The White House has given Congressional leaders the all-clear to move ahead on health care reform, with both the House and Senate aiming to pass final legislation by April.
A top aide to House Democratic leadership told TPMDC this morning that tension remains between the House and Senate as members in the lower chamber remain wary the Senate might not honor a promise to fix their bill through reconciliation.
But the aide said the House is deciding whether to vote on the Christmas Eve-passed Senate bill first or the reconciliation measure including budget-related fixes to that Senate bill, namely changes to the tax on high-end insurance plans. But whether the House Democratic caucus will be able to keep its shaky voting coalition together remains an open question, Hill sources tell TPMDC.
Progressives last night issued a statement they were frustrated by the lack of diversity at the White House health care summit and pushed for including a public option in a reconciliation package.
“It was disappointing, however, that the summit lacked diversity among participants. Missing from the 35 Congressional attendees were official leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chairmen Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) said in the statement.
The progressives also presented the public option as something that would cut the deficit and therefore be legitimate to use in a reconciliation package. They cited growing momentum for a letter circulating among Senate Democrats calling for leadership to do just that, but no new signers have come on board in 48 hours.
The White House used its blog last night to highlight areas of agreement.
Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer detailed where Republicans and Democrats agreed in these key areas:
Preventing waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid
Addressing medical malpractice reform
Reforming the insurance market
Giving individuals more choices in coverage, and giving small businesses the opportunity to pool coverage for their employees
Pfeiffer said the disagreements were also prominent. He said Obama and the Democrats want to regulate insurances companies to prevent rate hikes likes what’s being seen in California and that they believe it’s worth spending money to cover 30 million people.
“[W]hile the President appreciated the participation and input of everyone today, he doesn’t think we can just scrap a year’s worth of work and start over,” Pfeiffer wrote.
Obama reportedly will be making some changes to his proposal laid out on Monday and presenting it to Congressional leaders eager to forge ahead.
“The President doesn’t view today’s meeting as a campaign debate or piece of theater – and he didn’t approach it as if it were scored like an Olympic event,” Pfeiffer wrote.
