Here's great news from Greg Sargent at The Plum Line!
White House aides have privately told Dem Congressional aides that the White House supports the House passing the Senate bill with a reconciliation fix, something that could give a bit more momentum to that approach, according to two Congressional staffers familiar with the discussions.
The private communications will lend a bit of cheer to those who had hoped the White House would use its heft to help Congress break its logjam by endorsing a specific route to getting reform done.
Obama and the White House have not publicly stated a preference on how they’d like Congressional Dems to proceed. But White House aides have privately made it clear to the Dem leadership that they support the approach many Dems are coalescing behind: The House passing the Senate bill, with fixes made by the Senate via reconciliation, the sources say.
"In staff level discussions, the White House has made it clear that it supports making changes to the Senate bill through reconciliation because that is the only way to pass comprehensive health care reform," one of the Dem Congressional aides familiar with ongoing talks tells me.
YES---fix the damn Senate bill first and then pass it!
This may very well explain why Senator Reid and Senator Max Baucus went to a meeting of conservative Senate Democrats and told them to keep their mouths shut about the reconciliation strategy.
Reid and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus dropped by the regular Tuesday meeting of Senate centrists — and asked them to withhold judgment on using reconciliation to pass health care reform until they see a package. Senate moderates have been among the most vocal skeptics of the procedural maneuver, warning that it would further taint attempts to work across the aisle.
There now seems to be a broad agreement between Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid that the House can start the reconciliation fix first with a revenue bill in the House, and then have the Senate pass the reconciliation fix. At that point, the House would then pass the Senate bill only after the reconciliation fix has been passed by the Senate. This sounds workable to me.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not insisting that the Senate pass the reconciliation bill first, ahead of House action on both the reconciliation bill and the comprehensive Senate bill, aides said Tuesday.
Pelosi wants the reconciliation bill to pass both chambers before the House takes up the Senate bill, not that the Senate must go first on reconciliation, aides said.
Aides were attempting to clarify conflicting interpretations of her comments regarding reconciliation during a conference call with progressive bloggers.
It appears to be accepted, at this point, that the House must pass the reconciliation bill first because revenue measures must start in that chamber. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said as much Tuesday as he left a meeting with Pelosi.
And Speaker Pelosi is pushing on full steam to repeal the anti-trust exemption for private insurers, and she's bringing it up for a floor vote next week! If this does indeed pass the House, then I'll be working in any way I can to get this passed in the Senate as well in spite of the long odds.
And please KEEP UP the push to fix the Senate bill first via reconciliation and then pass it! Call your Senator and your Representative if you can today! All it takes is just five minutes to pick up that phone, dial in the number, and CALL.
CALL YOUR DEMOCRATIC SENATOR AND TELL THEM TO FIX THE SENATE BILL FIRST VIA RECONCILIATION! PLEASE REPORT YOUR CALL HERE!
CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND TELL THEM TO PUSH FOR RECONCILIATION AND THEN PASS THE SENATE BILL! PLEASE REPORT YOUR CALL HERE!
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