BY MATTHEW CONTINETTI,Weekly Standard
Obama’s big push is coming
Expect an announcement from President Obama tomorrow,March 3,that outlines the steps Democrats plan to take to enact health care reform via the parliamentary tactic called reconciliation. The lynchpin is the House,where Nancy Pelosi needs 216 votes to pass the Senate bill. She says she’ll have them. The AP talked to 10 Democrats who (anonymously) say they "have not ruled out switching their ‘no’votes to ‘yes’"this time around. What’s unknown is how many Yes votes will switch to No votes because of the Senate’s expansive abortion language,among other things. In Pelosi’s February 28 interview with ABC’s Elizabeth Vargas,the speaker seemed cautious,probably because the final legislative deal is still being worked out behind closed doors.
If the House is able to pass the December 24 Senate bill unchanged,then the Senate’s job will be to pass a series of "fixes"through reconciliation,which requires only a majority vote. So Harry Reid can afford to lose nine members of his caucus,because Joe Biden will break any tie. And nine votes seems like enough of a cushion for Reid to pass the bill.
Democrats truly believe they are better off politically by passing health care reform. Of course,ideology plays a role here,as well. Most Democrats want to see universal health insurance in the United States and believe there is something morally wrong with a system that does not have universality. For most Democrats,cost was always a subsidiary issue. The larger imperative was insuring the uninsured. That is why Warren Buffett’s concerns won’t stop them from trying to pass this bill: