Read all updates on bottom of post...
Carl Cameron with FOXNews.com, writes that seven key Democrats in Congress will side with Republicans to block any new health care legislation, as long as there is federal funding for abortion.
The health care reform bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve appears to be dead on arrival in the House, as seven anti-abortion Democrats intend to join the ranks of lawmakers who plan to vote against the legislation, Fox News has confirmed. Seven new no votes would be enough to kill the Senate bill, and several more fence-sitting lawmakers are under pressure from both sides of the aisle.
Read more of this article on Fox News.
From The Washington Examiner, Mark Tapscott writes that Nancy Pelosi and other key Democrats would be willing to ram this bill through without actually having a recorded bill in the House.
Would House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow House Democratic leaders try to cram the Senate version of Obamacare through the House without actually having a recorded vote on the bill?
Not only is the answer yes, they would, they have figured out a way to do it, according to National Journal's Congress Daily:
"House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.
"Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.
"Slaughter has not taken the plan to Speaker Pelosi as Democrats await CBO scores on the corrections bill. 'Once the CBO gives us the score, we'll spring right on it,' she said."
Read the rest of this article on The Washington Examiner website.
From The Wall Street Journal, Michael Barone asks the question --- Does Pelosi have enough votes to pass health care?
Are there enough votes in the House to pass the Senate's health-care bill? As of today, it's clear there aren't. House Democratic leaders have brushed aside White House calls to bring the bill forward by March 18, when President Barack Obama heads to Asia. Nevertheless, analysts close to the Democratic leadership tell me they're confident the leadership will find some way to squeeze out the 216 votes needed for a majority.
Read the rest of this article on The Wall Street Journal website.
Rachel Maddow fact-checks Rep. Bart Stupak's threat that he has "at least a dozen" other members of Congress who will vote against a health reform bill that doesn't contain a version of Stupak's anti-abortion language.
On Countdown with Keith Olberman, the question is posed --- Is the health bill ready or not?
On Hardball with Chris Matthews, Joe Biden says passing health care is vital. Biden talks about the White House's 'last big push' to pass the bill. He's 'confident' that Pelosi can pass the bill.
President Obama says it's time to vote.
Update 1: Senator Gregg warns House Dems on health care reform.
From USA Today...
New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg has a warning for House Democrats: Don't trust the Senate. At a session with reporters this morning, Gregg, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, chronicled the ways in which the House members could end up feeling double-crossed if they pass the Senate version of the health-care bill -- based on the promise that a subsequent "reconciliation" measure would make adjustments they want in the measure.
Read the rest of this article on USA Today.
Update 2: Hispanic lawmakers tell Obama they will not vote for health care reform unless immigration is addressed.
On The Hill website, Jared Allen writes...
A group of Hispanic lawmakers on Thursday will tell President Barack Obama that they may not vote for healthcare reform unless changes are made to the bill’s immigration provisions. The scheduled meeting comes as Democratic leaders and the White House are struggling to craft a final bill that will attract 216 votes in the lower chamber. Unlike abortion, immigration has flown beneath the radar, and almost seemed to vanish altogether as House Democrats have wrestled with how to accept a Senate healthcare bill far different from the one they passed in November. But immigration remains just as explosive an issue and carries the same potential to derail the entire healthcare endgame, a number of Democrats said. “It’s still one of those issues that’s out there,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), the Democratic Caucus vice chairman and the only Hispanic member of House leadership.
Read the rest of this article on The Hill website.
Update 3: Republicans look to block health care bill through a process called reconciliation
On Bloomberg, Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen write...
Republicans said the Senate parliamentarian threw up a hurdle to congressional Democrats’ plans to pass changes to U.S. health-care legislation through a process called reconciliation. Republicans said guidance they received from the parliamentarian means that President Barack Obama has to sign a Senate health bill into law before the House and Senate can approve changes to it. Some House Democrats, who object to provisions in the Senate measure, wanted Obama to hold off signing the legislation until reconciliation passed. “The Senate Parliamentarian’s office has informed Senate Republicans that reconciliation instructions require the measure to make changes in law,” Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said in an e-mail.
Read the rest of this article on Bloomberg.
Update 4: Obama delaying his trip to Asia so he can concentrate on health care reform.
Update:5 Republicans win parliamentary victory in fight to stop health care bill.
From Bloomberg, Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen write...
Republicans said they won a parliamentary victory as they try to fight Democrats’ efforts to pass legislation to overhaul the U.S. health-care system. Republicans said President Barack Obama has to sign a Senate health-care bill into law before the House and Senate can approve changes to it under a process called reconciliation. The Senate parliamentarian told Republicans that a reconciliation bill has to “make changes in law,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “This would be another headwind for Democrats in the House” who oppose provisions in the Senate bill, said John Sullivan, a health-care analyst at Boston-based Leerink Swann & Co. “Their biggest fear has been that they vote for the Senate version and they never get the relief they’re looking for.”
Read more on Bloomberg.
