Democrats Focus on GOP Senators From Maine
WASHINGTON — Anxious about how little maneuvering room the weekend victory by Senate Democrats on health care provided, Obama administration officials and their Congressional allies are stepping up overtures to select Senate Republicans in hopes of winning their ultimate support.
The two moderate Republican senators from Maine, Susan M. Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, both say Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, reached out to them after he unveiled the Senate measure, encouraging them to bring forward their ideas and concerns.
Ms. Collins also received a personal visit from a high-level Obama emissary, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a former senator who worked closely with her on various issues as part of a bipartisan coalition.
After the party-line vote of 60-39 on Saturday night to move to a full health care debate, including votes on significant amendments, both sides are acutely aware of the wavering in their ranks, and trying to figure out how to play the numbers.
Republican leaders conceded that the Democratic victory, while not conclusive, improved the odds that a bill would pass. “Ordinarily, when you do start debate on a bill like this, it ends up passing,” Senator John Kyl of Arizona, the assistant majority leader, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “When these senators, for example, say, well, we’ll vote to start the bill but that doesn’t guarantee our vote at the end, the pressure at the end of the process is enormous.”
Unlike most Senate Republicans, who dug in deeply against the health bill as it survived the crucial preliminary vote, the two Maine senators have left themselves open to considering a vote for some version of the overhaul if they can win significant changes in the measure during a Senate debate that is expected to last for weeks.
“I have ruled out voting for this bill but I still very much want to vote for a bill and that is why I am continuing to have discussions,” said Ms. Collins. “I still cling to the belief that it is possible for a group of us to come together and rewrite the bill in a way that would cause it to have greater support.” Considering the effort it took Mr. Reid to rally the minimum number of 58 Democrats and two independents he needed simply to begin the full debate after Thanksgiving, he and other Democrats would no doubt like to secure additional supporters as the bill wends its way through the Senate.
A handful of the senators who voted somewhat reluctantly to let the floor fight proceed have pointedly not promised to cooperate in the event of a later filibuster, which will likely stand in the way of final passage, providing further incentives to try to convert a Republican or two.
“If the public option is still in there, the only resort we have is to say no at the end to reporting the bill off the floor,” said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats and was on one of the 60 Senators voting to let the debate begin. “We have a health care system that’s in trouble, but we have an economic crisis, and I don’t want to fix the health care system in a way that creates more of an economic crisis.” He appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Although the two Maine senators both adhered to the Republican party line when they voted on Saturday, when they spoke on the Senate floor beforehand they stayed aloof from the assaults on the measure orchestrated by other Republicans.
Both senators have been talking privately with Democrats and independents about devising joint amendments in such areas as cost control, and both said they would continue to look for compromises.
“I’m prepared to continue to work to improve the legislation,” said Ms. Snowe, who said how her proposals are handled will “be a true test of whether there is a will to improve this legislation in a non-ideological, bipartisan manner.”
Ms. Snowe was a central participant in the months of closed-door talks by the Senate Finance Committee and was the only Republican to endorse the panel’s proposal. But she was sidelined as Mr. Reid and other Democratic leaders took over the job of assembling the current measure from the work of the two committees and the House.
Once Mr. Reid, in response to appeals from a majority of Senate Democrats, added a public health insurance option to his legislation, he lost Ms. Snowe, who favors a proposal to trigger the creation of a public plan only in states where other provisions of the bill fail to make affordable insurance widely available.
She said that she fears Mr. Reid has locked himself into a procedural dilemma in which opponents of a public option cannot produce 60 votes to change the measure but supporters of the measure cannot muster 60 votes to pass it, leading to a parliamentary stalemate.
The main substantive objection aired by Ms. Collins is that the measure has focused largely on extending coverage to Americans without insurance while failing to do enough to restrain the costs of both insurance coverage and the delivery of care.
“The high cost of health care is what is driving up the cost of insurance premiums, causing many middle-income families and small businesses to struggle to meet these needs,” she said.
While the two women are the main focus of Democrats at the moment, officials said they will be weighing opportunities to appeal to others. They also hope that any final joint House-Senate proposal could attract at least a few Republicans in each chamber.
White House health care experts have been in regular contact with Ms. Snowe, officials said, and Mr. Reid said he will continue to pursue Republican partners.
“We reach out to our Republican colleagues, and we would like to work with them,” Mr. Reid said. “But everyone should understand we’re going to do a bill. We hope that we don’t have to do it with Democrats, but if we have to, we will.”
Ms. Snowe said that she still hopes it does not come to that.
“This is already an undertaking of historic proportions,” she said. “Let us ensure that this isn’t the only historic legislation passed in the last half century on purely partisan lines.”
