Health Care Bill Held Up by Uncertainty, Mistrust

Watch CBS News Videos Online

It was a tumultuous political week in Washington: As Democrats scrambled to push a reconciled health bill through Congress, President Obama postponed a trip to Indonesia in order to stay in town and continue pressing for a vote on the embattled legislation.

On Friday's "Washington Unplugged," CBS News' Chief Political Correspondent Marc Ambinder and CBSNews.com's Stephanie Condon analyzed the latest developments on Capitol Hill with moderator Bob Schieffer.

This morning, Mr. Obama announced that he would delay his trip for three days after it became clear that the House would not be able to meet his March 18th deadline. Schieffer was unequivocal about the motive behind Obama's change of plans: "The bottom line is they don't have the votes" to pass the Senate version of the bill.

"It is almost unprecedented for a president to postpone an overseas trip for a domestic legislative agenda item," noted Ambinder, adding that Mr. Obama would spend the next few days chewing "the ear off recalcitrant house Democrats."

There "is a lot of horse trading going on," Ambinder said. Lawmakers "need to hear specific pledges and promises about what will and won't be included in the sidecar reconciliation package."

"The fundamental dynamic is mistrust between House Democrats and Senate Democrats," added Ambinder.

Schieffer agreed, noting that House members "want some kind of assurance from the senators that indeed they will act on the reconciliation."

The reluctance of lawmakers is also a reflection of the uncertainty surrounding the reconciliation measure, argued Condon. "Everything is up in the air in terms of what is possible procedurally. The parliamentarian will play a big role in saying what the Senate can do and thereby what the House can do," she said.

Yesterday, Senate Republicans claimed that Parliamentarian Alan Frumin had ruled that Congress would not be able tackle a second bill until President Obama signs the current version into law.

However, "this morning the parliamentarian's office is backing away from that interpretation," Ambinder noted.

In spite of the procedural obstacles, Mr. Obama was pushing the health overhaul with a newfound tenacity this week. As Ambinder noted, "the White House has put all their chips in on health care."

Watch Friday's Washington Unplugged above, also featuring Condon on the burgeoning Coffee Party movement and a report on the Congressional Hockey Challenge, a charity event pitting lawmakers against lobbyists.

"Washington Unplugged" appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.

[AngryMobVoter]

REMEMBER IN November!!!

If the average middle class American does not do what his boss wants, he gets fired. Since the Congress and Administration plan to ram a healthcare bill into law the American people do not want, they should be FIRED. It is time to VOTE THEM OUT!!! The Congress and Administration want to use a process that was never intended to be used for this purpose to ram this bill into law against the will of the American people. This sets a dangerous precedent that subverts our system of government. Anyone that votes in favor of this bill is the enemy of our system of government. It is time to VOTE THEM OUT!!! ABRAHAM LINCOLN said ?and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth?. The American people are the boss not the Congress or Administration. It is time to take our government back from the arrogant members of Congress and Administration who think they know better how we should live our lives than we do. It is time to VOTE THEM OUT!!! REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER?VOTE THEM OUT!!!

[ll2owt]

anatomy of a repugknut...The super moralistic, hypocritical, hardheaded, mind-numb, brain dead, non-thinking, nazi sub-ministers of propaganda bucking for a spot in the new world order, are now out of power and realize their dreams will NOT come to fruition. They can therefore, do nothing more than run their mouths about things of which they are totally ignorant.

[askagain]

What a worthless post. It wouldn't make sense even to our enemies. Time to grow up and begin making some sense.

[jwhitehawke]

If it passes....I'll bet it won't be long before Obama naturalizes another 19 million illegal, (What he calls future democrats).
After we are paying for 6 years and get nothing, they will stroll right in and get govt HC....What a joke. I'll bet the Dems keep all the cut deals quiet this time...

[msdtr]

I have always thought "bribing" was illegal...PERIOD.
How is it okay for our government to make deals for votes aka "bribing?"

[rockcutr]

None of our elected officials actually look like the Americans I expect to be in leadership. Just a bunch of back door dealcutters. Frankly I am sick and tired of the namby pamby ***** footing around the truth. Republicans care not about citizens. Only the corporation that rules them. Democrats only care about doing something, even if it is wrong. Both sides are Treadding on Me. Get your stinking foot off of my neck and your hand out of my wallet. Or pull back a pair of bloody stumps.

