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Democrats quietly working to resuscitate healthcare overhaul
While the focus shifts to legislation on jobs, party leaders are taking
advantage of a cooling-off period to strategize, seek a new compromise and
improve the public's opinion of the legislation.
By Noam N. Levey
8:16 PM PST, January 30, 2010
Reporting from Washington
President Obama's campaign to overhaul the nation's healthcare system is
officially on the back burner as Democrats turn to the task of stimulating job
growth, but behind the scenes party leaders have nearly settled on a strategy to
salvage the massive legislation.
They are meeting almost daily to plot
legislative moves while gently persuading skittish rank-and-file lawmakers to
back a sweeping bill.
This effort is deliberately being undertaken
quietly as Democrats work to focus attention on more-popular initiatives to
bring down unemployment, which the president said was a priority in his State of
the Union address on Wednesday.
Many have concluded that the only hope
for resuscitating the healthcare legislation is to push the issue off the front
page and give lawmakers time to work out a new compromise and shift public
perception of the bill.
"A little bit of time and quiet could help," said
Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, a conservative Democrat who was among a group of
centrist Democrats from the House and Senate who met last week to discuss a way
forward on healthcare.
"Human nature being what it is, it's always easier
to be against something than to be for it. And if you create any uncertainty
with change, opponents can jump on that and just try to scare people. . . . That
has been hard to overcome politically," Pryor said. "Maybe over time, people
will have a chance to understand what is in the legislation."
House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.) particularly want to give members time to recover from the shock of
Republican Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate race two weeks ago.
The election cost Democrats their filibuster-proof Senate majority.
But
in the coming weeks, Pelosi and Reid hope to rally House Democrats behind the
healthcare bill passed by the Senate while simultaneously trying persuade Senate
Democrats to approve a series of changes to the legislation using budget
procedures that bar filibusters.
At the same time, leading consumer
groups, doctors and labor unions that have backed the healthcare legislative
effort for more than a year are stepping up attempts to stiffen lawmakers'
resolve.
Almost all of the proponents of a healthcare overhaul are
desperate to avoid a repeat of the contentious public debate and deal-making
that consumed Capitol Hill last year.
"In a 24-hour news cycle, with the
Internet and bloggers and cable news, sometimes a lot more can be accomplished,
especially with healthcare, when it happens behind closed doors," said Drew
Altman, a healthcare policy expert who heads the nonprofit Henry J. Kaiser
Family Foundation.
Democrats, who would almost certainly get no
Republican votes for their bill, still must overcome substantial
obstacles.
Many rank-and-file Democrats remain rattled by Brown's winning
campaign in Massachusetts, which in part targeted the healthcare bill in
Washington. Recent national polls indicate that fewer than 40% of Americans like
the healthcare legislation being pushed by Obama and his congressional
allies.
Some Democrats would prefer to vote on a series of more limited
bills targeting pieces of the healthcare system, an approach that House leaders
are exploring. A group of liberal House lawmakers are pushing for inclusion of a
new government insurance plan, or public option, in the final
bill.
Tensions also remain high between Democrats in the House and
Senate. Many House lawmakers blame the Senate bill for fueling public opposition
with provisions such as a new tax on high-end "Cadillac" health plans and
special aid for Nebraska that was added at the 11th hour to satisfy the state's
Democratic senator.
At a closed-door caucus meeting last week, Rep.
Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) won applause from his colleagues when he told a story
about being confronted recently by an angry voter in his district who said he
didn't want his health benefits taxed to pay off Nebraska.
Democrats hope
to use a process known as budget reconciliation, which allows budget-related
legislation to be passed with a simple majority in the Senate rather than the
60-vote majority that has become necessary given the threat of Republican
filibuster.
But many House Democrats do not want to vote on the Senate
bill until the Senate passes the fixes they want.
And it is unclear
whether the Senate could approve a package of changes to its bill before the
House approves the underlying legislation, according to senior Democratic aides.
Democratic leaders hope to agree on a procedural path forward by the end of this
week.
Despite the hurdles, there is a growing consensus that a modified
Senate bill may offer the best hope for enacting a healthcare
overhaul.
"The more they think about it, the more they can appreciate
that it may be a viable . . . vehicle for getting healthcare reform done," said
Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), president of the Democratic freshman class in
the House.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who chairs the Senate health
committee, noted that even before the Massachusetts election, senior Democrats
had substantially agreed on a series of compromises that addressed differences
between the House and Senate healthcare bills.
These included scaling
back the Cadillac tax, boosting aid to help low- and moderate-income Americans
buy insurance, closing the "doughnut hole" in the Medicare prescription drug
plan, and giving all states the assistance that Nebraska secured to expand
Medicaid.
noam.levey@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times