WASHINGTON — Anxious about how little maneuvering room the weekend victory by Senate Democrats on health care provided, Obama administration officials and their Congressional allies are stepping up overtures to select Senate Republicans in hopes of winning their ultimate support.
The two moderate Republican senators from Maine, Susan M. Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, both say Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, reached out to them after he unveiled the Senate measure, encouraging them to bring forward their ideas and concerns.
Ms. Collins also received a personal visit from a high-level Obama emissary, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a former senator who worked closely with her on various issues as part of a bipartisan coalition.
After the party-line vote of 60-39 on Saturday night to move to a full health care debate, including votes on significant amendments, both sides are acutely aware of the wavering in their ranks, and trying to figure out how to play the numbers.
Republican leaders conceded that the Democratic victory, while not conclusive, improved the odds that a bill would pass. “Ordinarily, when you do start debate on a bill like this, it ends up passing,” Senator John Kyl of Arizona, the assistant majority leader, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “When these senators, for example, say, well, we’ll vote to start the bill but that doesn’t guarantee our vote at the end, the pressure at the end of the process is enormous.”
Unlike most Senate Republicans, who dug in deeply against the health bill as it survived the crucial preliminary vote, the two Maine senators have left themselves open to considering a vote for some version of the overhaul if they can win significant changes in the measure during a Senate debate that is expected to last for weeks.
“I have ruled out voting for this bill but I still very much want to vote for a bill and that is why I am continuing to have discussions,” said Ms. Collins. “I still cling to the belief that it is possible for a group of us to come together and rewrite the bill in a way that would cause it to have greater support.” Considering the effort it took Mr. Reid to rally the minimum number of 58 Democrats and two independents he needed simply to begin the full debate after Thanksgiving, he and other Democrats would no doubt like to secure additional supporters as the bill wends its way through the Senate.
A handful of the senators who voted somewhat reluctantly to let the floor fight proceed have pointedly not promised to cooperate in the event of a later filibuster, which will likely stand in the way of final passage, providing further incentives to try to convert a Republican or two.
“If the public option is still in there, the only resort we have is to say no at the end to reporting the bill off the floor,” said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats and was on one of the 60 Senators voting to let the debate begin. “We have a health care system that’s in trouble, but we have an economic crisis, and I don’t want to fix the health care system in a way that creates more of an economic crisis.” He appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Although the two Maine senators both adhered to the Republican party line when they voted on Saturday, when they spoke on the Senate floor beforehand they stayed aloof from the assaults on the measure orchestrated by other Republicans.
Both senators have been talking privately with Democrats and independents about devising joint amendments in such areas as cost control, and both said they would continue to look for compromises.
“I’m prepared to continue to work to improve the legislation,” said Ms. Snowe, who said how her proposals are handled will “be a true test of whether there is a will to improve this legislation in a non-ideological, bipartisan manner.”
Ms. Snowe was a central participant in the months of closed-door talks by the Senate Finance Committee and was the only Republican to endorse the panel’s proposal. But she was sidelined as Mr. Reid and other Democratic leaders took over the job of assembling the current measure from the work of the two committees and the House.
Once Mr. Reid, in response to appeals from a majority of Senate Democrats, added a public health insurance option to his legislation, he lost Ms. Snowe, who favors a proposal to trigger the creation of a public plan only in states where other provisions of the bill fail to make affordable insurance widely available.
She said that she fears Mr. Reid has locked himself into a procedural dilemma in which opponents of a public option cannot produce 60 votes to change the measure but supporters of the measure cannot muster 60 votes to pass it, leading to a parliamentary stalemate.
The main substantive objection aired by Ms. Collins is that the measure has focused largely on extending coverage to Americans without insurance while failing to do enough to restrain the costs of both insurance coverage and the delivery of care.
“The high cost of health care is what is driving up the cost of insurance premiums, causing many middle-income families and small businesses to struggle to meet these needs,” she said.
While the two women are the main focus of Democrats at the moment, officials said they will be weighing opportunities to appeal to others. They also hope that any final joint House-Senate proposal could attract at least a few Republicans in each chamber.
White House health care experts have been in regular contact with Ms. Snowe, officials said, and Mr. Reid said he will continue to pursue Republican partners.
“We reach out to our Republican colleagues, and we would like to work with them,” Mr. Reid said. “But everyone should understand we’re going to do a bill. We hope that we don’t have to do it with Democrats, but if we have to, we will.”
Ms. Snowe said that she still hopes it does not come to that.
“This is already an undertaking of historic proportions,” she said. “Let us ensure that this isn’t the only historic legislation passed in the last half century on purely partisan lines.”
Source: New York Times
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