If House Democrats still have concerns about the Senate’s ability to follow through on their promise to fix the health care bill in the reconciliation process, they’ll have a golden opportunity on Saturday to put those fears to rest.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to attend a White House event tomorrow with members of the House Democratic Caucus.
“I’ll leave the psychoanalyzing to others. All I know is Senator Reid is there to get this bill done as quickly as possible next week,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley tells me.
This is Reid’s latest gesture to queasy House Democrats, who worry that the Senate will drop the ball on reconciliation, where several aspects of the Senate health care bill are supposed to be fixed. Earlier this month, Reid sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, letting him know that Senate Democrats were determined to use reconciliation to wrap up Congress’ work on health care. The hope is to make Sunday’s health care vote in the House as smooth as possible.
