California Conservative

Speaker Pelosi has said that she’s got enough votes to pass the House’s health care reform bill. The fact that she’s saying that says that they’re worried. This report explains why they’re worried. First, here’s what Speaker Pelosi said:

While Pelosi said she has “no question” that Democrats have the votes they need, she stopped short of promising the full House would act on the legislation before beginning a monthlong vacation at the end of July. “We are waiting to see what the president says, and what the Senate will do,” she said.

Pelosi spoke as White House officials and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, met with moderate and conservative Democrats who have stalled progress on the bill, demanding numerous changes as the price of their support.

Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., expressed unhappiness at the Speaker’s words. “I’ve been meeting to death, so if that has been for naught until they counted votes, and just to occupy our time, I’m sorry,” he said. “I thought we were legitimately having conversations about writing a good health care bill for America.”

Rep. Melancon should know better than to think that Speaker Pelosi will tolerate people thinking for themselves.

At Least 42 House Democrats Are Holding Up The House Democrat Bill:
Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA), Rep. Mike Arcuri (D-NY), Rep. John Boccieri (D-OH), Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK), Rep. Allen Boyd (D-FL), Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA), Rep. Bobby Bright (D-AL), Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), Rep. John Hall (D-NY), Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Rep. Baron Hill (D-IN), Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH), Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-IA), Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), Rep. Betsy Markey (D-CO), Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA), Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY), Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT), Rep. Mike McMahon (D-NY), Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA), Rep. Michael Michaud (D-ME), Rep. Scott Murphy (D-NY), Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND), Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR), Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), Rep. Herseth-Sandlin (D-SD), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC), Rep. Zack Space (D-OH), Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), Rep. John Tanner (D-TN), Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MS), Rep. Harry Teague (D-NM), Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN

Here’s a sampling of what Democrats have said:

Rep. Altmire: “I Can’t Support The Bill As It’s Currently Written.” ALTMIRE: “Oh, I can`t support the bill as it`s currently written. The tax increases is going to put a burden on small businesses, who can`t afford to offer health care right now. What makes anything think that, by increasing their tax burden, they are somehow going to find a way to offer health care to people that they can`t afford to offer it to now?” (Fox News’ “Your World With Neil Cavuto,” 7/16/09)

Rep. John Boccieri (D-OH): “My Feeling Is There’s Enough Money In The System Already.” “Still, that’s the kind of discussion that could raise concerns for centrist freshman Democrats like Rep. John Boccieri (D-Ohio), who says there’s ‘a little fear’ among his constituents of a government-run plan, and no appetite for a tax increase. ‘My feeling is there’s enough money in the system already,’ Boccieri said.” (Mike Soraghan, “Speaker Pelosi Makes Aggressive Push To Finish Healthcare Reform This Month,” The Hill, 7/8/09)

“Second District Congressman Dan Boren said Monday that health care reform rests largely on President Barack Obama’s willingness to accept bipartisan compromise on the issue. ‘If health care reform is going to happen it will have to happen in a bipartisan way,’ Boren told the Tulsa Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. ‘It’s really up to the president.’ Boren, a Democrat, said he is trying to keep an open mind but said, ‘The House bill that’s out there, I can’t support.’” (Tom Gilbert, “Boren: Bipartisanship Key To Health Care,” Tulsa World, 7/20/09)

CLYBURN: “Well, the Republicans I’ve spoken with are very concerned about this surcharge, and I am concerned about that, too. I’ve had listening sessions working with John Larson, Xavier Baccera, the chair and vice chair of our caucus. We’ve had six listening sessions of our members, and we have come away from those sessions believing that we can do this with the savings that we will get out of the system. If we don’t get the scoring from CBO, we can still go ahead and do the plan as we envision the savings to be. And I don’t think we have to have the surcharge at all. A lot of Democrats on my side of the aisle believe that.” (MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” 7/20/09)

Three things jump out at me from those quotes. That the Democratic Whip would say that he’s got concerns about raising taxes isn’t what Speaker Pelosi wanted to hear. It’s exactly what she didn’t want to hear.

Another thing that jumped out at me was Rep. Boccieri saying that his constituents have a “little fear” of a government-run plan and that there’s “no appetite” for “a tax increase.”

Finally, Rep. Boren’s remarks are stunning since he’s the son of a longtime conservative Democrat senator. Saying that he couldn’t support the bill in its current form is sending a message to Speaker Pelosi that they need to significantly change the bill.

UPDATE: Speaker Pelosi has suddenly backtracked on voting on the House health care bill before the August recess:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that the House can go home for its August recess without passing a massive overhaul. Pelosi dismissed concerns expressed by many Democrats that a monthlong delay could give opponents more chances to rally opposition to the bill. “I’m not afraid of August,” Pelosi said. “It’s a month.”

That is different from what she said Wednesday and contradicts one of her fellow Democratic House leaders. On Wednesday, Pelosi had indicated that she supported staying into August, saying, “70 percent of the American people would want that.”

This is a defeat for Pelosi and a rather embarrassing one at that. Going from “We have the votes to pass the bill” to “We’re outta here” in a matter of days is a major retreat and a major defeat for Speaker Pelosi.

Mark this on your calendar. This might be the tipping point where people realize that having a massive majority doesn’t mean that the Democrats will get everything they want.

This might be the point where people understand that great ideas, communicated clearly and consistently, still matter.

Technorati Tags: Reform, Health Care, Speaker Pelosi, James Clyburn, Jason Altmire, Dan Boren, August Recess, Democrats, Election 2010

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 12:02 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2010, Health Care, Liberals, Pelosi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.