KCFreePress.com

President Barack Obama called on Democrats in Congress Thursday afternoon to wrap up the health care debate within two weeks. A year after the debate began, the president said the bill deserves an “up or down vote” in the Senate. That thinly veiled reference to reconciliation means a bill will need to clear both the House and Senate by simple majorities.

Congressional leaders put on a strong face this week, saying they’ll find the votes to pass the measure, though the Kansas City delegation showed very little optimism for the president’s time frame.

“I think it would be a mistake to assume that the House would automatically accept the Senate bill,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said after a vote this week. According to a National Journal study, Cleaver’s Kansas City district boasts an uninsured rate higher than 15 percent. He added that the public — especially the uninsured — still want to see a public option; a government run insurance program.

Conservative Democrats like Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) indicated this week they still have reservations with the Senate bill. Stupak inserted a provision into the House version that strongly restricted abortion laws. That bill passed with one Republican vote.

“Who knows if it’ll pass? That’s a good question,” Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said.

Graves labeled the overhaul bills a “government takeover” of the health industry, and said only a small minority of people in his St. Joseph area district support the measure. The same National Journal study shows more than 11 percent of his constituents live without health care.

Asked if the more toned down Senate version is an easier bill to support, Graves demurred and said he would not support either version.

To follow the president’s two week plan, Congress will need to fast track the bills. The House needs to pass the Senate version, make changes in the Rules Committee the president called for, and vote on that measure, the reconciled package.

The Senate would then need to vote on that version and pass it with a simple majority. The directive to proceed using reconciliation infuriated Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.)

“We don’t have to [pull out all the stops]. The American people already have,” Bond said about the streamlined approach. The American people, however, do not have access to Senate parliamentary tactics to slow down the bill. Bond said he and fellow Republicans would use all possible procedures and tactics to slow the bill down.

That could mean forcing votes on amendments if the Democratic majority can’t find a way to limit debate.

Perhaps the area’s most moderate federal lawmaker, Sen. Claire McCaskill coyly said she did not know whether Senate Republicans would try to block the measure with procedural measures.

“I’m not very attuned to all the strategy that’s swirling right now,” she said.

Conservative Republican Graves and liberal Democrat Cleaver found one point of agreement: The health care debate needs to end so Congress can move on.

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