GOP Rep. Dreier: ‘Process is Substance’; House Democrats Will be ‘Accountable’ for Special Deals

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: With House Democrats trying to find a way to pass health care reform, Republicans are serving notice that they’ll be held to account for the “Cornhusker Kickback” and similar special deals cut in the Senate, if they move forward as planned. On ABC’s “Top Line” today, Rep. David Dreier, the ranking Republican on the House Rules Committee, said his Democratic colleagues should not trust the Senate to make good on a package of “fixes” through the budget reconciliation process. “The notion [of] members of the House of Representatives having a great deal of confidence in our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol is not a very well-founded one,” Dreier, R-Calif., told us. “There could be a real, real problem — real problem created there.” “And so while people — Democrats are sensitive and the Democratic leadership is sensitive to the notion of saying that an attempt is being made to ram this thing through, the fact of the matter is that’s exactly what they’re doing,” Dreier said. Though parliamentary roadblocks exist, Dreier acknowledged that Democrats might be able to duck a straight vote on the Senate-passed health care bill, if they pass a special “rule” that would deem the Senate bill to have been passed as part of the budget reconciliation package.  “They can do it if they are able to get 216 votes,” he said, “but I will tell you something: The American people get it. The one thing that I’ve found is that they’ve learned the process is substance.” Once the House acts, he said, “there are going to be lots of changes that senators are going to want to make. So these guys are going to be left — the Democrats who would vote in favor of this are going to be responsible for the ‘Cornhusker Kickback,’ the ‘Louisiana Purchase,’ ‘Gator-aid,’ and all these items. And they have to be accountable to their constituents for that.” Dreier — whom Democrats sometimes accused of bending protocols to muscle things through when he was chairman of the Rules Committee — said his future leadership wouldn’t include such machinations in the future, should Republicans regain control of Congress. “Absolutely. I mean — I can tell you that it won’t,” Dreier said. “I won’t say that I did a perfect job as chairman of the Rules Committee, but I will tell you that if we have the opportunity to be in the majority again, and I have the opportunity to chair the Rules Committee, we will do it much differently from the Democrats , and even differently than we did it in the past. Because we believe in more transparency, openness and accountability.” Watch the segment with Rep. David Dreier HERE. We also checked in with The New York Times’ Adam Nagourney, about the health care push and the 2010 implications, plus some White House palace intrigue. Watch that portion of “Top Line” HERE.