Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned House Democrats that they would be taking a colossal risk if they approve the Senate’s version of health-care legislation before the Senate had acted to remove some of the bill’s most contentious provisions. Now that Democrats have lost their Senate supermajority, some variation of this delicate two-step process is the only way a health-care bill can become law.
“House Democrats will have to decide whether they want to trust the Senate to fix their political problems,” McConnell said. He listed a series of perks that Senate Democrats won for Nebraska, Louisiana, Florida and labor unions that House members are insisting be removed through a separate “fixes” bill under special budget reconciliation rules.
Moving the bill under reconciliation is appealing to Democrats because such legislation cannot be filibustered, although they are highly vulnerable to parliamentary challenges. The sequence in which the Senate bill and the package of fixes would move remains one of the key unresolved issues, much to the consternation of many undecided House Democrats. They would prefer to pass the reconciliation bill first and force the Senate to accept their fixes before the House approves the Senate bill.
But reconciliation rules seem to indicate that the House will have to pass the Senate bill first. Depending on how the Senate parliamentarian rules, Obama may even have to sign the legislation into law before the Senate can consider the House fixes.
“They will be voting, when they pass the Senate bill, to endorse the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, the Gator-aid, the closed-door deal, the special deal for the unions, which may or may not bother any Democrats, I don’t know,” said McConnell. “But it will be riddled with special deals, and as we’ve all indicated, we think it will be the biggest issue this fall if they’re somehow able to get enough Democrats to buy into this.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) raised the House Democrats’ worst-case scenario: that the House would hurry to pass the Senate bill by the March 18 White House deadline, only to watch the fixes stall in the Senate — leaving House Democrats on the record supporting the side deals.
“What the president is doing is asking House Democrats to hold hands, jump off a cliff and hope Harry Reid catches them,” said Alexander, referring to the Senate majority leader. “And Senator Reid’s not going to have any incentive to catch them because by the time the reconciliation bill gets to the Senate, the president will have already signed the health-care bill into law and he’ll be well on his way to Indonesia.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) cast doubt on the idea that the Huse would meet the March 18 deadline set by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. Obama is scheduled to leave that day for a trip to Indonesia and Australia. “None of us has mentioned the 18th, other than Mr. Gibbs,” Hoyer told reporters at a briefing Tuesday morning. “We are trying to do this as soon as possible.”
Gibbs told reporters later Tuesday at the White House that he considered the March 18 deadline to be realistic, at least for the House to pass the Senate bill. But he said Obama would take an active role in the meantime to build Democratic support.
The president will travel to the St. Louis area on Wednesday for his second health-care forum this week, following an event in Pennsylvania on Monday. Gibbs said the White House “may add more stops” before his trip next Thursday. Gibbs said Obama also would continue to meet with Democratic lawmakers.
“He thinks the time to act is now,” Gibbs said.
