks. The House plans to adjourn July 31, and the Senate intends to go home a week later.
‘Members Have Concerns’
The increasing likelihood that Congress won’t meet the deadline was underscored by Hoyer, a Maryland representative and the No. 2 House Democrat, when he said his members may leave town without voting on the legislation.
“I don’t think staying in session” is “necessary to continuing to work on getting consensus,” Hoyer said at a news conference. “Obviously, members have concerns.”
Pelosi today said that 70 percent of Americans believe that it would be a “good idea” for Congress to stay in Washington in August to pass legislation.
“We are waiting to see what the Senate will do,” Pelosi said. “We are hoping in the next day or so that we will see,” she said, when asked if the House would vote even if the Senate remains bogged down. “But we are going in a forward direction.”
Pelosi also said she wants to squeeze more cost savings out of the system before setting a surtax on the income of the wealthiest Americans. Representative Xavier Becerra, a California Democrat who sits on the tax-writing committee overseeing the effort, says the levy may not be needed at all.
