Pelosi 'Way Short' on Votes

By Daniel Stone and Eleanor Clift

The House approving the Senate's health-care bill would be the easiest way to pass a reform package without stepping back to more partisan bickering. So says New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, our colleague Sarah Kliff, and a growing drumbeat of angry and despondent progressive voters. Sort out the particulars later, they say. For now, just grow some cojones, bite the bullet, and git ‘er done.

Speaker Pelosi said yesterday that she didn’t have the votes to do that ... just yet. How close is she?

A senior Democratic aide tells NEWSWEEK that Pelosi et al. are “way short.” No one on Capitol Hill will talk firm numbers, in part because numbers are never firm until the vote is called, but this aide says that far too many members say they feel queasy about some part of the Senate language and many would rather see it die than become law.

The big hang-up is about the Cadillac tax passed by the Senate, which would pay for the full reform package by taxing people with top-shelf health-care plans (as opposed to just taxing the wealthiest Americans, which the House approved in its bill).

House Democrats are also uneasy about the Nebraska “Cornhusker Kickback” compromise that initially won over Sen. Ben Nelson. Nelson has since asked to strike it from the record after it was poorly received in his own state, but it’s cemented in the Senate bill. This aide says that unless Senate Democrats will commit to repealing it through reconciliation, Pelosi can’t get to 218.

For now, senior lawmakers are working the phones furiously to talk up the idea of the Senate promising to retroactively unravel several distasteful components. If House Democrats make the good-faith deal, Pelosi is arguing that the Senate promise would be easy to keep. Reconciliation votes require only a 51-vote majority. Or even 50, in which case Vice President Biden could break the tie.

This aide says that leadership considers reconciliation, with the House conditioning its support on promised fixes in the Senate, as the much more strategic route than breaking the package into parts, which isn’t ideal because all of the parts are interlocking. Asked what the timetable would be for that, this aide says weeks, not months.