By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 26, 2009

At precisely 11:53 a.m. Friday, after a full week of debate on his bill to refashion the nation's health-care system, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) rose from his chair and silently slipped out the back door.

Not a headline-grabbing moment, to be sure -- except that his panel was still deliberating.

It seems Baucus, the marathon runner who endured more than 35 hours of debate in an attempt to wear down his colleagues, was himself finally worn out.

Baucus has promised to resume committee work Tuesday. But the fight is increasingly shifting away from him and onto the Senate floor, where 99 other independent-minded lawmakers are already scheming about how to put their stamp on what could be the most significant piece of domestic-policy legislation in a generation.

In a plodding week of partisan sniping, the bill that was supposed to be President Obama's greatest hope for a grand bipartisan solution was instead described as little more than a decent rough draft, certain to be rewritten by others.

The president's own party remains sharply divided over fundamental questions such as whether to create a government-sponsored insurance option, whether employers should be required to contribute to the cost of health care, and who should bear the burden of expanding and improving the current system. And Republicans used the week of committee wrangling to sow doubts about possible tax increases and proposed Medicare reductions needed to pay for reform.

"This is going to be relitigated," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a committee member who expects the bill to be dramatically altered in the coming weeks.

Obama, after a public relations blitz in early September, receded from the health-care haggling. Though he is expected to speak about the need for reform at the Congressional Black Caucus conference Saturday, he has signaled to lawmakers that he will reengage in a substantive way after both the House and Senate vote on bills, as he did on the economic stimulus package.

Despite the messiness of the legislative process, Obama's top health adviser said the White House is "elated" by the forward movement.

"The Republicans have taken their best shots and we're not seeing erosion in the important pieces of the bill," said Nancy-Ann DeParle, head of the White House Office of Health Reform, who spent hours on Capitol Hill. "The Democrats have grown more united through the week."

DeParle and Democrats on the committee defended Baucus and the week-long process. She said many Democrats had developed "empathy" for Baucus as he presided over the long days of tedium. A prominent Democratic lobbyist, however, said many in the party believe "he let this go on too long." The lobbyist, who would speak candidly about the powerful chairman only on the condition of anonymity, said, "They think he got had by the Republicans."

Though votes have been cast on fewer than 50 of the 564 amendments that have been filed, "behind the scenes" Democrats conducted the tedious "homework of preparing to resolve the major outstanding issues," said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.). Much of the work involved searching for ways to lower the cost of insurance for average Americans while adhering to Obama's admonition to keep the bill deficit-neutral. Few conclusions were reached.

Already, small rump groups are forming in Congress, mapping strategy and making their concerns known to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). Pressure is mounting on both the left and the right, underscoring the difficulty Obama faces in trying to form a successful coalition in a party divided by ideological and regional concerns.

"There's a restlessness among Democrats about how to pay for this," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who has been meeting with about a half-dozen centrists. Lieberman said Reid is aware "there's a core of people who are interested in evolutionary progress," adding: "I don't see how we can do it all in one big legislative act and feel certain of the consequences."

Liberal lawmakers such as Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), meanwhile, plan to fight aggressively for a government-run insurance plan, or public option, which Baucus did not include in his bill.

"This is a battle in a long war, and we expect the battlefield to get better each time," Schumer said Friday after the committee broke for the day without considering amendments that would create a public plan. He predicted the provision will gain backing on the Senate floor and even more support in the House-Senate conference committee.

At the start of the week, Baucus spoke of briskly moving through the amendments. But his goal of finishing by Friday encountered a debilitating combination of partisan stalling and the sheer complexity of a bill that affects one-sixth of the economy and touches virtually every family, company and government directly.

Early on, Baucus revised the bill, folding in about 100 amendments. The changes included restoring $10 billion over the next decade to the popular private insurance plans known as Medicare Advantage, which Baucus has targeted for a much larger cut, and reducing the cost of insurance coverage for some groups, such as working-class families and people in their 60s. But neither tweak went far enough for the lawmakers seeking the changes.

For now, the broad framework of the Baucus bill is intact. It would spend close to $800 billion over the next decade and provide insurance to 30 million additional people, either through Medicaid or a new insurance marketplace dubbed an exchange.

Republican senators expressed confidence that the hours of talking enabled them to raise key questions about the size and scope of the Democratic approach to health-care reform.

"This is part of public education," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.). "Our goal has been to try to have some coherent themes and develop a bit of a narrative."

Baucus aides would not say why he fled Friday's meeting before the final vote. Later, they released a statement by the chairman summing up the week.

"We have debated, we have questioned, we have prodded at times, and we have discussed -- and discussed," it said. "Most important, we continue to move forward."