Pelosi Races Against Time To Find 218 Votes...Can She Do It?

Democrats race to line up 218 votes



Democratic leaders trying to preserve a high-stakes Saturday vote on a House health reform bill battled a swift current of rank-and-file defections Friday as the White House swung into action to help corral the final votes.

But progress was slower than expected – as a bad jobs number Friday with unemployment eclipsing 10 percent, and Tuesday’s election losses making that job harder.

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and a number of top aides – including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan — called wavering members. But abortion and immigration remained stubborn obstacles to a final deal.

Democratic officials said their count of hard “nos” was in the range of about 25. While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can afford to lose up to 40 votes and still win passage, there are dozens of other lawmakers who remain on the fence publicly.

In the last-minute frenzy, the landscape seemed to change from hour-to-hour. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer kicked off the day by suggesting the final vote may drift until Sunday afternoon – or even Monday or Tuesday – if they need more time to find the votes they need.

“There are still many people who are looking to get a comfort level that this is the right thing to do,” Hoyer said. “We’re talking to members, trying to answer any concerns they might have.”

But Hoyer closed by saying, “My understanding is that we will complete this tomorrow night.” And Pelosi also told reporters that she planned to go ahead with Saturday’s vote on a sweeping $1.2 trillion bill that seeks to expand health coverage to 36 million Americans.

Emanuel peppered his former House colleagues with phone calls, according to a number of lawmakers with whom he spoke. The list included at least one liberal lawmaker who was upset that leaders abandoned plans to tie a government insurance option to Medicare.

Cabinet secretaries, like Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis – another former House member – are expected stick around on Capitol Hill Saturday after Obama himself pays a morning visit to House Democrats in the Cannon House Office Building.

But few administration officials roamed the halls Friday, a contrast to the some of the vote-wrangling done in person by the Bush administration on key votes.

The White House worked a pair of New York Democrats – Mike McMahon and Scott Murphy – on Friday, but McMahon told local reporters that afternoon that he wasn’t backing the bill.

First-year Democrats who came to Congress on Obama’s coattails last November, like New Jersey Rep. John Adler and Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil, announced their opposition to the central plank of his White House campaign.

“A number of the real underlying problems that we’re trying to address haven’t been resolved,” Kratovil said.

Pelosi spent the day on the phone with wavering Democrats and even a few who were leaning against the bill, like Virginia Rep. Rick Boucher, who voted against it on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Pelosi and her leadership team also cut last-minute deals to reassure those Democrats on the fence. In just one example, party leaders agreed to work with Indiana Rep. Baron Hill to lower a 2.5 percent on medical device manufacturers once the bill passes the House – a fact that remains up in the air.

Abortion remained one of the thorniest political issues for the caucus.

Pelosi and her leadership team huddled with Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and a group of Democrats who support reproductive rights to review language proposed by Indiana Rep. Brad Ellsworth on behalf of the Conference of Catholic Bishops, but it didn’t go over well.

“It’s a question of how you can keep everybody together and that’s the challenge before us,” Waxman said. “What’s being called the Ellsworth language is also the bishop’s language which is the Stupak proposal. It’s basically to stop any services for abortion coverage in both the public plan and all private insurance. Not just for those who get subsidies but for everybody who goes to private insurance policies.”

Asked if the negotiators were any closer to a deal, Whip James Clyburn let loose an amused guffaw.

“I would like the bishops, who I understand want to see passage of the legislation, to help us work out a way so we don’t have winners and losers,” Waxman said. “Because the losers will make us lose the bill and the winners then wont have won anything.”

The universe of no voters represents a broad cross-section of geography and seniority in the Democratic Caucus, from veterans like Agriculture Committee Chairman Colin Peterson of Minnesota and Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton of Missouri to Blue Dog Coalition leader Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, a fourth-term Democrat from South Dakota, and freshmen Parker Griffith of Alabama and Walt Minnick of Idaho.

Opposition has been particularly intense in the South, where an expansion of the government’s role in health care and the offering of insurance plans that cover abortion services in a new health care exchange are unpopular.

Southern Democrats such as Alabamans Griffith, Artur Davis and Bobby Bright, Tennessean Bart Gordon, Georgia’s Jim Marshall, Mike Ross of Arkansas and Mississippians Gene Taylor and Travis Childers are against the bill.

Abortion got a lot of attention in the region on Friday.

“Christian radio was aflame,” said a lawmaker from a Southern district who plans to vote against the bill.

Oklahoma Rep. Dan Boren has told local media that he plans to vote against the bill, and several additional moderate Democrats -- Georgia Rep. John Barrow, Virginia Rep. Rick Boucher, Utah Rep. Jim Matheson and Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak – voted against earlier versions of the measure in committee.

But Adler and McMahon’s defection illustrate the regional diversity of unease about the Democrats’ bill.


Sources: Politico