Pelosi Aide Calls Democratic Plan to Pass Health Care Bill "A Trick"

[CARLHAYDEN]

From The Atlantic:

Pelosi Aide Calls Democratic Plan to Pass Health Care Bill "A Trick"

While everyone else is wondering how Obama could possibly have thought it a good idea to praise bankers, I'll be pondering this gem from Nancy Pelosi's top health care aide:

"In comments reported by Congress Daily, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's top health care aide Wendell Primus admitted top Democrats have already decided on the strategy to pass the Senate's pro-abortion, government-run health care bill.

"Primus explained that the Senate will use the controversial reconciliation strategy that will have the House approve the Senate bill and both the House and Senate okaying changes to the bill that the Senate will sign off on by preventing Republicans from filibustering.

"'The trick in all of this is that the president would have to sign the Senate bill first, then the reconciliation bill second, and the reconciliation bill would trump the Senate bill,' Primus said at the National Health Policy Conference hosted by Academy Health and Health Affairs.

"'There's a certain skill, there's a trick, but I think we'll get it done,' he said."

What on earth possessed him to refer to budget reconciliation as a trick?  If they run the bill through this way, this is going to be the lead-in to every Republican ad between now and the election.

[anvi]

Well, it was Primus' quote, not Pelosi's.  But yeah, it's stupid to call it a "trick."  Bush used budget reconcilliation five times during his presidency to get bills passed.

And if Republicans want to run campaign ads against the bill's passage, they should go ahead and do that.  Nobody will care about process in November for a bill passed in March, and the Republicans will be running ads against the Democratic party insisting on health care coverage for everyone.  Campaign against guarenteed issue...be my guest.     

[CARLHAYDEN]

Well, it was Primus' quote, not Pelosi's.  But yeah, it's stupid to call it a "trick."  Bush used budget reconcilliation five times during his presidency to get bills passed.

And if Republicans want to run campaign ads against the bill's passage, they should go ahead and do that.  Nobody will care about process in November for a bill passed in March, and the Republicans will be running ads against the Democratic party insisting on health care coverage for everyone.  Campaign against guarenteed issue...be my guest.      

Oh, then are you disagreeing with Obama that public opposition to the bill is largely a reaction to 'the process'?  

And what makes you think that the Senate bill will pass the House?

A couple of the members of the House who voted for the House bill last year have left the House (one by resignation and one by death).

As the Senate bill does not have the House bill's prohibition on funding of abortion, three members who voted for the House bill last year are on record as stating the will vote against the Senate bill.

Finally, a number of members of the House who voted for the bill last year have publicly expressed reluctance (to put it moderately) to vote for the Senate bill.  

Remember. the Roll Call vote (No.887) on HR 3965 was 220 to 115.

[Holmes]

Does Pelosi really have an aide that calls it "pro-abortion, government-run health care bill"?

[anvi]

I'm not applauding the process at all.  I think some of the deals that were made to pass the bill in the House and Senate were disgraceful.  I do think that the public finds such deals distasteful, and should.  But we're talking about the upcoming campaigns in November and in two and a half years, and I'm saying that the American people have a short memory, and a lot of cynical disregard, when it comes to process stories.  If the campaign argument over this bill in November is the Republican objection to the process of its passage vs. the Democratic tauting the substance of guarenteed issue, I think process will have a hard time carrying the day of that argument.

Do I think something like the Senate bill can pass the House?  I suspect it can, and the reason I suspect it can is that most politicians are...well, politicains and not kamizaze pilots.  A win is better than a loss, and at the end of the day, passing some health care reform rather than none is better for Democrats in the House.   The other relevant fact here is that the opposition to current health care legislation in the polls is more complicated than the raw numbers.  Lots of Democrats oppose the current forms of the bills because they are not all they wanted, they fall short of their utopian vision of how health care should look.  But I'll go ahead and predict with some confidence that those same Democrats are more likely to be motivated to come to the polls and vote for their Rep or Senator if they moved the health care ball down the field rather than dropping the ball completely so close to passage.  I think the Democrats, in any case, fare better at the polls fending off process attacks and defending substance than they do if they totally blow it.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Pelosi  herself has said many off the wall things from what I remember.

[Joe Republic]

Oh my god.  Is this really what passes for 'news' these days?  Talk about manufactured outrage...

[Zarn]

Pelosi  herself has said many off the wall things from what I remember.

You think he writes her lines?

[Bo]

Pelosi  herself has said many off the wall things from what I remember.

You think he writes her lines?

Of course.

[Sewer]

Does Pelosi really have an aide that calls it "pro-abortion, government-run health care bill"?