Democratic leaders confronted the reality Wednesday that they may not be able to pass the comprehensive health care overhaul sought by President Obama, while Republican leaders prepared to do everything in their power to make sure they can't.
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor declared in a memo that if the Senate goes ahead with plans to use a controversial legislative tactic known as reconciliation to pass the bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "will not be able to muster the votes" to pass it in the House.
Speaking ahead of Obama's upcoming televised health summit, House Minority Leader John Boehner also told fellow Republicans in a closed-door event Tuesday: "We need to show up and crash the party," an aide told Reuters.
"We shouldn't let the White House have a six-hour taxpayer-funded infomercial on ObamaCare," Boehner said, suggesting the meeting was no more than a White House publicity stunt.
Both parties saw the president's revised, far-reaching proposal, released Monday, as a chance for Democrats to try to pass the legislation on their own under Senate rules that would bar Republican delaying tactics.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Obama administration appears determined "to try to jam it through under a seldom-used process," or budget reconciliation. The process would allow Democrats in the Senate to pass part of the bill with a simple, 51-vote majority.
But Cantor, in his memo, ran through the numbers in the House and estimated that Pelosi would only be able to hold together 203 votes at best -- far fewer than she needs. The bill originally passed the House last year by a narrow 220-215 vote. - FOX News Story
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