Before House Democrats unveiled their health care bill, the caucus huddled in the basement of the Capitol to get fired up. As the meeting broke, Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) darted down the hall and a reporter asked him how many votes he had.
“All we need,” Clyburn shouted back, cheekily.
Inside the caucus room, members broke into applause.
Unsurprisingly, optimism was the theme of the morning among House Democrats, though some progressives aren’t completely pleased with the outcome.
Rep Lynne Woolsey (D-CA)–co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus–said, emphatically, that when she and other liberal leaders meet with the President tonight, she wants to hear him say “that he supports a strong public option and he will take that over to the Senate.” As for whether she can support the bill in the House with a somewhat weakened public option, Woolsey told me she needs to learn more.
“We’re looking at what they’ve put in the bill to make up for it not being Medicare-plus-five, to see if it covers…our same goals,” she said.
“The fact of the matter is, if I would have said to you two months ago we would have a bill with the public option, most of you would have said, ‘nah, that’s not gonna happen,'” said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) “now it’s a virtual consensus that it’s going to.”
In order to accommodate progressives, who have been demanding that the bill’s public option be maximally robust, House health care leaders strengthened other aspects of it, including a Medicaid expansion, and a mandate that insurance companies spend at least 85 percent of their premium dollars on paying for care–a regulation that will take effect immediately if it survives in conference with the Senate.
Though official CBO numbers aren’t in yet, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) told me that the bill “continues to reduce the deficit” 11-20 years out.
The unveiling ceremony itself was as much a news event as a pep rally for Democrats, who, though confident, may still need to convince fence sitting members to support the bill. The only unscripted moment came when a man in small crowd of protesters, shouted at Speaker Nancy Pelosi, repeatedly, through a megaphone “You will burn in hell for this.”
“Thank you, insurance companies of America,” Pelosi said, breaking her stride momentarily.
When the ceremony ended, I asked Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)–chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee–what all the cheering in the caucus room was about. Was it 218?
“I don’t remember,” he said smiling, “but it was not that.”
Do you think you’ll get there?
“Yes.”
According to a House leadership aide, the bill could be on the floor late next week.