Update 6: Poll --- If Democrats ignore American people and pass health care bill, the November elections will be costly.
On The Washington Post, Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen write...
In "The March of Folly," Barbara Tuchman asked, "Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests?" Her assessment of self-deception -- "acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts" -- captures the conditions that are gripping President Obama and the Democratic Party leadership as they renew their efforts to enact health-care reform. Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November. In the wake of the stinging loss in Massachusetts, there was a moment when the president and the Democratic leadership seemed to realize the reality of the health-care situation. Yet like some seductive siren of Greek mythology, the lure of health-care reform has arisen again.
Read more on the Washington Post.
Update 7: Rahm Emanuel says 'we're getting this done'...
Update8: Nancy Pelosi on when we can expect an approved health care plan.
Update 9: Health care reform hinges on trust between White House, Senate and House.
On MSNBC.com, Carrie Dann and Ken Strickland write...
For the next few weeks, Obama-brand "hope" may be taking a back seat to "trust." President Barack Obama’s decision on Friday to delay an overseas trip came after reports that an impartial Senate umpire is likely to push House and Senate Democrats into a legislative leap of faith. The Senate parliamentarian indicated Thursday that before a compromise health care bill can be finalized, House Democrats will have to approve a version of the bill that many of them don't like.
Read the rest of this on MSNBC.com
Update 10: Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., talks about whether President Barack Obama’s decision to delay his trip to Asia will help aid Democrats in passing health reform in the House.
Update 11: House minority leader John Boehner says there's no way this bill passes.
Update 12: The pro-life Democrat leading the charge in the House against passage of the Senate health insurance reform bill said Friday that a key committee chairman told him that Democrats want abortions to be paid by a federally-funded nationalized health insurance system.
Fox News reports....
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who's been so far out in front of the debate about abortion coverage that he earned himself a primary challenger over it, said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told him he wants to change current law that bans federal funding for abortion. In an interview with Marquette, Mich., radio station WKQS' Mark & Walk morning show, Stupak described what he said was a conversation with Waxman about the Senate's version of the health care overhaul. That bill contains weaker language than the House-passed legislation, which includes a provision crafted by Stupak to ensure insurance companies that participate in a national exchange don't use federal money for abortion services. "I gave him the language. He came back a little while later and said, 'But we want to pay for abortions.' I said, 'Mr. Chairman, that's -- we disagree. We don't do it now, we're not going to start.' "'But we think should,'" Stupak said Waxman told him.
Read the rest on Fox News.
Update 13: Stupak says 'They just want this over'...
From The National Review, Robert Costa writes
Sitting in an airport, on his way home to Michigan, Rep. Bart Stupak, a pro-life Democrat, is chagrined. “They’re ignoring me,” he says, in a phone interview with National Review Online. “That’s their strategy now. The House Democratic leaders think they have the votes to pass the Senate’s health-care bill without us. At this point, there is no doubt that they’ve been able to peel off one or two of my twelve. And even if they don’t have the votes, it’s been made clear to us that they won’t insert our language on the abortion issue.”
According to Stupak, that group of twelve pro-life House Democrats — the “Stupak dozen” — has privately agreed for months to vote ‘no’ on the Senate’s health-care bill if federal funding for abortion is included in the final legislative language. Now, in the debate’s final hours, Stupak says the other eleven are coming under “enormous” political pressure from both the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.). “I am a definite ‘no’ vote,” he says. “I didn’t cave. The others are having both of their arms twisted, and we’re all getting pounded by our traditional Democratic supporters, like unions.”
Read the rest at The Corner on The National Review website.
Update 14: Scott Brown says this has been a wasted year.
From MY WAY NEWS, Erica Werner writes...
Newly arrived Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts accused President Barack Obama and Democrats on Saturday of a "bitter, destructive and endless" drive to pass health overhaul legislation that Brown warned would be disastrous. "An entire year has gone to waste," Brown said in the weekly GOP radio and Internet address. "Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, and many more jobs are in danger. Even now, the president still hasn't gotten the message. "Somehow, the greater the public opposition to the health care bill, the more determined they seem to force it on us anyway."
Read the rest on My Way News.
Update 15: Obama feels very confident that this will pass this week.
Update 16: Pelosi says she'll pass the bill this week.
On Yahoo, SUDHIN THANAWALA from the AP writes...
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Saturday she's confident the House will pass health care legislation and dismissed Republican criticism that she did not have enough votes for the measure. "We're very excited about where we are and will not be deterred by estimates that have no basis in fact," she said during a dedication of the renamed Lim P. Lee Post Office in San Francisco. The post office was renamed after the nation's first Chinese-American postmaster.
Read more on Yahoo.
Update 17: Democratic Whip says there are not enough votes to pass health care.
On Google News, The AP reported...
The Democrat's chief vote counter in the House says that right now there aren't enough votes to pass President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. But Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina says he's confident that the legislation will pass. He says the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress have gotten to a point where there's a way to send the measure to the president's desk for his signature.
Read the rest on Google.