Senate Doesn't Want to Spend another Three Weeks on Reform

There's one thing that could make the "pass the bill" cry work: some help from the Senate.

The reality is, when Pelosi says she doesn't have 218, she doesn't have it--unless the House is assured that the bill will be fixed. That's a reality that has to be accepted as much as the reality that this has been the suckiest week that we've lived through politically since every week of the Bush administration. Pelosi can't do the heavy lifting on her own, it has to be shared by the Senate.

Or, at the very least, as Ezra says, "Don't forget to blame the Senate." From Politico:

Part of the negotiations center on whether Reid can provide an ironclad guarantee that the Senate will not leave the House in the lurch, aides said. If the House agrees to pass the Senate bill with a companion measure — or a "cleanup" bill — to make fixes, they want to know that the Senate will indeed pass it, too.

There was some talk among Senate leadership on Thursday of putting together a letter signed by 51 Democratic senators pledging to pass a cleanup bill if the House would pass the Senate bill. But that effort fizzled when support for it didn’t materialize, insiders said.

"The Senate moderates’ viewpoint is, ‘We passed our bill. We’re not going to spend three weeks on some other bill,’" said a Democratic lobbyist who represents clients pushing for reform.

As Ezra points out, the House passed a bill, too. "What was supposed to be happening right now is a package of compromise amendments that both the House and the Senate would pass." That point is critical, given the promises extended on every key issue that they would be "fixed in conference."

The Senate is not only a broken institution, it's threatening to break the whole legislative system by completely poisoning the relationship between the two chambers. It's at the breaking point, and the damage done on this bill--if not remedied--could doom any significant legislation for the remainder of the session, if not longer.

Democratic Senators need to hear from their constituents that we expect at least as much out of them as we do our representatives in the House. That means they do the job that we elected them to do. We don't have 100 kings. The legislative body is made up of two equal chambers, one doesn't get to dictate to the other.

There were 51 Senators willing to vote for the public option last fall. There was complete caucus consensus, minus Lieberman and Nelson, for Medicare buy-in. There should be 50 willing to sign this letter committing to the House that they will help get this done. They need to hear from us that we expect at least that much out of them. Contact your Democratic Senator(s) and ask if they are committed to using reconciliation to pass the small fixes necessary so health care reform can be signed into law. Report your results in this thread.

Contact information for individual Senators is below the fold. You can also call the Capitol switchboard at [phone] and ask to be connected to your Senator.

Critical update: E.J. Dionne has an important development:

The catch is that the House Democrats don’t believe the Senate Democrats will necessarily keep their word and pass the reconciliation bill containing the amendments. And it’s not only the question of trust: anyone who has watched the Senate for the last year can be forgiven for wondering if it is even functional enough (given Republican obstruction and a lack of cohesion in the Democratic caucus) to keep a promise sincerely made.

So here’s an idea, I have been told reliably, that leaders of both Houses are considering: The House would pass a version of the reconciliation bill containing the various amendments and send it to the Senate. The Senate would change it slightly (in ways that the House agreed to), which would require the House to vote on it again. Only after it got the revised reconciliation bill would the House take up the Senate bill. The House could then pass both bills and send both to the president. Problem solved, health-care passes, and we move on.

Not all the difficulties with this scenario have been worked through, and it is not a slam dunk. For one thing, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faces a revolt on her left against passing the Senate bill without changes. Some may still have to be persuaded to make sure it gets the votes it needs....

Nonetheless, for those (and I’m one of them) who believe in health-care reform -- and who think the Democrats would be committing suicide if they gave up on health care now -- it’s heartening to hear that serious people are making serious efforts to get a health bill through. In a pinch, I think that enacting the Senate bill into law without changes is far preferable to passing nothing. But I also understand that there are aspects of the Senate bill to which House members have legitimate objections. Solving this problem will require Democrats to pull themselves together across many lines of division -- notably between the House and the Senate, and between moderates and liberals. Can they do it? The answer to that question depends in part on leadership from President Obama. Can he do it?

Solving this does require the Dems to pull themselves together, which means the Senate, too. Some bending by the Senate to show good faith can make this burgeoning idea that Dionne says is in the works actually happen.

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Akaka, Daniel  - (D - HI)
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