President Obama to Capitol Hill to Push for Health Care Bill

Dec. 6, 2009 — -- President Obama plans to go to Capitol Hill on Sunday to bolster Democratic support for health care reform legislation as the debate on the bill reaches a critical point.

In a rare weekend session, senators debated the president's health care overhaul bill Saturday as the Democrats' self-imposed deadline to pass health care legislation by the end of this year approaches.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid opened the Saturday session arguing Americans don't get weekends off from losing their health insurance.

"The American people don't get weekends off from this injustice," Reid, D-Nev., said on the Senate floor. "Bankruptcy doesn't keep bankers' hours. They don't go away just because it's Sunday or Saturday. The pain is still there and so our work continues this weekend. It will continue until we give this nation's citizens a health insurance system that works for them."

The sparring and finger-pointing between Republicans and Democrats continued to dominate the Senate debate.

"If we have to be here today, fine. and tomorrow, fine. and all next week, fine. and next weekend. and if we have to, right through the holidays -- the American people are looking to us to get this job done," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, on the Senate floor.

"No matter how much our friends on the Republican side want to delay, delay, delay, and try to kill this bill, it's not going to happen," Harkin said, "This bill is unstoppable because the American people are demanding that we do something about it. We're responding to that and we're going to get the job done."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell argued Saturday Republicans are responding to public pressure to oppose the legislation.

"What I hear the American people saying to us, 'vote for this bill and you'll be history," McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor. "This is not in the gray area. The American people are asking us to stop this bill and start over."

In an effort to undermine support for the legislation, Republicans Saturday highlighted the bill's cuts in Medicare payments to home health agencies over the next decade.

In the most heated exchange of the day so far, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., accused Democrats of hatching a "deal" with medical industry lobbyists behind closed doors to get their support for the bill despite cuts to Medicare home health services.

"I don't know what the deal was cut that bought them, but I know deals have been going on and I know they are unsavory," McCain said.

It was the latest GOP effort to highlight the legislation's more than $400 billion in cuts to projected Medicare payments for private insurance companies and other providers.

A Republican amendment that would have sent the bill back to the Senate Finance Committee to restore home health care cuts failed 41-53 Saturday. A Democratic amendment stating that nothing in the bill would result in the reduction of home health care benefits passed 96-0.

At a news conference Republican leader McConnell was asked to speculate on why Democrats were keeping the Senate working on weekends. He argued Democrats thought Republicans would blink if forced to work on weekends, but he vowed they would not.

But even among Democrats, deep divisions remain, guaranteeing a rocky road as the debate approaches its final phases, with a vote expected by month's end.

Moderate and liberal Democrats and a few moderate Republicans are negotiating behind closed doors on a health care bill that would get the 60 votes it needs to pass on the floor.

On Thursday, senators voted on four amendments in the 2,000-plus-page legislation, mostly on party lines. Nearly 72 amendments have been proposed for the bill, crafted chiefly by Reid.

Friday, Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, introduced what they hailed as a "tri-partisan" amendment expanding measures in the Reid bill and introducing more cost containments. But even as the three promoted health care overhaul and their joint proposal, they publicly sparred over provisions, mainly the option of a government-sponsored health care plan, more popularly called the "public option."

Lawmakers are planning to work through this weekend -- in what could be one of many firsts -- to push through a health care bill.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday the White House is still aiming for the end of the year timeline for a health care bill, and even though President Obama will be in Hawaii for the holidays, lawmakers shouldn't rule out having him sign a bill, if need be.

"If the bill is passed the president would be happy to sign it in Hawaii. I can think of any number of picturesque locations," Gibbs told reporters.

Here is a look at some of the key points of debate in the Senate bill, and where things stand:

"Abortion and public option are really the major obstacles at this point," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters on a conference call Friday. "We feel like we're moving to the point where soon we can talk about an endgame where we have an agreement that can bring together 60 votes but we're not there yet."

The internal disagreements over how a public option might be framed reflects the wide gap in the Democratic party. Some, such as Specter, support a more robust public option plan.

"It isn't a single payer [system] and it is not going to add to the deficit. It's going to be a level playing field," the former Republican said at the joint press conference with Collins and Lieberman. "I would invite everyone to read the fine print."

Asked whether his final vote will be determined on the public option, Specter responded: "I'm not going to make any concessions... on a strong public option."

On Thursday, Sen. Ron Wyden, D- Ore., said on ABC's "Top Line" that the public option as structured in the Senate health care bill would result in a pool insuring only the unhealthiest, unless it's available to all Americans.

"My concern is you can't let the public option be something of a health care ghetto," Wyden said. "Right now it looks like the folks that are going to be getting into it are people that haven't had insurance. The evidence shows that those are folks who didn't get check-ups, didn't get prevention, didn't get chronic care or maintenance."

On the opposite side of the spectrum, some of Wyden and Specter's own party members want to nix the option altogether.

Reid is walking a fine line with the public option. He has attempted to appease all sides by offering a public option plan in an insurance exchange, yet it would be one that's only open to the uninsured and which states would have the option to opt out of. Nevertheless, he could lose votes of his own party members and that of the lone Republican who sided with the Democrats, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, who has repeatedly said she does not want to see a public option in the final bill.

Lieberman has said he would filibuster with the GOP if a public option was included, and today he said it was a "foot in the door" to a single payer, government-run health care system.

"I think it would be wrong and terrible for our country," Lieberman told reporters Friday. "I think it would result in worse health care, more expensive health care. ... I think the better political compromise is to get the public option out."

The House bill, passed in early November, offers a public option, although the Congressional Budget Office forecasted that premiums for it would be more expensive than for policies sold by private firms.

"This is a philosophical difference so it is not easily compromised," Collins, a moderate Republican, told reporters Friday.