Politics Today: After House Health Care Vote, What's Next?
Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:
** All eyes turn to the Senate's health care bill...
** The party tenets Democrats compromised to pass a bill...
** A closer look at those 40 renegade House members...
"Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said [on CBS' 'Face the Nation'] the health care bill ... is 'dead on arrival to the Senate,'" writes CBS News' Michelle Levi. "Graham argued that the House bill was 'written for liberals, by liberals.'"
USA Today's John Fritze,"'If the public option plan is in there ... I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote,' Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman— one of two independents Democrats are counting on — warned on Fox News Sunday. 'I believe the debt can break America.'"
Boston Globe's Sasha Issenberg details Lieberman's filibuster threat.
It's not just Lieberman and Senate Republicans that threaten to slow things down. As in the House, moderate Democrats have their own set of concerns as well.
"Even before Saturday's House vote, senators had begun to question why Reid suddenly shifted course two weeks ago and threw his weight behind a public option plan, laying bare the deep divisions in his caucus between liberals and moderates," report Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown and Manu Raju.
"In the process, Senate action on health care has stopped dead, raising the possibility the Senate won't even begin floor debate until after Thanksgiving. ...
"But it's not just timing. Senate moderates are clearly growing nervous about the process ahead — the difficulties of merging a still nonexistent Senate bill with the more liberal House bill...
"In a private meeting last week with Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), a half-dozen moderate Democrats aired a long list of concerns about the differences between the two approaches. They cited the $1.2 trillion price tag of the House bill, its reliance on a 'millionaire's tax' to fund the overhaul and the House's refusal to include a tax on so-called Cadillac health plans because the tax is opposed by Democrats' allies in organized labor."
5571234"Even though the House is a bastion of liberalism, the healthcare overhaul was a tougher sell than expected and the bill turned out to be more conservative in its price tag, more limited in the scope of its government-run insurance option and tighter in its restrictions on abortion funding than many Democrats had hoped," writes the Los Angeles Times' Janet Hook.
"Moreover, the narrow victory -- 220 to 215 in a chamber where Democrats hold 258 seats -- was unsettling for liberals because moderate Democrats have a louder voice in the Senate and Republicans have more stalling power.
"What is more, the political climate has become more challenging for progressivism than it was when Obama's agenda for change was launched in his 2008 presidential campaign and ratified with his resounding election one year ago. ....
"It's too bad the president has to spend all this time trying to rustle up votes within his own party,' said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). 'But I honestly believe the House vote gives us momentum that Sen. [Harry] Reid is going to use when he talks to his colleagues about the legislation this week.'"
"Senate Democrats are struggling to agree on how to pay for the overhaul and whether to create a new public insurance plan to compete with private insurers, as the House did," writes the Wall Street Journal's Janet Adamy. "Friction over how the bill treats abortion, which almost derailed the House vote, is likely to divide the Senate too.
"Sen. Reid (D., Nev.) said he expects to get cost estimates for the Senate bill from the Congressional Budget Office in the next couple of days, and that he hopes to bring a bill to the Senate floor 'as soon as possible.' Democratic leaders had aimed to deliver a bill to the president this year, but that deadline could slip into 2010."
The New York Times' Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "The timing is crucial. Administration officials say Mr. Obama wants to wrap up work on health care so that he can turn his attention to other legislative priorities, including passing an energy bill and revamping financial regulations. But White House officials also know that the closer the final vote comes to the November 2010 midterm Congressional elections, the more difficult it will be to pass legislation.
"Sending members of Congress home over an extended Christmas break without a health care bill in hand could prove disastrous politically. Democrats remember well the setbacks they suffered over the August recess when the Senate Finance Committee failed to meet Mr. Obama's deadline for finishing its measure, and lawmakers were pummeled in town-hall-style meetings around the country.
"'The holiday break is viewed the same way as the August break,' said one Democrat close to the White House, speaking anonymously to discuss strategy. 'We don't want a repeat. We could probably survive it, but why take the chance?'"
Associated Press' Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, "In the Senate, the stumbling block is the idea of the government competing with private insurers. Liberals may have to swallow hard and accept a deal without a public plan to keep the legislation alive. As in the House, the compromise appears to be to the right of the political spectrum.
"Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, who voted for a version of the Senate bill in committee, has given the Democrats a possible way out. She's proposing to allow a government plan, if after a few years premiums keep escalating and local health insurance markets remain in the grip of a few big companies. This is the 'trigger' option.
"That approach appeals to moderates such as Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. ... Lieberman said he opposes the public plan because it could become a huge and costly entitlement program.
"For now, Reid is trying to find the votes for a different approach: a government plan that states could opt out of. He will keep meeting with senators this week to see if he can work out a political formula that will give him not only the 60 votes needed to begin debate, but the 60 needed to shut off discussion and bring the bill to a final vote."
5574442HEALTH CARE – HOW THE HOUSE DID IT: "One by one, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had leaned on her rank-and-file Democrats for months to cast off personal prerogatives for the sake of a history-making health care bill. But for Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, this was too much to ask," write Politico's Patrick O'Connor and John Bresnahan.
