By Herb Boyd
Managing Editor, Our World Today
Nine is the name of the musical that received five Golden Globe nominations the other day; it is also the number of days before Christmas, the deadline imposed by President Obama to get the nation a present of universal health care reform.
If Obama fails to deliver like Santa Claus, he can blame a less than cooperative Congress, particularly members of the Senate, 60 of whom he met with on Tuesday to see what could be done to get the bill ready for approval.Two critical matters hang in the balance before the Senators can get on the same page: the public option plan or a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, and a possible expansion of Medicare that will allow a buy-in for individuals beginning at 55 years of age.
While the Democratic Senators seem to be aboard, with the liberal wing willing to accept a less than perfect bill in order to get it passed—and despite the rancorous Independent Senator Joe Lieberman from Connecticut—members of the House appear to be far more hesitant to toe the line.
Still, Obama said he was “cautiously optimistic” about a bill he admitted was not what everyone wants, but would provide coverage for 30 million of the some 47 million Americans without insurance. He said, we must “seize the moment,” and that seems to be the thinking of many Democratic Senators.
“The final bill won’t include everything that everybody wants,” Obama said. “No bill can do that. But what I told my former colleagues today is that we simply cannot allow differences over individual elements of this plan to prevent us from meeting our responsibility to solve a longstanding and urgent problem for the American people.”Things in the House could be problematic if the feelings of Rep. Steny Hoyer, the majority leader, has wide appeal. He promised that the House members would not “take the Senate bill” and adopt it without changes.
Hoyer’s reservations were echoed by Representative Lynn Woolsey, Democrat of California and co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She said it would be “very difficult” for her to vote for legislation that does not include a government plan, dubbed a public option, or a Medicare buy-in, according to the New York Times.And there is the reluctance from Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), both unwilling to come aboard but for opposite reasons.
Much of the recent discussion in Congress has centered on the shifting position of Sen. Lieberman who on more than one occasion has threatened to torpedo the bill, citing different often contradictory reasons each time. According to the latest report he seems to have gotten his way, getting his colleagues to remove the Medicare buy-in, something he had once supported.
There are still a number of kinks to iron out before the bill is ready for conference between the Senate and the House before it goes to the president. And if they are to meet Obama Claus’s deadline that have a lot of work to do before Christmas Eve.
