While Reid and the rest of the Senate are dragging their feet on health care reform, Speaker Pelosi continues to keep the House on track to pass health care reform. In response to the growing Blue Dog opposition of health care reform, Speaker Pelosi has publicly stepped up the pressure on the Blue Dogs to pass the health care bill.
In order to meet Obama's August deadline on health care reform, Pelosi has said that she is willing to keep the house in session over recess.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that Democrats are getting increasingly close to a health care reform vote on the House floor and need to seize the moment, and she pledged to work through recess if need be.
In an obvious effort to downplay the blue dog opposition, she also says that the House currently has the votes to pass the health care reform bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday there is "no question" that she has the votes to pass healthcare reform legislation even as key Democrats retreated from their predictions of progress.
The Senate, on the other hand, has come to a standstill on health care with Baucus refusing to release the finance committee's bill. While Baucus continues to stall, Reid has been missing in action and Majority Whip Durbin has apparently given up any hope of getting a Senate bill before recess.
"We’re going to take a little longer to get it right," Durbin told The Hill when asked about the oft-stated goal of a vote on or before Aug. 7, when a monthlong Senate recess begins. "Initially we had hoped for a full vote by then, but I don’t think it’s going to be possible."
In the absence of any Senate leadership, Speaker Pelosi has started to publicly pressure the Senate to move on Health Care.
Pelosi (D-Calif.) said some kind of announcement from the Senate Finance Committee would help with negotiations with the Blue Dogs in the House. "I think that some of the negotiations that are going on now will be facilitated by the Senate doing something, because it removes some questions as to what are they doing? What is it that they are doing? I say that respectfully," she said.
When she was asked if the Senate might take that statement as license for delay, she said that it was meant to be the opposite. "I think that they should take it as more pressure for them to go forward, because this could be a chicken and egg forever. And we're not ever going to be a chicken," she said.
You have to wonder if at some point, the Senate Democratic caucus will get embarrassed about being held hostage by Baucus.
Updated: Democrats Tire of Baucus Talks?
Senate Democrats are increasingly frustrated by the secrecy and duration of Finance Chairman Max Baucus’ (D-Mont.) bipartisan talks on health care reform, with some saying it could undermine Democratic support for the bill.
Democrats both on and off the Finance Committee said the briefings they get about the six negotiators’ progress are too vague.
Also in that article:
"Baucus is running out the clock, and the White House knows this," said one Democratic source. "I think he’s trying to curry favor with Republicans," who feel the process has been arbitrarily rushed.