There was some talk among Senate leadership on Thursday of putting together a letter signed by 51 Democratic senators pledging to pass a cleanup bill if the House would pass the Senate bill. But that effort fizzled when support for it didn’t materialize, insiders said.Unless something magical happens between now and the SOTU address, health care reform is dead and gone.
“The Senate moderates’ viewpoint is, ‘We passed our bill. We’re not going to spend three weeks on some other bill,’” said a Democratic lobbyist who represents clients pushing for reform.
“There’s a real possibility it doesn’t get through,” said another Democratic lobbyist.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said one possibility involved having the Senate pass the cleanup bill first. But there’s a question as to whether the Senate can amend a bill that is not yet law, officials said. Reid would also want some assurances ahead of time from the parliamentarian that key elements of the cleanup bill would not be struck from the bill, officials said.
House Democrats are angry with the Senate for passing a bill that divided their base, angering labor unions with a tax on expensive health plans and progressives by abandoning the public option. House members are frustrated that the Senate assumes they will roll over whenever the upper chamber demands it and that they took until late December to pass a bill.
And so are the Dem majorities in Congress. We need leadership. We're getting "change is haaaaaard. We don't wanna do it."
If this truly, really is over, then the Dems deserve what they get. Obama says he'll never stop fighting, but it's irrelevant if the Dems in Congress have already given up.
[UPDATE 2:43 PM] Chris Dodd is calling for a break until March on health care reform. Sure, that'll make it easier to pass, six weeks of Village hit jobs and GOP attacks!
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