TPM: After Caucus Meeting, House Dems Still Don't Have A Plan

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

After Caucus Meeting, House Dems Still Don't Have A Plan
Rachel Slajda | January 21, 2010, 11:11AM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer confirms that in the House Democrats' caucus meeting this morning, lawmakers did not discuss any detailed plans or options for how to move forward with health care reform.

Hoyer said members instead laid out their concerns and offered suggestions.

With Republican Scott Brown's Senate win Tuesday night, Senate Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority -- and their plan to merge the House and Senate bills and vote on the resulting bill in both houses.

But they still hold majorities in both houses. They have several options, as reported by TPMDC: They can pass the Senate bill word for word in the House and then tinker with it using budget reconciliation; they can try to get the support of a Republican in the Senate; or they can break the bill into smaller pieces in the hopes of getting bipartisan support.

But it looks like Democratic leadership has not yet forged a plan.

Reporting by Evan McMorris-Santoro

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/at-caucus-meeting-house-dems-dont-discuss-detailed-health-care-options.php?ref=fpb

Chop-It-Up Caucus
Josh Marshall | January 21, 2010, 10:42AM

The mood on the Hill seems to be trending away from efforts to walk away from Health Care Reform. But of those who say they will not pass the Senate bill as is, one faction says the best approach is to break the current bill into its constituent parts and pass them in succession over the course of 2010.

Now, there's one small bit of logic to this approach -- on their own a number of key provisions of reform (like a ban on denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions) would be very hard for opponents to vote against. But that's really overweighed by the fact that most of these fixes and reforms don't work in budgetary or policy terms unless they're done together. (Force insurance companies to insure people with pre-existing conditions at reasonable rates and the risk pools change dramatically -- forcing everyone else's premiums up, unless you add in subsidies and get more people into the system.)

And even more to the point, it's just very hard to figure how Democrats who have lost the stomach to pass a single bill in January are going to have the fortitude to pass a series of bills in the midst of what will no doubt be the transcendent calm of the 2010 election. And remember, every bill that passes the House, you may remember, has to pass the Senate. In other words, it's doesn't really make sense in policy terms and the politics seems to verge on insane.

So who's in the Chop-It-Up Caucus? Yesterday Rep. Delahunt was one of the first to enter. And then a few moments ago we heard from TPM reporter Brian Beutler up on the Hill that Rep. Blumenauer is also in. And just a few moments ago we heard from TPM reporter Evan McMorris-Santoro outside the House Dems caucus meeting who tells us that Rep. Tanner just said that his preferred approach is to split the bill into smaller chunks "Republicans can agree with us on." Continued Tanner: "A 2000 page bill is not something I'm particularly interested in."

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/01/chop-it-up_caucus.php#more?ref=fpblg

[BeyondGeography]

1. They're ready to turn on a dime those Dems

Or not.

Dysfunctional, disorganized, demoralized.

[quantass]

2. Hilarious that they are so afraid to grow a spine and offer the OBVIOUS course.

Why dont we just put monkeys in charge of congress...we can import them en masse from zoos across the country and let them do exactly what is being done in congress..nothing. On the plus side we could charge familys to take pictures with the monkeys and help reduce the deficit.

[Ganja Ninja]

3. Fear has nothing to do with it.

The Democratic party is riddled with saboteurs and turncoats. It's simply corruption.

[thereismore]

4. If they didn't discuss any detailed plans, what did they discuss? nt

[Broke In Jersey]

5. yea....what the heck did they talk about then?... n/t