Obama urges Democrats to unite on health care
Source: Agencies |
December 7, 2009, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
UNITED States President Barack Obama was to pay a rare visit to Capitol Hill to urge Senate Democrats forward as they work over the weekend to try to resolve their differences on his sweeping health care overhaul.
The president's planned appearance at a Senate Democratic caucus meeting yesterday afternoon will answer appeals from a number of lawmakers eager for him to step in and help Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid finish the job in pushing forward his top domestic policy priority. "That is what the president is supposed to do, to use his bully pulpit," said Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat. Until now, "I haven't seen much of it," Harkin said.
Obama and Reid must unite liberals and moderates in the 60-member caucus in the face of near-solid Republican opposition, even as moderates balk over abortion and a proposal for the government to sell health insurance in competition with the private market. Sixty is the precise number needed to overcome Republican stalling tactics in the 100-member Senate, so Reid doesn't have a vote to spare.
Moderate and liberal lawmakers met throughout the day Saturday to try to find a compromise on the government insurance plan, or public option, that they could all support and that could also potentially attract Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, the one Republican to vote for the Democrats' health overhaul bill in committee.
A new idea being discussed was national nonprofit insurance plans that would be administered by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the well-liked Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, a key centrist Democrat, was enthusiastic about the idea, which she's proposed in different forms in the past. "I think it bodes well for being able to do what we want to do, which is to create greater choice and options in the marketplace."
Liberal Democratic senators were cool to the proposal, holding out for a fully government-run plan.
"I'm willing to talk to anybody about anything but they haven't sold it yet," said Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. "We have compromised enough on the public option."
The president's planned appearance at a Senate Democratic caucus meeting yesterday afternoon will answer appeals from a number of lawmakers eager for him to step in and help Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid finish the job in pushing forward his top domestic policy priority. "That is what the president is supposed to do, to use his bully pulpit," said Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat. Until now, "I haven't seen much of it," Harkin said.
Obama and Reid must unite liberals and moderates in the 60-member caucus in the face of near-solid Republican opposition, even as moderates balk over abortion and a proposal for the government to sell health insurance in competition with the private market. Sixty is the precise number needed to overcome Republican stalling tactics in the 100-member Senate, so Reid doesn't have a vote to spare.
Moderate and liberal lawmakers met throughout the day Saturday to try to find a compromise on the government insurance plan, or public option, that they could all support and that could also potentially attract Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, the one Republican to vote for the Democrats' health overhaul bill in committee.
A new idea being discussed was national nonprofit insurance plans that would be administered by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the well-liked Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, a key centrist Democrat, was enthusiastic about the idea, which she's proposed in different forms in the past. "I think it bodes well for being able to do what we want to do, which is to create greater choice and options in the marketplace."
Liberal Democratic senators were cool to the proposal, holding out for a fully government-run plan.
"I'm willing to talk to anybody about anything but they haven't sold it yet," said Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. "We have compromised enough on the public option."
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