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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Democrats Put Hold on Key Health Care Vote - Lacking Enough to Pass it

A key House committee on Tuesday indefinitely postponed voting on health care reform legislation after Democratic leaders were unable to line up enough votes from moderate members of their own party.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee canceled the session as it faced serious concerns about the legislation from fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats, who hold a large number of seats on the panel. The Energy and Commerce Committee is the only House panel with jurisdiction over health care that has not completed writing its version of the reform bill.

President Obama, trying to rally support to the package, met with those Democrats Tuesday afternoon. Sources told FOX News they met for a couple hours and mainly discussed ways to contain the costs of the comprehensive plan. While sources said the meeting was "productive," at least one suggested there was little progress on the actual bill.

Obama stressed before going into the meeting that lawmakers have already forged unprecedented consensus on health care and expressed confidence that they could finish what they started.

"We are closer than ever before to the reform that the American people need and we're going to get the job done," Obama said, accusing some of his critics of trying to score "political points" at the expense of health care reform.

But he and his congressional allies still have a lot of Democrats to convince. - FOX News Story

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