Obama’s big plans for health-care reform will live or die in the U.S. Senate. This fact isn’t lost on some influential Democratic senators, who are eager to roll as soon as Obama takes office next year. Long before Election Day, the senators were crafting a game plan that may feature some aggressive procedural moves to push legislation past any Republican objections.
Staffers from the key Senate committees have been meeting for months to map out a strategy for expanding insurance coverage and improving how the health-care system functions. And perhaps most importantly, they’ve been busy trying to figure out how to pay for the whole thing.
The New Republic takes a long look at what’s been going on in public and behind the scenes. The American Prospect just published a profile of Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who chairs the Finance Committee and who will be a central figure on any Senate action.
One interesting detail raised in both articles: In an effort to get a big health-reform bill through the Senate, Democrats may invoke something called the budget-reconciliation process. Doing so would allow the legislation to be “fast-tracked through 20 hours of debate and passed with a simple majority,” The American Prospect says. That means it wouldn’t need the 60 votes usually necessary to block a potential filibuster.
Meanwhile, Ted Kennedy, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, has his staff working on health as well. The aim is to work with Baucus and other important senators to craft a single piece of legislation.
Bonus Bill: In putting the health bill together, the Senate might make exceptions to the pay-as-you-go rules, a Kennedy aide said yesterday. The rules typically require Congress to pay for all new expenditures with spending cuts or tax increases. For more, see this story from The Hill.
