Pelosi: I Have The Votes

July 22 (Bloomberg) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has the votes to pass legislation overhauling the U.S. health- care system as Democratic Party leaders moved closer to an agreement with rebellious members of their own party.

Leaders are “making progress” with Democrats who want more cost cuts in the legislation, Pelosi told reporters in Washington today, a day after President Barack Obama met with a group of Democrats to try to convince them to back the plan.

“I have no question we have the votes on the floor of the House to pass this legislation,” Pelosi said.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman said he plans to meet with members of the Blue Dog Coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats again today after the group moved closer to consensus on health-care legislation.

“We want to reach an agreement and go to markup in our committee,” possibly as early as tomorrow, said Waxman. “We have not resolved our issues, but we are getting close.”

Obama is looking for movement on Capitol Hill before holding a news conference at 8 p.m. today Washington time, where he will press lawmakers to carry out the most sweeping changes in U.S. health care in more than four decades.

He will say that Americans are counting on Congress and the administration to “get this done.”

Calling for Leadership

“They are looking to us for leadership,” Obama will say in his opening remarks, according to excerpts released by the White House. “We must not let them down.”

Obama again will argue that reining in rising health-care costs is central to future prosperity and economic stability.

Talks have proven so difficult that Pelosi, Waxman and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer left open the possibility Congress may fail to meet Obama’s August deadline for passage.

The overhaul effort suffered a fresh blow today in the Senate, when Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah quit bipartisan talks aimed at reaching a compromise.

“With some of the provisions in there, I just can’t do it,” Hatch told reporters, referring to the bill’s potential $1 trillion price tag, among other issues. He was one of a group of just four Republicans working closely on the plan.

Obama yesterday spent more than an hour meeting with Blue Dogs and other Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has yet to pass its part of the legislation.

Dissenters

The Blue Dogs on the panel “can’t support the bill as it stands,” Representative Mike Ross of Arkansas, one of the group’s leaders, said in an interview after the meeting.

Indiana Democrat Baron Hill told reporters today that negotiators still have “a lot of work to do.” Yet Hill added he was “optimistic that maybe we can get something done sooner rather than later.”

To help win over the Blue Dogs, Waxman agreed to a provision to create an independent commission that would set reimbursement rates for Medicare providers each year. Ross said such a body would take politics out of decisions on the federal insurance program for the elderly, giving Congress an up-or-down vote on any changes, without amendment.

During the White House meeting, Obama asked lawmakers to take “a favorable attitude toward his proposal” to set up the five-member commission, Waxman said.

Today, one Blue Dog member, Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper, called the idea “definitely better than doing nothing” because “Congress will never address these issues on its own.”

Cost Cutting

Pelosi said the proposed commission is “appealing to a broad sector of our caucus” concerned about cutting costs. “But we want to do it in a way that respects the prerogatives of the Congress” and the president, she said.

The current House plan, unveiled on July 14, would expand insurance coverage to 97 percent of Americans while adding $239 billion to the federal budget deficit over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The Blue Dogs considered the CBO estimate “a real hit across the bow” that gave them ammunition to insist on more cost cuts, Hill said.

Obama ramped up the pressure amid concern that deadlines are slipping. So far, two of the three House committees and one of the two Senate panels with jurisdiction over health care have completed their work. When the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Finance Committee finish debate, each chamber can bring its version up for a vote.

Timetable

Obama asked Congress to pass measures before summer breaks slated to start July 31 in the House and Aug. 7 in the Senate. After each votes on a version, the two chambers must still work together to fashion a compromise version for final passage.

Asked today if the House should stay an extra week in Washington in August to pass the legislation, Pelosi said 70 percent of Americans believe it would be a “good idea.” She declined to say how she felt about delaying the recess.

“We are waiting to see what the Senate will do,” she said. “But we are going in a forward direction.”

The Senate finance panel is drawing attention now because it’s the only committee left with a chance of bipartisan consensus. And House members are reluctant to take a vote for higher taxes that may not be part of a final version.

“The danger, pretty clearly, is you end up with a piece of legislation down the road that’s different than what the House voted for,” said Representative Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana has failed to reach a compromise with Republicans weeks after he initially planned a vote. Hatch said he’s worried that Democratic leaders might press for provisions Republicans oppose even if Baucus produces a bipartisan proposal.

“They’re going to pass two very partisan bills, and then put the crunch on Max,” Hatch said.

Baucus said he got a phone call from Obama today.

“He’s very pleased with my progress, very pleased,” Baucus told reporters today. Asked if he gave Obama any information that would “make news” at his press conference tonight, Baucus said “no.”