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WORLD> America
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Democrats divided on health care overhaul
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-22 15:06 At the White House, Obama clearly had Republicans in mind, not Democrats, when he demanded action. "So I understand that some will try to delay action until the special interests can kill it while others will simply focus on scoring political points," the president said. "We've done that before. And we can choose to follow that playbook again, and then we'll never get over the goal line and will face an even greater crisis in the years to come."
"When we do pass this bill, history won't record the demands for endless delay or endless debates in the news cycle. It will record the hard work done by the members of Congress to pass the bill and the fact that the people who sent us here to Washington insisted upon change," he said. Obama has spoken in public nearly every day for more than a week on the issue, some times more than once. At the same time Republicans have upped the political stakes. Last week, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was quoted as telling fellow conservatives, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him," a reference to the site of French Emperor Napoleon's defeat in 1815. Given the struggle, the polls show slippage for Obama, although he remains popular. Still, with details unsettled and Democrats in disagreement, the president is battling the impression if not the reality that his proposal is stalled. He met at the White House during the day with so-called Blue Dogs, moderate and conservative Democrats whose call for additional cost savings has slowed work in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The panel is the only one of three that has yet to approve its portion of the legislation. Separately, nearly two dozen first-term lawmakers have called for changes in tax increases in the legislation that would apply to individuals making more than $280,000 a year and couples over $350,000. Pelosi said on Monday she favored a change so the tax wouldn't take effect until income reached $500,000, a statement that cheered Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., one of the lawmakers who had expressed concern. But Rangel told reporters that neither Pelosi nor the rank-and-file critics have spoken with him about the suggested change. "I support what we have put out. If anybody has a problem with it I'm anxious to listen to it," he added. In a measure of the complexity of the task, Orszag said conservative Democrats had reacted favorably to proposals to create an independent commission to recommend future increases in health care provider payments under Medicare. It is one of only a few proposals in circulation that officials say has the ability to restrain the skyrocketing growth of health care costs. But accepting such a proposal would require lawmakers to surrender their current power to set fees, which they can adjust to favor constituents. "I think that we always need to be reminded that members of Congress don't serve under presidents, they serve with presidents," said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.
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