Congress
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro, Mike Viqueira, and Luke Russert
Fix abortion, the bill passes, one Democrat said. Don't fix it, it doesn't.
Many of these members are waiting for a yay or nay from the Conference of Catholic Bishops on the abortion language.
Moderates Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Brad Ellsworth (D-IN), two of the central figures in this abortion fight, are currently in the Speaker's office.
Another member said there is a real push among Catholic members who support the bill to get other other, more skeptical, pro-life Catholic Democrats on board.
Also, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is making calls on this. President Obama is supposed to head to the Hill tomorrow to try and wrangle votes.
BUT sources indicate the president's appearance tomorrow is still up in the air, depending on the prospects for success tomorrow. (Perhaps the White House doesn't want the perception of a repeat of Copenhagen to get the Olympics for Chicago.)
From NBC's Ali Weinberg and Wendy Jones Hillary Clinton today addressed the first public policy forum of NoLimits.org, an education foundation focusing on issues like work-family policies, healthcare reform and human rights. The nonpartisan group was founded by Ann Lewis, whose brother is House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank .
Clinton said she recognized many friends in the audience, including her best friend from sixth grade, as well as many whom she met "in the cauldron of the 2008 election." She called Lewis Rep. Frank's "long-suffering sister," joking about Lewis's reaction to Frank's speech earlier at the forum: "He did great but his shirt was untucked!"
Although the speech was devoted mostly to Clinton's experience thus far as Secretary of State, she did comment on some of the day's news, expressing optimism about the House passing its health care bill tomorrow.
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From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
An aide told First Read that "assuming all goes well," they are aiming for a vote late afternoon/early evening tomorrow. The aide, however, conceded the vote could slip later into tomorrow evening.
"We still expect to vote on health care tomorrow," the aide said.
The only thing that could push it off -- aside from not having the votes, and Dems don't have those yet -- are procedural delays by Republicans.
But Republican leadership says that's not part of the plan.
A GOP aide said they are happy to watch Democrats "flopping around like landed haddock." (For those wondering, haddock is a deep water cod.)
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From NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, Luke Russert and Domenico Montanaro
But signs are pointing to a delay to Sunday or possibly next week due, in part, to unresolved issues over abortion and illegal immigration -- as well as the possibility for Republicans to use delay tactics.
Nancy Pelosi , in remarks today, hinted at a delay with this comment: "Within the next few days, the House will vote on the most comprehensive health care legislation in our history."
"Within the next few days...."
Aides to Speaker Pelosi insist they are ready for Saturday action saying, "Our plan is to go tomorrow, which has been clear."
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The Washington Post looks at Nancy Pelosi’s race to get 218 votes. “Although confident of victory, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other Democratic leaders were working to limit defections to the roughly 25 Democrats viewed as "hard no" votes. There will be 258 Democrats in the House by the time the vote takes place, but to secure the 218 votes needed for passage -- and with prospects dim for Republican converts -- Pelosi can afford to lose no more than 40 members of her caucus.”
More: “For party leaders, setting a weekend deadline for passage represented a calculated risk, one that could backfire if the vote -- now expected late Saturday or Sunday -- fails or must be delayed. But they feared that if members were given more time to consider the legislation, new issues could arise, particularly as lawmakers digest the results from Tuesday's elections. Most ominous for Democrats were their losses in gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia, although the party did prevail in House special elections in New York and California.”
The New York Times : “Readying for the first floor test of legislation months in the making, top Democrats appealed to undecided lawmakers while trying to quell resistance from Hispanic House members worried the measure was too punitive regarding illegal immigrants and anti-abortion lawmakers who fear that public money could be funneled toward abortions.”
The illegal immigration issue is emerging as the biggest threat to passing healthcare reform in the House, The Hill adds. “Congressional Hispanics have threatened to vote against the bill because of a last-minute threat from within the Democratic Caucus to bolster the House bills immigration restrictions to match those included in the Senate Finance bill. CHC members met with the president at the White House and insisted he drop his opposition to illegal immigrants being able to buy insurance in the exchange.”
"In a step that reflected deep partisan divisions in the Senate over the issue of global warming, Democrats on the Environment and Public Works Committee pushed through a climate bill on Thursday without any debate or participation by Republicans," the New York Times says. "The measure passed by an 11-to-1 vote with the support of all the Democratic committee members except Senator Max Baucus of Montana. The seven Republicans boycotted the committee meetings this week, saying they had not had sufficient time to study the bill... The move suggests that President Obama and Democratic supporters of the bill will have serious problems assembling the votes needed to enact it when it comes to the Senate floor, probably not before next year."
