From POLITICO.com
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday floated the idea of a two-track plan for health care reform — with Congress pursuing easier-to-pass incremental changes now and comprehensive reform later.
“We believe that it’s possible to have comprehensive health care reform as we go forward, but at the same time, it can be on another track where some things can just be passed outside of that legislation, and we’ll be doing both,” Pelosi said in an interview with POLITICO.
Pelosi reiterated that ramming the existing Senate bill through the House is not an option.
“There is no support in my caucus in the present form, at this time, for the Senate bill,” she said. “I don’t see that as an option. But I do think that we’re in range to make some improvements in it that will make it more affordable for the middle class, which is essential. Hold the insurance companies more accountable. Those two things are essential to us."
Well! Im not sure where this leaves us with health care reform. It certainly sounds like Pelosi is leaning toward passing the Senate bill with provisions that improvements and more reform will be passed down the road, including a public option, even though she says it's not an option. What else is she referring to when she speaks of correcting the bill incrementally?
I think Pelosi is correct to call for a reduction or freeze on defense spending if Obama seeks to do the same to other programs. There's no reason to keep military spending at it's current levels if we are withdrawing from Iraq, right?
One thing is certain, Pelosi is no pushover. She shows leadership. Something we can use more of in the Senate and in the White House. Both President Obama and Harry Reid should take notice that Pelosi is not afraid to step on Republican toes, and that's the same behavior that they should both be demonstrating. That's why they were elected and indeed, if they fail to do so, it's at their own political peril.
I support our president. He's done some really great things in his first year, especially given the extraordinary and grave circumstances that were handed to him. Im not ready to indict him as a loser, one year into his term, as so many people around here seem so apt to do. It's not the immediate gratification that counts, it's the long term gratification that really matters. I stand by his side, and I reserve the right to voice my opposition when appropriate.
I also applaud Speaker Pelosi for actually doing what she has always said she would do....lead!
*More on Pelosi's call for defense cuts as soon as the information is released.
Update:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that defense spending shouldn’t be exempt from President Barack Obama’s proposal for a three-year freeze on federal spending.
In his State of the Union address Wednesday night, Obama is expected to address worries about the federal deficit by proposing a three-year freeze on all “non-security” spending. But just hours before the speech, Pelosi told POLITICO that any spending freeze should be “across the board.”
“Everybody has to make a sacrifice,” the San Francisco Democrat said in an interview conducted as part of POLITICO’s “Inside Obama’s Washington” video series. “If you’re asking everybody else in the country who has an interaction with the federal government – and that means our states and cities and all the rest, too – to cut back, then I think we have to subject every federal dollar to the very harshest scrutiny.”
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