GOP / Blue Dogs Win Pause in Health Care Debate

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A key Senate committee won't vote on its compromise health care overhaul plan before the upcoming month-long August recess, giving Republicans and some conservative Democrats their desired slowdown in congressional action on President Obama's top domestic priority.

The announcement by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, followed weeks of painstaking negotiations by six panel members -- three Democrats and three Republicans. It's been the only bipartisan health care legislation being crafted so far.

Under pressure from Democratic leaders to complete their work before the August break, the senators instead insisted they needed more time to come up with a proposal acceptable to both parties.

"It'll be a lost opportunity if Democratic leaders in Congress and the administration force action on health care legislation that's not ready because of the complexity of the issue and the high stakes in getting it right," said a terse statement by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, one of the Republican negotiators, before the decision to hold off on a full committee vote.

Political acrimony over the issue also was evident on the House side as well Thursday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California signed off on a key component of a health care deal reached with conservative Democrats, triggering a backlash by liberal Democrats over what they called a weakened government-funded public health insurance option.

Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, the two most powerful congressional Democrats, also launched new attacks on private insurance companies that they blamed for increasing health care costs in order to make larger profits.

"They are the villains in this," Pelosi told reporters, labeling industry practices as "immoral," while Reid noted that the health care industry was exempt from antitrust regulation and made 450 percent profit in the past decade. - CNN Story