WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Democratic congressional leaders promised yesterday to push ahead with healthcare reform despite a stinging setback in a Senate election, but failed to agree quickly on a new approach.
The victory of Republican Scott Brown, who rode a wave of voter anger on the health bill and other elements of President Barack Obama’s agenda to an upset in Massachusetts, denied Democrats the 60th Senate vote they need and left them with a handful of alternatives with significant drawbacks.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said lawmakers would take a few days to explore their options and would not push through a healthcare bill before Brown takes his seat in the Senate.
“We’re not going to rush into anything,” Reid told reporters after a meeting of Democratic senators. “There are many different things that we can do to move forward on healthcare, but we’re not making any of those decisions now.”
Democrats were divided on how to proceed on the issue, with nearly all of the potential options for passing healthcare drawing criticism or doubts from some party members.
Obama urged lawmakers to agree quickly on core elements of the bill and signaled he might accept a scaled-back version of his sweeping healthcare overhaul, which he had made his top legislative priority.
“I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements in the package that people agree on,” he told ABC News, citing insurance reforms, cost containment measures and help for small businesses. House of Representatives Democratic leader Steny Hoyer suggested Democrats should focus on “that which we think the public can support.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the U.S. Conference of Mayors that lawmakers had received the message sent by Massachusetts voters.
“Last night, we heard the people and hopefully we will move forward with their considerations in mind. But we will move forward,” Pelosi said. House and Senate Democratic leaders had been negotiating to merge the healthcare bills passed in each chamber into one version that could be passed again and sent to Obama.
