WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Obama today delivered what may be his final plea for Congress to pass health care reform, imploring lawmakers to hold an “up-or-down vote” on legislation “in the next few weeks” — using a strategy outlined last month by Sen. Al Franken.
“I believe the United States Congress owes the American people a final vote on health care reform,” Obama said today. His speech acted as a closing argument, summing up both his reasons for wanting to pass a health care bill and his desire for a “final vote”, rather than additional discussion.
Franken called the strategy “pledge and pass” — have the Senate show it has the votes to pass a “fix” through reconciliation (requiring only 51 votes), get the House to pass the Senate’s bill, then pass the fix. According to multiple reports, the goal is to have it all done by Easter.
To do that, House Democrats will have to walk a tight line within their own caucus, ensuring that progressives who wanted a much stronger bill initially are happy enough with compromise legislation that Blue Dog centrists can also support.
“We’re going to get it done,” said Rep. Keith Ellison, one such progressive. “I don’t mind voting technically for a Senate bill as long as I know it’s not going to be the way it winds up.”
Ellison, a long-time supporter of a public option, said he hasn’t given up on that despite it not featuring in either the Senate’s bill or Obama’s compromise plan. Ellison said he will continue his push for the Senate to hold an up-or-down vote on the public option and noted that 34 senators now are on record as saying they’d vote for some kid of public option if it came up – including both Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Franken.
With or without a public option, Democrats will have a tough fight to flip any votes in the House.
