John Podesta called on the senate to fix the health care bill before the house takes action. Podesta was the head of the Obama transition team. He was Bill Clinton's chief of staff for several years. He is currently president of the Center for American Progress, one of the most influential DC think tanks.
"My own view...is that you have to insure that the Senate goes first," John Podesta told me after an event with leading union figures at the Center for American Progress this morning. "You have to have the fix before the package can pass the House. I just didn't see any way, if you will, that the House was going to bet" on the Senate acting later.
"It seems me that asking the House to take a flier on what the Senate can do--we've kind of watched that move all along the past year, it hasn't worked out that good. So it's incumbent upon the Senate to really go first," Podesta added.
The senate bill, as is, is not going to pass the house. This is obvious at this point. The votes are just not there. We MUST push for simultaneous sidecar reconciliation if we want a health reform bill.
PLEASE call your senators and demand they support reconciliation fixes to the senate bill to be passed so the house can pass reform. Call your house member and ask that they push the fixes via simultaneous sidecar reconciliation as quickly as they can. Tell them we want a GOOD health care bill, not the unfixed senate bill. We demand a bill, and we demand a GOOD bill. We are so close. Help push this over the finish line.
ACTION UPDATE: CALL YOUR DEMOCRATIC SENATOR AND TELL THEM TO FIX THE SENATE BILL FIRST VIA RECONCILIATION! PLEASE REPORT YOUR CALL HERE!