From NBC's Michelle Perry James Clyburn (D-SC) acknowledged that House Dems still need to work out the abortion issue in the healthcare reform bill ahead of Saturday's vote. Clyburn told NBC's Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports ," that the House bill is in a good place on substance, but some remain "skittish" about the language that goes into the bill on abortion.
The potential stumbling block is whether or not the House bill would include explicit language restricting the use of federal money to pay for abortions. Moderate Blue Dog Democrats have threatened to oppose the bill if it doesn't.
"Both sides want to make sure that we don't put wording in here that will cause a tilt one way or the other," Clyburn told Mitchell, "and so that's the problem."
While Clyburn said that everyone is agreeable, that they express language in the bill that would not allow for federal funding for abortions, he added they are looking for a way to "wall off" the money. Right now moderate Dems remain concerned that there are still areas where the money is fungible.
That said, Clyburn thinks the issue will be resolved and they will have the votes necessary to pass the bill.
From NBC's Mark Murray In an interview today with ABC , Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele appeared to fire off this warning shot to Republican moderates who supported the economic stimulus (like Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins ) or who might support health-care reform (like Snowe):
"We'll come after you."
Crist, of course, is competing in a Senate primary against the conservative Marco Rubio.
Here's the passage:
"People aren't buying that. So candidates who live in moderate to slightly liberal districts have got to walk a little bit carefully here, because you do not want to put yourself in a position where you're crossing that line on conservative principles, fiscal principles, because we'll come after you."
Earlier this year, Steele suggested in a FOX interview that the three Senate Republicans who voted for the stimulus -- Snowe, Collins, and Arlen Specter (who later switched parties) -- might face primary challenges and might not receive funds from the RNC.
*** UPDATE ***
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro NBC's Luke Russert , reporting from the West Front of the Capitol, passes along this photo of a cartoon Pelosi with the words "UNAMERICAN MCCARTHYITE" scrawled across.
The crowd, per Russert, is so far about 3,000 to 3,500, according to Capitol Police estimates.
During actor Jon Voight's speech, he had some pretty hot moments:
"His only success in one year as president is taking America apart piece by piece," Voight said. "Could it be 20 years of 'subconscious programming' from Reverend Wright to damn America?"
More to come...
*** UPDATE *** Here's a wide shot picture of the crowd .)
At least 45 to 60 GOP members lined up behind the podium.
Here are some of the more jaw-dropping signs seen at the rally:
"Get the Red Out of the White House."
"Waterboard Congress"
"Traitor to the U.S. Constitution" (Picture of Obama on sign)
"Un-American McCarthyite" (with picture of Pelosi)
"I'm the King of the World: Remember the Titanic?" (Drawing of Obama in the mold of the 'Jovial Sambo' from the Jim Crow era doing the Leo Titanic pose."
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From NBC's Joel Seidman
"We started this debate more than two years ago with the twin goals of making coverage affordable to our younger member and protecting Medicare for Seniors," said AARP CEO Barry Rand in a written statement. "We've read the Affordable Health Care for America Act and we can say with confidence that it meets those goals with improved benefits for people in Medicare and needed health insurance market reforms to help ensure every American can purchase affordable health coverage."
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro Eric Cantor has a Web video -- with big, orchestral Americana string music -- touting how much smaller the GOP-proposed House health-reform bill is than the Democrats' almost-2,000-page bill:
So is smaller better? Discuss.
*** UPDATE *** Ezra Klein at the Washington Post , the left-leaning, but highly respected reporter who's been all over health policy, writes of the GOP bill:
According to CBO, the GOP's alternative will shave $68 billion off the deficit in the next 10 years. The Democrats, CBO says, will slice $104 billion off the deficit.
The Democratic bill, in other words, covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan. And amazingly, the Democratic bill has already been through three committees and a merger process. It's already been shown to interest groups and advocacy organizations and industry stakeholders. It's already made its compromises with reality. It's already been through the legislative sausage grinder. And yet it saves more money and covers more people than the blank-slate alternative proposed by John Boehner and the House Republicans. The Democrats, constrained by reality, produced a far better plan than Boehner, who was constrained solely by his political imagination and legislative skill.
