The halls of Capitol Hill may be quiet for the holiday break, but the health care merger calls started this week.
Senate sources tell TPMDC that nothing formal has happened but after a short respite for team health care, the White House and Congressional leadership tasked with negotiating a final plan have gotten back to work.
Staff and members have started discussions but meetings won’t start until next week, an aide says. The real talks between lawmakers are likely to start the second week of January.
Meanwhile, the White House is using the slow time to sell the health care plan in a less traditional way.
Jen Cannistra of the administration’s health care team blogged on the White House Web site a long timeline with photos of the “road” to health care reform.
From community talks on health care one year ago to House and Senate passage of a bill, Cannistra’s narrative was used as a tool to explain in detail the basics of what will be in the bill President Obama signs next year. (The sticking points aren’t mentioned.)
“As we move into the final stretch of this road towards the historic passage of health insurance reform, we wanted to take a look at how the legislation we’ve seen emerge from Congress addresses many of the concerns, questions, suggestions, and solutions we heard about a year ago,” she wrote.
“What we heard from the American people through the Health Care Community Discussions and throughout this past year is a reminder of how much this all means in the lives of millions of people, and how the problems they face aren’t just talking points, sound bites, or political arguments,” said in closing the blog. “It’s good to be reminded of that again.”
Communications director Dan Pfeiffer has used the White House blog to swat down GOP critics.
In his latest post this morning, Pfeiffer tackles Republicans’ “repealing health care” push that we’ve been writing about.
Pfeiffer says it seems like “another example of opposition at any cost to want to repeal a law before its even enacted.”
“At a time when insurance companies are finally about to be reined in, and when American families are finally about to be given control over their own health care, opponents of reform are advocating that insurance companies once again be allowed to run wild,” Pfeiffer wrote, detailing some of the health care bill’s benefits that would cease if the “repeal” plan went into effect.
We’ve compiled the Democrats who voted ‘No’ on the House health care bill this fall, most of them Blue Dogs, and will be tracking them over the Congressional recess since they are the key group leadership hopes to win over with the more conservative Senate version of the bill.