"So when Pelosi announced late Friday that she would allow an amendment strictly limiting insurance coverage of abortions, it touched off an angry yelling match between DeLauro and another Pelosi confidant, California Rep. George Miller, and tears from some veteran female lawmakers, according to people in the room.
"Some of the lawmakers argued that Pelosi was turning her back on a decades-long campaign by female Democratic members in support of abortion rights. Miller rose to Pelosi's defense, which resulted in an angry confrontation between him and DeLauro, said the sources…
"In the end, Pelosi's strategy paid off in a big win for her and President Barack Obama. After Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) amendment banning abortion funding was approved with 64 Democratic votes, Pelosi was able to push through the health care reform package on a virtually straight-line party vote, 220-215."
The Los Angeles Times' Faye Fiore and Richard Simon add, "Without the luxury of GOP support, it became clear that the only way to hold Democratic conservatives was to compromise on two issues close to liberals' hearts. One was abortion. The other was the government-run insurance plan known as the public option.
"Pelosi's readiness to compromise despite deep personal beliefs was mirrored in her liberal colleagues, who in the end swallowed hard and chose political pragmatism over ideological principle.
"With the national spotlight squarely on the House, Pelosi and other Democratic leaders came up against antiabortion members of their own party, who vowed to kill the healthcare bill unless the leadership accepted their uncompromising version of a ban on using federal funds for abortion. ...
"She summoned antiabortion Democrats to her ornate Capitol office. She conferred with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to be sure the new restrictions were acceptable. She even consulted by telephone with a cardinal in Rome. Then, Pelosi convened the most wrenching meeting of all: to inform the Pro-Choice Caucus, her longtime liberal colleagues, of the deal she had struck."
Washington Post's Alec MacGillis, "Some Democrats to fight abortion amendment in health bill": "[A]bortion-rights supporters are vowing to strip the amendment out, as the focus turns to the Senate and the conference committee that would resolve differences between the two bills. Although House liberals voted for the bill with the amendment to keep the process moving forward, Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.) said she has collected more than 40 signatures from House Democrats vowing to oppose any final bill that includes the amendment -- enough to block passage."
Reps. John Adler, D-N.J., and Glenn Nye, D-Va., represent districts where Republicans Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell won respectively in Tuesday's gubernatorial elections.
Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., is running for governor in heavily Republican Alabama.
Rep. Larry Kissell, D-N.C., is a freshman Democrat who took his seat from the Republicans in 2008 and is being targeted by the national Republican Party next year. Of the 37 freshmen Democrats, only 14 voted against the bill.
Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., is a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. However, of the 52 Blue Dogs, only 22 voted against the bill.
Rep. Scott Murphy, D-N.Y., eked out a victory in a special election to replace now-Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., earlier this year. The district, which voted for Mr. Obama in 2008, is considered moderate-to-conservative.
Then there are liberal Reps. Brian Baird, D-Wash., and Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio. Baird said he wanted more details on how the bill would affect those already with insurance. And Kucinich, who sent out a detailed statement about his opposition, said the bill doesn't go far enough towards government-run health care and away from private insurers. "Insurance companies are the problem, not the solution," he wrote.
Politico's Alex Isenstadt, "Republicans take aim at vulnerable Democrats in health war"
Then there's the lone Republican vote for the bill, Rep. Joseph Cao, R-La.
"[H]is vote spoiled his party's hopes for a unanimous GOP rejection of the Democratic plan and will certainly make him a hero to Democrats and liberal bloggers, and a villain to many conservatives," writes the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Jonathan Tilove.
"Some national Republicans, however, are likely to cut Cao considerable slack because of his unique political circumstance as probably the most politically vulnerable Republican incumbent in Congress."
Bloomberg News' Jonathan Salant adds, "He won his seat last year in a majority-black, New Orleans-based district that gave 75 percent of its presidential votes to the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. He ousted the indicted Democratic incumbent, William Jefferson, who was later convicted of soliciting bribes."
"Later, the president will tackle Mideast issues in an Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is in Washington to address the 2009 General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America."
5424642AFGHANISTAN: McClatchy Newspapers' Jonathan S. Landay, John Walcott and Nancy A. Youssef, "President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to send more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year, but he may not announce it until after he consults with key allies and completes a trip to Asia later this month, administration and military officials have told McClatchy.
"As it now stands, the administration's plan calls for sending three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. and the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. and a Marine brigade, for a total of as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops.
"Another 7,000 troops would man and support a new division headquarters for the international force's Regional Command (RC) South in Kandahar, the Taliban birthplace where the U.S. is due to take command in 2010. Some 4,000 additional U.S. trainers are likely to be sent as well, the officials said."
ALSO:
Associated Press' Matthew Lee, "Clinton: Berlin Wall festivities not just a party"
USA Today's Joan Biskupic, "High court justices to ponder life imprisonment for juveniles"
CQ Politics' Bob Benenson, "GOP Comeback: Not So Fast"
Washington Post's Dan Balz, "Republicans seek a path to revival"
Des Moines Register's Thomas Beaumont, "Pawlenty says Obama hasn't been bipartisan"
Minneapolis Star Tribune's Rachel E. Stassen-Berger, "Pawlenty trying to plant his name with Iowans"
Des Moines Register's Carol Hunter, "Huckabee says he's focused on his book, shows – not 2012"