Democrats Looking at Alternatives to Bipartisan Bill

New York Senator Charles Schumer said President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders are considering “alternatives” to a bipartisan health-care bill amid continuing opposition from Republicans.

Schumer, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said Obama and Democratic leaders are “bending over backwards” to win Republican support for a bill. “It’s looking less and less likely that certainly the Republican leadership in the House and Senate will want to go for a bipartisan bill,” he said.

The options include passing a bill with just a few Republican votes or passing a bill using the so-called reconciliation process, which would require only 51 votes, said Schumer, a Democrat. The president and his advisers have started devising a strategy to pass a measure by relying only on the Democratic majority in each house of Congress, according to a source who spoke last week on condition of anonymity.

A move by Democrats to seek a partisan bill may provoke a backlash from Republicans and weaken public support for a health-care overhaul, Obama’s top domestic priority. It might also result in watered-down legislation.

Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican who also appeared on the program, said passing a bill on reconciliation would be “an abuse of the process.”

Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, speaking on CNN, called it “a real mistake to try to jam through” the total health overhaul package when the public is “nervous” about it.

Lieberman, an independent, favors an incremental approach to health care overhaul, comparing it with other great changes such as the civil rights movement. He said the focus should be on bringing down costs.

Public Option

While the Democrats control 60 seats in the Senate, enough to quash Republican efforts to block action on the bill, they can’t rely on all those votes because of the illnesses of two lawmakers, Senators Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Robert Byrd of West Virginia.

The overhaul effort has been stalled by debates over whether to create a government-run insurance program to compete with private insurers, a mandate that employers cover workers, and disagreement over whether to impose potentially unpopular new taxes that could include a surtax on the richest Americans or a levy on the most generous health plans.

Americans are “rightly skeptical” about the president’s plan and a price tag that could reach $1 trillion, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.