Pelosi: House will not pass health care unless Senate passes "fix" first

by: Chris Bowers

Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 17:34


On a blogger conference call today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi flatly stated that the Senate must pass a fix to the health care bill before the House will pass the Senate bill.  From Greg Sargent, who was also on the call:

On the call, Pelosi was asked by a reporter whether the Senate would have to go first. "Yes," she replied, twice, saying her members had repeatedly said they wouldn't pass the Senate bill if it weren't fixed before they were asked to vote on it.

When asked by a different report how many votes there were for the Senate bill in the House without the fix, Speaker Pelosi replied "very few."  When asked if there were any parliamentary obstacles to the Senate acting first, she told Brian Beutler:

"No. It is not an obstacle to this path forward."

In closely related news, at least 15 Senators have now made public statements in favor of fixing the health care bill through the reconciliation process.

Later on in the call, when asked if she believed the Senate bill was worse than no bill at all, the Speaker said "there are many members who will not vote for the Senate bill" without the fix.

When asked by another reporter if there was enthusiasm about the public option in her discussions with the White House, Pelosi cryptically replied "I will leave that to you to decide."  The implication is that no, there was no enthusiasm from the White House, and that the public option would not be part of any bargain with the Senate.  She also reiterated that she will do what it takes to reach 218 votes.

Although I was unable to ask a question on the call, I have placed a follow-up question about whether the Speaker believes it is possible to pass the health care bill without adding the restrictive, anti-women's health language pushed by Representative Stupak.  Further, I asked about the dozen or so members who supported the health care bill in November only on the condition that Stupak's language was included.  Would those members be pushing to add the language to a series of regulatory measures, such as the repeal of the anti-trust exemption for the health care industry, that the House will take up next week?  When a response comes, I will publish it on Open Left.

Chris Bowers :: Pelosi: House will not pass health care unless Senate passes "fix" first

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Pelosi: House will not pass health care unless Senate passes "fix" first | 18 comments
Gee, The House Doesn't Trust The Senate Farther Than They Can Throw Them! (4.00 / 3)
I can't imagine why!

Not getting enough kool-aide, obviously!

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

This is no small deal (4.00 / 3)
Pelosi is putting her gavel on the line here.  No health care bill, no majority.  Even with one, it's sketchy, but coming up empty at their signature issue (again) is going to be certain doom.

She may not have a choice, if she really can't get to 218 on the Senate bill, but still.  The stakes are higher on this than ever.

[ Parent ]
She's a very savvy speaker (4.00 / 1)
and I think she knows exactly what she's doing and is willing to risk the House majority to ensure that we move forward in some fashion.

Seriously, If you're not passing legislation and moving forward a democratic agenda that you've spent 25 years working on, what's the majority and speakership worth?  And the House has already passed critical parts of the White House legislative agenda in 2009 which the Senate is holding up.

She can go into opposition as House Minority Leader and force the White House to negotiate with a House Republican majority and a fiesty, vocal House Democratic minority.  

[ Parent ]
Damned if you do, damned if.... (4.00 / 4)
She is in an impossible position.  Worked her tail off to get a reasonable bill past the House and, now, she has to be blamed for this turd the Senate dropped on her.  I think she's making it clear how she feels.  I also think she is allowing the members to do what is best for their own re-election.  There are a great many progressive districts where a vote for the Senate Bill will be a deathknell.  

"Oh. My. God. .... We're doomed." -- Paul Krugman
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.c...">http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.c...">http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.c...
[ Parent ]
Yup- It's a tragedy. She did her job much better than Reid. (4.00 / 3)
Really, imho there wouldn have been a chance of someone like Pelosi would have run the Senate. Reid really screwed up enormously. He should have put Baucus and Conrad on a very short line, instead of letting them ruin all Dem bargaining points from the start up. And he really acted like a naive first termer when dealing with Lieberman and Neelson. OK, witout getting rid of the filibuster, even Pelosi may not have succeeded, but she would have been much more likely to see the core of the problem and to use the reconciliation path much earlier in the game.

Would have been, could have been, it's all spilled milk now, sure. But it shouldn't be forgotten, and the real losers have to be exposed and blamed. And most of them sit in the US Senate.  

[ Parent ]
The Senate Has Been Bullying The House For a Year Now (4.00 / 5)
If the House doesn't stand up to them, then they might as well just disband.

The GOP has made everything so hyper-partisan that we tend to forget that traditionally other considerations--such as maintaining cordial relations between different institutional powers--also counted for quite a bit.  There were good reasons for that, and it's a good thing that some folks remember that.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
TPM has the Pelosi quote about the White House (4.00 / 7)
slightly different:

"I myself think that I did a very heavy lift on the public option, very enthusiastically," Pelosi said. "I believe in it and the rest. But it did not make the cut on the Senate side. As far as the White House's enthusiasm for it, you're just going to have to ask them."

Pretty clear what she thinks, not that it's a surprise. It only confirms what others, like Feingold and Weiner have said, and what was clear to any objective observer.


