There seems to be real movement in Congress to have a deal for the health summit. Greg Sargent reports that House and Senate Dem leaders have been working on, and are "edging towards" a deal on the package.
It’s been widely assumed that the House and Senate had hit a virtually insurmountable snag, and yesterday Robert Gibbs hinted that the White House might step in and forge a compromise of its own to take to the summit.
But leadership aides tell me that while the snag is still serious, there’s still a chance of an agreement. That would allow Dems to head into the summit with a united front.
Here’s the state of play. Right now, leadership aides say, the White House is in talks with House and Senate leaders over the so-called "Cadillac" tax. The House wants the threshold tweaked to make it more palatable to Dem members who oppose it. Some Senators adamantly oppose this. But the leadership is discussing various tweaks that could work.
Crucially, the House leadership may sign on to the compromise even without a tweak to the Cadillac tax, according to a senior leadership aide. That’s because the compromise is not going to be voted on — it’s merely to create something to take to the summit. So this logjam may still get resolved in time.
Presuming it does, the compromise bill that Obama would take to the summit would include a national health insurance exchange and tougher penalties on employers who don’t insure employees, leadership aides say.
Meanwhile, Senate Dem leaders are warming to the use of "reconciliation" to fix their bill after the summit, a senior Senate aide says.
"We’re getting closer," the Senate aide says of reconciliation, adding that the leadership is more likely to pursue that course if the summit doesn’t yield any kind of compromise with Republicans, as expected. "People want to get rid of health care. They want it off the agenda. The simplest answer is that reconciliation may be the most expedient way to do it."
On that front, Chris Bowers reports on the reconciliation whip count he started yesterday at Open Left.
As of right now, 21 Senators are on the record favoring using reconciliation to finish health care, and one is "not necessarily opposed" to the idea (Mark Pryor, Arkansas). Additionally, 9 Senators have signed onto the Bennet letter to include a public option in health care reform.
50 Senators are needed to win either campaign. Two are opposed to reconciliation, and four are opposed to the public option. We can suffer nine defections and still win.
This is real news. Public whip counts on major legislation should be a regular feature of political news, so I have no idea why no other media outlet hasn't already conducted this sort of survey. Still, I am happy to try and fill the gap. Together, let's make this happen--the public deserves to know where Senators stand on this crucial legislative matter.
The total is now actually ten Senators on the Bennet letter, with Sanders signing on since Chris wrote that. The rest are Sherrod Brown, Burris, Franken, Gillibrand, Kerry, Leahy, Merkley, and Whitehouse. That Pryor is open to the idea is signficant, as is the support of the senior Senators Kerry and Leahy. Using reconciliation to get the job done isn't some radical plan, it's a legitimate tool for governance.
There's ongoing discussion on this in Turkana's diary.