[Keefanda]

Why is the mainstream media not reporting this below?

Where are the real journalists who do not do the bidding of government?

As recently reported twice at the Huffington Post, according to the New York Times, Obama made a deal with the for-profit hospital industry to not sign a law with the public option.

Obama and Democratic congressional leaders who know this are therefore letting those who want the public option have false hope. Is this not a betrayal of trust?

I repeat: Where are the real journalists who are not doing the bidding of government?

Copy-paste-Google these titles to read all about it:

At the Huffington Post:

The Real Reason Obama's Plan Doesn't Include a Public Option

At the Huffington Post:

Obama, Durbin and Pelosi All Point Fingers at Someone Else for Killing Public Option

At the New York Times:

Obama Is Taking an Active Role in Talks on Health Care Plan

Here are quotes from the New York Times article:

"Hospital industry lobbyists, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of alienating the White House, say they negotiated their $155 billion in concessions with Mr. Baucus and the administration in tandem. House staff members were present, including for at least one White House meeting, but their role was peripheral, the lobbyists said.

Several hospital lobbyists involved in the White House deals said it was understood as a condition of their support that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan paying Medicare rates - generally 80 percent of private sector rates - or controlled by the secretary of health and human services.

"We have an agreement with the White House that I'm very confident will be seen all the way through conference," one of the industry lobbyists, Chip Kahn, director of the Federation of American Hospitals, told a Capitol Hill newsletter.

Mr. Emanuel and liberal Democrats argued that the White House had worked more closely with the Senate Finance Committee because it was stepping in to break up legislative logjams. In the same way, they said, Mr. Obama and Mr. Emanuel had personally interceded to resolve a last-minute revolt by conservative House Democrats that threatened to derail a bill in the House Energy and Commerce Committee at the end of July.

Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who is chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said the president had personally assured House members that he did not intend to let the Senate Finance Committee determine the final legislation.

"This is going to be a genuine conference with give and take," Mr. Waxman said. "The president has said that personally to the senators, and he has said it personally to us."

He added: "The president has said he wants a public option to keep everybody honest. He hasn't said he wants a co-op as a public option."

Still, industry lobbyists say they are not worried. "We trust the White House," Mr. Kahn said. "We are confident that the Senate Finance Committee will produce a bill we fully can endorse.""

[tanarg]

Just like Obama himself, this monstrosity of a bill will be a disaster.

[macira]

There are many correct ideas about the flailing about to pass just about anything called "health care reform". I think the main reason is that those who were so excited about electing Barack Obama are reaching for ANYTHING to confirm their belief in him. They know, but won't admit even to themselves, that he was and is unable to perform the job of President. Having committed to this self delusion they don't know how their partners in this mass delusion will behave.

[radicalc-2009]

Why do the progressives want to pass heahth care so bad? Here is an excerp from an article at biggovernment.com:

"They must know that costs will rise and the quality of care will fall, right? They must know that Obamacare would destroy the economy, right? Of course they do. But, they also know that the federal government would tighten its grip on the nation. They know that Obama?s czars and other appointees would be authorized to bypass Congress in enacting sweeping regulations on nearly every aspect of a person?s life. And, they know that these new powers of the federal government would be concentrated in the hands of the Democratic Party and the President.

Here?s what else they know. History affords many examples of regimes whose motto was ?Never let a crisis go to waste.? In 1933, having campaigned for ?hope? and ?change,? the National Socialist Worker?s Party forced through the German parliament a Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation, also known as the Enabling Act.

This new law enabled the German chancellor and his appointees to bypass parliament in imposing sweeping regulations on the people:

?In addition to the procedure prescribed by the constitution, laws of the Reich may also be enacted by the government of the Reich [i.e., the Cabinet].?


The constitution of the Weimar Republic became so irrelevant that the new regime never saw a need to actually repeal it.

By this vote, the National Socialist Workers Party assumed absolute power and the Chancellor made history."

Wake up people!

[riptide213]

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.

Groucho Marx