Self-Executing: Seeing blue over green, as process fills another health care void

By Rick Klein: It’d be a whole lot easier to talk policy rather than process if the policy actually existed in an actual document that’s actually available to the public. With a price tag attached and everything. It’s a day to see green, and it’s a day to feel lucky — lucky enough even that President Obama sits down for an interview on Fox News. Yet the health care waiting game stretches into another day of whip counts and parsing and promising and procedural wrangling — just the sorts of things the American public loves to tune in to, and should really love about an overhaul of domestic policy. If you’ve got any magical deficit-cutting solutions, this would be a nice time: Unless the Congressional Budget Office comes back with something workable (read: under $1 trillion) by the end of the day, we’re spilling into another week of health care. And unless it comes back with something that can tell a House member who voted no last time that it’s OK to line up as a yes, it’s going to take longer than that to get to 216. “The final piece of the package was held up by concerns that it would do too little to reduce the nation’s budget deficit,” The Washington Post’s Lori Montgomery reports. “But virtually everything House Democrats want to achieve in their package costs money.” Bloomberg’s James Rowley and Nicole Gaouette: “The Democrats, who had expected a final cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office as early as last week, have to show that a bill amending legislation the Senate passed in December will reduce the federal budget deficit by $2 billion over the first five years and not add to the deficit afterward.” Soon: “They’ve been giving us numbers all along, trying to come up with a final product. And we expect that soon,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “We will do what is necessary to pass a health care bill,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday. “We think we’ll get the votes,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told George “O’Stephanopoulos” on “Good Morning America” Wednesday. “We think we’ll have the votes when the roll is called.” (And: “We’re going to have a clean up-or-down vote on the Senate bill — that will be on the rule,” Hoyer said. “This is not an unusual procedure.”) “Obviously they don’t have the votes yet,” countered House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va. “The latest news about this health care bill is perhaps there is an additional cost, that it would push the bill over a trillion dollars, which would result in yet more Medicare cuts for seniors.” Price of pain: “To make the numbers come out right, Democrats said, they are considering bigger cuts in payments to private Medicare Advantage plans, which cover about one-fourth of the 45 million Medicare beneficiaries. And they may ask pharmaceutical companies to pay more to help close a gap in Medicare coverage of prescription drugs,” David M. Herszenhorn and Robert Pear write in The New York Times.  More time to see evidence: “A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll indicates that 48% of voters consider the bill a bad idea and 36% a good idea, but several other recent polls have showed the margin much closer. And individual elements of the plan, such as requiring insurers to accept customers with existing illnesses, have broad support, Democrats note,” Naftali Bendavid reports in The Wall Street Journal. “They also predict that the aura of victory that would surround passage of the biggest piece of social legislation in decades would boost its popularity,” he continues. “Republicans said Democrats were deluding themselves if they believed voters’ anger toward the plan wouldn’t lead to a November bloodbath.” (And it’s 59-33 wrong-track-right-track, and 57 percent disapproval of the president’s handling of health care, in the WSJ/NBC poll.) Plus: “The survey found a 21-point enthusiasm gap between the parties, with 67% of Republicans saying they are very interested in the November elections, compared with 46% of Democrats,” the Journal’s Peter Wallsten and Jean Spencer report. This is where process matters, again: “An obscure parliamentary maneuver favored by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suddenly ignited Tuesday as the latest tinder in the year-long partisan strife over reshaping the nation’s health-care system, triggering debate over the strategy’s legitimacy and political wisdom,” The Washington Post’s Amy Goldstein writes. “The controversy over an arcane point of procedure is the latest example of how Republicans, though virtually powerless to change the content of the healthcare overhaul, have tried to hobble Democrats by discrediting the legislative process,” the Los Angeles Times’ Janet Hook and Noam N. Levey report. “Throughout the healthcare debate, Republicans have denounced closed-door meetings and horse-trading for votes.” “The attacks by GOP leaders underscore an offensive by Republicans hoping to either derail Obama’s top legislative priority by scaring off wavering Democratic lawmakers, or to bank arguments they can employ against Democratic candidates in this fall’s congressional campaigns,” the AP’s Alan Fram writes. “Instead of arguing over health insurance or costs, lawmakers are now squabbling over concepts like ‘deeming’ and ‘self-executing rules,’ ” NPR’s Julie Rovner reports.  “The Republican playbook ranged from attacking the process to focusing political heat on vulnerable Democrats back in their districts to demanding television cameras in the Rules Committee,” Roll Call’s Steven T. Dennis and Tory Newmyer report. First, a vote on the vote… From the resolution being offered Wednesday by House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio: “Resolved, That the Committee on Rules may not report a rule or order that provides for disposition of the Senate amendments to H.R. 3590, an Act entitled The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, unless such rule or order provides for … a requirement that the Speaker put the question on disposition of the Senate amendments and that the yeas and nays be considered as ordered thereon.” And, of course, it’s vote by vote… Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has a 10 am ET press conference Wednesday to announce his vote — even though he’s already said he’s a no, again: “If he’s been persuaded to vote yes on health care reform this week, he will be the first previous no vote to publicly declare he is flipping to yes,” ABC’s David Chalian reports. And he runs through the math: “There is no margin for error. And this remains somewhat fluid as Pelosi searches for her final handful of votes.” “A small but very significant step towards passing health care in the House,” ABC’s Jonathan Karl reported on “GMA,” filling in a “1″ on his white board for the first potential “no” to become a “yes.” Not enough phone calls yet? “I’ll vote the way my district wants me to vote,”Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., tells McClatchy’s David Lightman. “I am leaning strongly in favor of the Senate bill,” Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said