Democrats suggest efforts on health reform will continue

Politico has a compilation of comments by Washington officials on the Sunday morning talk shows, including discussions about the health care overhaul legislation, which is facing a serious challenge following the election last Tuesday of Republican Scott Brown to the Senate seat of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. That election ended the Democrats 60 vote filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

"Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Sunday that President Barack Obama will need to start over on health care to get Republican support. 
'I don't know one Republican who does not want health care reform,' Hatch said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' Hatch said there are elements of reform Democrats and Republicans could agree about 'right off the bat,' but said spending on a broad reform plan is 'where the problems arise.'"

But White House press secretary Robert Gibbs did not give any hints of White House strategy. He told Fox News that congressional leaders are working on a plan. He predicted that Congress would pass some sort of health reform bill. "'We don't know quite what that is yet,' he said" (1/24).

The New York Times reports: Sen. John McCain, who was Obama's opponent in the past election, said on "Face the Nation" that Obama needs to adopt some of the Republican ideas on health care "such as overhauling medical malpractice lawsuits, allowing residents of one state to buy health insurance from a company in another state, and granting tax credits for people who purchase health insurance on their own. ... 'We'd be willing to sit down and start over from the beginning with genuine negotiations,' he replied. 'There are things we can agree on.'" But Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., dismissed that suggestion, saying Obama "met with Republicans at the start of his effort to pass a health reform bill 'and asked them to be part of it,' and that 170 Republican amendments had been accepted as the legislation proceeded in House and Senate committees" (Berger, 1/24)

ABC News reports: "White House adviser David Axelrod says President Barack Obama isn't giving up trying to overhaul the country's health care system. Obama's chief political aide says it would be politically foolish for lawmakers who supported the overhaul so far to walk away from it now" (1/24).

The Los Angeles Times offers answers to questions about the future of the health overhaul: "Can't Congress just start over? In theory, yes. But getting a brand-new bill through the Senate without sparking a Republican filibuster might be impossible. Obama has suggested that Congress could craft a bill around the items 'that people agree on,' but the idea of refusing to compromise was key to Brown's victory in Massachusetts. Many analysts doubt Republicans would abandon what looks like a winning strategy"

(Geiger, 1/24).

The Washington Post reports on the relations between the White House and congressional Democrats: "The few GOP senators who sought consensus on health care concluded that Obama didn't have the patience to wait out protracted bipartisan negotiations in the Senate. Had those talks yielded a bill, it would likely have been smaller in scope than the White House had in mind, but Republicans would have shared its ownership. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who worked for months on a bipartisan bill, said he decided Obama was not committed to meaningful compromise when he asked the president at an Aug. 6 White House meeting to take a stand against the government insurance option, a liberal favorite. Grassley said Obama did not answer him" (Murray, Shear and Kane, 1/24).

CNN reports: White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," defended Obama's efforts to find a bipartisan approach to health care reform. "Jarrett said Obama 'has sat down with the leadership and members of the Republican Party, both the House and the Senate. In fact, bills in both the House and the Senate contain provisions that were suggested by the Republican Party -- so nothing's changed about the president's approach'" (1/24).