At least Not Every Democrat Is Falling In Line On Health Care!

[Obama 2012 1,714]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/16/house.health.care/index.html?hpt=T2

Washington (CNN) -- Even as a top House Democrat expressed confidence in passing legislation to overhaul health care, a new CNN analysis shows that opposition in the House of Representatives to the Senate health care plan has reached 200 members.

That figure is 16 votes shy of the 216 needed to prevent President Obama from scoring a major victory on his top domestic priority.

Twenty-two House Democrats, including seven who supported the House plan in November, have indicated they would join a unified House Republican caucus in opposing the Senate plan, which that chamber passed in December with the minimum 60 votes.

See a list of House Democrats who oppose the Senate bill

Nonetheless, after a meeting with rank-and-file Democrats, House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut told reporters Monday that "the votes are there" to pass the health care bill.

Rep. Mike McIntyre of North Carolina is among the at least 22 Democrats who indicate they will vote against the bill.

"Health care reform is needed, but the bill before us is too expensive, does not adequately address rising medical costs and skyrocketing insurance premiums, and tries to do too much too soon," McIntyre said in a statement Monday, confirming his opposition to the legislation.

"We simply cannot afford to create a new federal bureaucracy that costs nearly $1 trillion when our national debt is $12 trillion and there is no plan in place to address it. I will not vote for it."

Proponents of the health care plan need 216 votes to pass the Senate plan. No Republicans have indicated they will vote for the bill, which means Democratic leaders must rely solely on votes from their own members. Democrats hold 253 House seats.

Of the 39 Democrats who voted against the House plan in November, 15 have indicated they will vote against the Senate plan as written, 12 remain uncommitted and 10 did not return repeated calls from CNN.

One lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith of Alabama, became a Republican in December. An additional member, Rep. Eric Massa of New York, resigned his seat last week.

Two top Republican vote counters, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, released a memo last week, saying that a relatively small number of Democrats hold a tremendous amount of sway on the issue.

"We believe House passage of the Senate's health care bill will ultimately be decided by the 37 remaining House Democrats who voted no to a government takeover last November, and the ... 21 House Democrats who originally voted yes, but may now be on the fence," they wrote.

CNN contacted a number of House Democrats who voted in favor of the House bill in November and who also represent conservative or competitive districts. Of those, Reps. Michael Arcuri of New York, Marion Berry of Arkansas, Tim Bishop of New York, Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, Daniel Lipinski of Illinois and Bart Stupak of Michigan said they would vote against the Senate bill as written but said they would consider supporting it with significant changes.

A seventh lawmaker, Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, said he would vote against the bill outright.

Stupak leads a coalition of conservative Democrats who may play a key role in the health care vote calculus. These lawmakers favor modifying the Senate health care bill to include an amendment written by Stupak that will further restrict ways abortions can be funded. During the House health care debate, 64 Democrats voted in favor of the Stupak amendment.

The Michigan congressman had been negotiating with House Democratic leaders to address the abortion issue, but House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said last week that those negotiations had ended.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who recently discussed his concerns over the abortion issue with Stupak, told reporters Monday night: "If they brought the bill down, they're not stopping any abortions. They are stopping millions of people from getting health insurance."

Waxman's committee was one of several to review the House plan last year.

Modifying the Senate bill would require use of a parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation, which allows a measure to pass the Senate with a simple majority vote of 51, rather than the 60 votes needed to block a filibuster. However, Senate rules allow the passing of a reconciliation bill only once the underlying bill has been signed into law.

Several House members who oppose the Senate bill as written are skeptical that chamber will address their concerns in a reconciliation package once the measure has been signed into law.

"From the beginning, Congressman Arcuri has been opposed to the Senate bill," a spokesman said in a statement. "If there are so-called guaranteed fixes from the Senate through the reconciliation process, Congressman Arcuri would carefully review these changes by the Senate and would need some way to ensure that their guarantees would absolutely be included in a final bill. As with any piece of legislation, he would review all proposed changes before casting his vote."

House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California have said in recent days that Democrats will have enough votes when the measure comes to a vote. But Clyburn said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that they still lacked the votes to secure a victory.

"No, we don't have them as of this morning, but we've been working this thing all weekend," he said.

Edited March 16, 2010 by Paul and Vanessa

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

At least Not Every Democrat Is Falling In Line On Health Care! honest politicians? who knew....

If not falling in line with the caucus majority is the criterium for being an honest politician, then we do know for sure that there isn't an honest politician to be found on the other side of the aisle - seeng that the GOP lawmakers are all falling in line.