Debbie Wasserman Schultz: "There is No Way We're Going to Trust Them" (4.00 / 4)
CENK UYGUR: Yeah. Now you have a Senate version which I think is an absolute gift to corporate America. They love every piece of that legislation. You guys say you're not going to pass that in the House, right? Or if you do, you need a second bill that goes through reconciliation.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I think we'll pass this. I think we'll pass the reconciliation bill with a majority of the House and a majority of the Senate before we agree to vote on the Senate bill. So if it goes down like that, what I think will happen is, we will hold the Senate bill at the desk in the House, pass the reconciliation bill with a majority of the House, send it to the Senate, wait for them to pass it, and only then would we pass the Senate bill.

CENK UYGUR: All right, now we're making news.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I mean, that's how I think...if it unfolds the way it should, that's how I think it will happen.

CENK UYGUR: So what are the chances of that? Because the Senate of course says,  "oh no no no, trust us, you pass our version first.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: There's no chance, let me tell you something Cenk, there is no way that we are going to trust them. No way. I mean, the Senate bill is dead, DOA as a stand alone bill. We are not passing that in the house. The speaker has said that. We are not passing the Senate bill without making sure that the Senate passes that reconciliation bill.

CENK UYGUR: All right. That is very clear.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I mean, I really don't think, you know, I haven't heard anyone say anything to the contrary. We've had three caucus meetings in the last, four caucus meeting in the last two weeks, with the speaker up at the front. She spoke publicly about the Senate bill not being passable in the house last week. She talked this week about, even though constitutionally the parliamentarians are telling us...I mean. Look, we would like to in the House, our caucus would like to make the Senate go first on reconciliation, but we can't because the parliamentarians are telling us because it's a revenue bill the Constitution requires us to pass it first. So ok, if we have to pass it first, fine, but should wait on them, the Senate, to pass it after we do, and then send, and then send the Senate bill to the President.

http://www.theyoungturks.com/s...


All Of Which Is Perfectly Logical (4.00 / 1)
If the House goes first on both, the Senate can easily double-cross them, and there are Senators who've got a proven history of doing that sort of thing.

But if the Senate goes first, what's the House going to do to screw them over?  There is no credible threat or incentive on the House side.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
Obama's leadership (0.00 / 0)
Is there any indication anywhere that Obama would exert some pressure on the Senate to push through the measures that Pelosi is calling for? What incentive do Senators have to respond to Pelosi's demands? Although I agree with Pelosi's leadership position, it's just hard to discern if there will be a positive outcome for progressives.  

Save Our Schools! March & National Call to Action, July 28-31, 2011 in Washington, DC: http://www.saveourschoolsmarch...
No public option in the fix = no vote (4.00 / 2)
Are we whipping Representatives to demand a public option in the reconciliation fix?
"A bill without a strong public option will not pass the House." - Nancy Pelosi, 9/3/2009 (0.00 / 0)
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo...

If the bill doesn't pass the House it will be because Obama and the Blue Dogs are afraid it's not right-wing enough. Otherwise Pelosi and the liberals will be rolled as always. Pelosi's word is worthless.

Nonsense. That was smart strategy. (4.00 / 2)
Pelosi HAD to put the goalpost solidly on the progressive side, to have leverage on the Senate not to move too much to the right. There was absoluteely nothing wrong with making that statement. And if Reid had used his power to keep his effing bunch of idiots from offering so many compromises to rethuglican Senators whose votes weren't needed anyway, and who were obviously only interested in obstructionism, even Lieberman probably couldn't have moved the bill so far to the right where it became unacceptable for the House.

It was the constant errosion of the bill in Senate that prepared the ground for the Joeminator to be able to push it one bridge too far. And that's Reid's fault. His negotiation stategy, if he had any, was a desaster.

[ Parent ]
No, it was bad strategy because everyone knew all along she was bluffing. (0.00 / 0)
One of the main reasons Liberals in Congress are so weak is because they make idle threats. No one, least of all Obama, takes them seriously.

I don't defend Reid at all - he's obviously far worse than Pelosi, but that's a whole other discussion. Point here is that the liberals will not have any serious negotiating power until they demonstrate the courage to kill a bill.

[ Parent ]
Everyone? And then, ithat's reason for not even trying? (4.00 / 3)
Say what you will, Pelosi had to try this. What should she have done instead, say nothing about the House's intentions? No, she had to draw a line somehwere, and imho she tried hard to show he won't simply be the puppet of the Senators. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that the effing Senate has more power, but imho we shouldn't blame Pelosi for trying to make a stand. She didn't have the best deck of cards, but she tried to deal with them the best way she could.
[ Parent ]
Everyone important. (0.00 / 0)
Yes, the liberal bloggers who promoted the petition pledge really did believe, or seem to believe, that the Progressive Caucus would honor their pledge, but it was always obvious that the Beltway elites never took that pledge seriously, always knew liberals would accept less - which they did, even with Stupak included. So all their bluff accomplished was further diminishing their credibility and future negotiating power.

I hope I'm wrong and that Pelosi is serious this time, because she and the Progressive Caucus will not get any respect until they stand their ground on something.  

[ Parent ]
Let's not forget Pelosi is only one vote in the House (0.00 / 0)
We should be pushing liberal Representatives to vote down the bill unless a PO is included, and enough of them to kill the bill if necessary.
[ Parent ]
They can pass a PO now in the Senate with 51 votes (4.00 / 4)
The fact that they won't only proves that the Senate never had any intention of passing anything but a corporate-favored bill.
Pelosi: House will not pass health care unless Senate passes "fix" first | 18 comments
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