The Dems are determined to be the minotiry party in both houses of Congress
come next January...

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100219/pl_nm/us_usa_healthcare1

Obama to spell out new healthcare plan

By Donna Smith Donna Smith  53 mins ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters)  President Barack Obama is expected to publish his
healthcare plan as early as Sunday or Monday, combining features of the two
Democratic bills passed by the Senate and House of Representatives,
congressional aides and healthcare advocates said on Friday.

The administration's bill will aim to jump-start the stalled healthcare
overhaul and comes just days ahead of a planned televised White House summit
with congressional Republicans, who are calling on Democrats to scrap the bills
and start over with a far less sweeping proposal.

Democrats are struggling to push healthcare legislation over the finish line in
the face of sagging public support and solid Republican opposition bolstered by
recent election victories in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey.

The legislation the White House will post on its website is expected to reflect
common ground negotiated over the past several weeks by House and Senate
Democratic leaders.

Those agreements are likely to be combined as a privileged budget
reconciliation bill, which only needs a simple 51-vote majority to pass the
100-member Senate instead of the 60-vote supermajority that has become routine
in the Senate and gives Republicans power to block the healthcare bill.

"I believe that's the path we are going to take," a senior congressional
Democratic aide said.

But it is not clear, even to congressional Democrats, what the White House will
include in its legislation and whether Obama will try to add proposals aimed at
attracting at least some Republican support.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have not
signed off on any final agreement, several Democratic aides have said.

"We are still waiting for the president to present to Leader Reid and Speaker
Pelosi his plan," a Democratic leadership aide told Reuters.

Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama's closest advisers, said the president would post
his draft healthcare bill on the Internet in "the next couple of days."

"The president is going to craft what he thinks is a good bill. It's not going
to be a perfect bill but it's going to be a good bill," she said at Harvard
University's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

FACE-OFF WITH REPUBLICANS

A move to use the budget reconciliation process would fuel Republican
opposition even as Obama has called for more bipartisanship in the process.

"If the president is sincere about moving forward in a bipartisan fashion, he
must take the reconciliation process -- which will be used to jam through
legislation that a majority of Americans do not want -- off the table," said
Representative Eric Cantor, the second-ranking House Republican.

The Obama face-off with Republicans will give Democrats an opportunity to try
to sell their plan to the public and explain why a sweeping, comprehensive
proposal is needed instead of the go slow, step-by-step approach advocated by
Republicans.

At a campaign event on Friday for Reid in Nevada, Obama blasted Republicans for
opposing his healthcare overhaul. "The Republicans say that they've got a
better way of doing it. So, I want them to put it on the table," he said.

"We're going to move forward the Democratic proposal -- we hope the Republicans
have one too," Obama said. "And we'll sit down and let's hammer
it out. We'll
go section by section. America can't solve our economic problems unless we
tackle some of these structural problems."

Healthcare advocacy groups are looking to the White House proposal and next
Thursday's summit to shore up public support, and Democratic votes, in the push
to get comprehensive legislation to Obama this year.

"As soon as the president and (congressional Democratic) leadership are totally
together on substance and a strategy, I think the votes will be there," said
Ron Pollack, who heads the Families USA healthcare advocacy group.

The administration, congressional Democrats and advocacy groups have been
turning up the rhetorical heat on health insurers that have in recent weeks
announced huge premium increases against the backdrop of sizable profits and
growing numbers of uninsured people.

"The premium increases are a powerful reminder that the healthcare problems are
not going away," said David Kendall, a senior health policy advisor at centrist
think tank Third Way.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington and Jim Finkle in
Cambridge, Massachusetts)

(Reporting by Donna Smith; editing by Todd Eastham)

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