to Time’s Michael Scherer. Good luck keeping track… “Business groups are spending $1 million a day to depict the bill as a job killer in television ads in the home districts of 26 wavering House Democrats. A new ad barrage from supporters of the legislation went up Tuesday in 11 districts, some overlapping. And unions are threatening some of those lawmakers to come through for Obama — or pay the price in the fall elections,” the AP’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar reports. Twisting arms until they break… “We’re having donors, even donors outside of our district, that are being called and asked to urge support” for the bill, a senior aide to a conservative Democrat tells Politico’s Patrick O’Connor and Jonathan Allen. “If you want to play Chicago-style politics, and that’s what this is, then we will come out firmly against it.” “No representative likes to be treated like a potted plant,” Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., tells USA Today. Maybe not reading from the same book: “Pelosi and House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.) have indicated Democrats have the votes, but Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told McClatchy Newspapers that a vote could be postponed until after the Easter/Passover recess. Clyburn pulled back from that statement Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters he was joking,” The Hill’s Jared Allen and Jeffrey Young report. Primary concerns…. “Senior Obama campaign official Steve Hildebrand is eyeing a Democratic primary challenge to South Dakota Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a decision he said hinges largely on whether she votes against health care reform later this week,” CNN’s Mark Preston reports. “I want to see how she votes on health care,” Hildebrand said. “If the vote is very, very close and we lose it or come close to losing it, I will take a serious look at challenging her.” Next piece of the sale: “The once-fierce battle between the White House and Fox News, which played out in public last fall, appears to have died down,” Politico’s Michael Calderone reports. “Fox News anchor Bret Baier will interview President Obama [Wednesday] night on ‘Special Report.’ ” Not quite a victory-lap interview…. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is profiled by The New York Times’ Carl Hulse and Adam Nagourney: “In the short run at least, his approach has worked. For more than a year, he pleaded and cajoled to keep his caucus in line. He deployed poll data. He warned against the lure of the short-term attention to be gained by going bipartisan, and linked Republican gains in November to showing voters they could hold the line against big government.” “On the major issues — not just health care, but financial regulation and the economic stimulus package, among others — Mr. McConnell has held Republican defections to somewhere between minimal and nonexistent, allowing him to slow the Democratic agenda if not defeat aspects of it. He has helped energize the Republican base, expose divisions among Democrats and turn the health care fight into a test of the Democrats’ ability to govern.” Tastes of what’s to come: “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, already one of Washington’s largest lobbying groups, is gearing up to play a major role in this year’s midterm elections on a scale that rivals the nation’s two main political parties,” Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post. “Modeled in part on Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign juggernaut, the group has built a grass-roots operation known as Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It has a member list of 6 million names, aimed at lobbying on legislation and swaying voters to back preferred candidates, primarily Republicans, in battleground areas, officials said.” Defusing some controversy, regarding Israel: “White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, Monday night that it’s not true that Vice President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel’s hardline position on building settlements in disputed territories is endangering the lives of US troop, as has been reported in the media, a White House official tells ABC News,” Jake Tapper reports. Tuesday afternoon, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren said: “I was flagrantly misquoted about remarks I made in a confidential briefing this past Saturday.” It’s Census time, and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is serious about her partial boycott: “We plan to fill out in my house how many people that there are in our family and send our form back in,” Bachmann said on ABC’s “Top Line” Tuesday. Tough talk: “The reality is that we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will never appear in an American courtroom,” Attorney General Eric Holder said on the Hill Tuesday, per ABC’s Jaston Ryan. Annals of friendship — former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., in Phoenix on Tuesday: “The people who really want to see government brought under control are going to recognize there’s no more consistent advocate for reining in federal spending and ending earmarks and excess than John McCain,” Romney told the Arizona Republic’s Dan Nowicki. “You want there to be some Republican lions in the Senate, and John McCain is one of those.” This will surely make it stop… “Birthers beware: Hawaii may start ignoring your repeated requests for proof that President Barack Obama was born here,” the AP’s Mark Niesse reports. “As the state continues to receive e-mails seeking Obama’s birth certificate, the state House Judiciary Committee heard a bill Tuesday permitting government officials to ignore people who won’t give up.” Tea Partiers win a round — or at least don’t lose one: “A state appeals court today ruled New Jersey’s secretary of state must accept a petition a citizens group filed to recall U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, but left open the question of whether the removal effort itself is constitutional,” Peggy Ackerman reports for the Newark Star-Ledger. “The three-judge panel stayed its ruling to give Menendez (D-N.J.) the opportunity to appeal to the state Supreme Court.. The senator has 45 days to file an appeal but did not say today whether he would. He called the recall effort a ‘political stunt’ that won’t distract him from doing his job.” A bracket you can believe in? President Obama reveals his full men’s and women’s brackets at noon ET on ESPN — and ABC’s Karen Travers has an early taste. It’s a whole lot of 1′s and 2′s: “The hoopster-in-chief has Kansas, Kentucky, Kansas State and Villanova in his men’s Final Four and on the women’s side, predicts the last four teams will be Connecticut, Stanford, Tennessee and Notre Dame.” The Kicker: “I never stop whipping.” — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “There’s only so often you can vote against your constituents before they start voting against you.” — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, to Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren.
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