Obama Health Care Meeting Aims to Rally
Senators
Published: December 15, 2009, New York Times
WASHINGTON — As the battle over health care lurches toward a conclusion, President
Obama is confronting an increasingly sharp divide on the Democratic left,
with liberals in the Senate and the House split on a critical question: How much
of what they want is enough?
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman spoke with reporters on Capitol
Hill on Tuesday.
In the Senate, where time is running out for Democrats to meet the
presidentfs deadline of passing a bill by Christmas, liberals signaled on
Tuesday that they would hold their noses and vote for a version of the measure
that would strip out some of their most cherished provisions, including an
expansion of Medicare
and the possibility of a government-run
insurance plan.
But the House seemed unwilling to fall in line. The majority leader,
Representative Steny
H. Hoyer of Maryland, said flatly on Tuesday that the House would not
gsimply take the Senate billh and adopt it unchanged.
And Howard
Dean, the former Vermont governor and presidential candidate who is a
respected voice among liberals, stirred the pot on the Democratic left by
saying, gthe best thing to do right now is kill the Senate billh and start
over.
At the White House, Mr. Obama declared himself gcautiously optimistich after
a meeting with the entire Senate Democratic caucus, where he urged senators to
put aside their differences and gseize the moment,h to pass a measure that would
extend health coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans.
gNow, letfs be clear,h Mr. Obama said after the hourlong private meeting.
gThe final bill wonft include everything that everybody wants. No bill can do
that. But what I told my former colleagues today is that we simply cannot allow
differences over individual elements of this plan to prevent us from meeting our
responsibility to solve a longstanding and urgent problem for the American
people.h
The meeting underscored the sense of urgency for Mr. Obama, who has made
passing a health care overhaul his highest legislative priority. He is leaving
on Thursday night for Copenhagen to attend a conference on climate
change, and he acknowledged that gthere are still disagreements that have to
be ironed outh and gwork to be done in the next few days.h
In the Senate, Democratic leaders said they were confident they could resolve
those disagreements because liberals seemed willing to make concessions to get a
bill passed. The latest version of the Senate legislation omits a new
government-run insurance plan to compete with the private sector, and the
expansion of Medicare to allow people as young as 55 to buy into it.
gWe are very disappointed,h said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who
is a leading liberal in the Senate. Still, Mr. Brown said, gIfm going to vote
for the bill — therefs too much at stake.h
Speaking to reporters after the White House session, the No. 2 Democrat in
the Senate, Senator Richard
J. Durbin of Illinois, cast the liberalsf dilemma this way: gMany of us who
are on that side of the caucus really felt we had to weigh on balance what
remains. And what remains is dramatic, and we just donft want to lose the
opportunity, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.h
The Senate majority leader, Harry
Reid of Nevada, is still putting the bill together, but he and other leading
Democrats sounded confident after the session with Mr. Obama that they would get
the 60 votes they need to overcome staunch Republican opposition. Mr. Reid
sketched out a timeline in which he would move Friday to bring the debate to a
close and would hold final votes on the bill on Dec. 23 or 24.
Senator Max
Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Finance Committee, said: gWe
donft have 60 votes locked in yet. But we will get 60.h
In the House, though, liberals were none too pleased. Representative Lynn
Woolsey, Democrat of California and co-chairwoman of the Congressional
Progressive Caucus, said it would be gvery difficulth for her to vote for
legislation that does not include a government plan, dubbed a public option, or
a Medicare buy-in.
gWithout that and without any public option, I donft see what we are offering
the American people,h Ms. Woolsey said. gWe are not offering any significant
competition to the insurance industry. Premiums could skyrocket.h
As Democrats debated among themselves, Republicans made clear that they would
fight the bill every step of the way in the Senate. gOur Democratic friends are
about to walk off a political cliff here,h Senator Lindsey
Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said Tuesday. gDo we really want to
change one-sixth of the economy without a single Republican vote?h
One Republican being courted by the White House, Senator Susan
Collins of Maine, said Tuesday that she could not vote for the measure in
its current form. gThis bill is getting better,h she said, gbut itfs still too
deeply flawed for me to support it.h
Other issues flared Tuesday as well. The Senate rejected a bipartisan
proposal to allow imports of prescription drugs from Canada and other countries
where prices are often lower; the provision fell 9 votes short of the 60 needed.
The Senate also turned down a Republican effort to revise the bill to eliminate
any tax increases for individuals with incomes less than $200,000 a year and for
couples with incomes less than $250,000. At the same time, Democrats are trying
to negotiate a compromise on abortion
coverage that would help win the vote of Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of
Nebraska.
At the White House session, Mr. Obama tried to appeal to lawmakersf sense of
history. Mr. Baucus, who took notes on a paper napkin, quoted the president as
saying: gThis is the moment of our legislative lifetimes. This is why people run
for public office, to be here at the creation of something really big.h
Just how big, though, remains an open question, especially among liberals in
the presidentfs party. The session was called after Senator Joseph
I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, announced over the weekend that he
could not vote for the measure unless the Medicare expansion was stripped from
the bill.
Several people who attended the session recounted this exchange:
gWhatfs happening is not any fun for me,h Mr. Lieberman said.
Mr. Brown, who has championed the public option, turned to Mr. Lieberman and
said, gYou know, Joe, itfs not fun for us either.h
At that point, Mr. Obama stepped in.
gWhy donft we all begin to have some fun?h he said. gLetfs pass the
bill.h
David M. Herszenhorn contributed
reporting.
A version of this article appeared in
print on December 16, 2009, on page A32 of the New York edition.