Click here to read the White House press statement yourself.
Inside the Dome for March 12th
March 12th, 2010, Washington, DC–From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Derek Baker:
In the Senate, the Parliamentarian, responding to questions posed by Republican leadership, has ruled that Obama must sign the Senate-passed healthcare bill (if it were to pass the House) before the Senate can vote on the “side-car” reconciliation bill. This would effectively kill the “Slaughter Solution” posed recently that would “deem” the Senate-bill passed and move the reconciliation bill to the Senate for action.
It also significantly complicates Pelosi’s efforts to lock down wavering Democrats, particularly those with abortion funding concerns, since there is now no way to ensure that any “fix” to the Senate-bill would be enacted before the Senate-bill is signed into law. There is deep mistrust of the Senate among House Democrats this Congress, so this development makes it even more difficult to sway skeptical Dems. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a former House member, referencing this skepticism, stated, “They just need to trust that we’ll do it right and I think enough of us talking to them will help them to do that.”
NY Times: White House Gives Itself 51 Percent Chance of Passing ObamaCare
By PETER BAKER
As Emanuel put it the morning of the Massachusetts election, the final judgments will depend on the final results. If the president and his chief of staff manage to salvage their ambitious campaign to overhaul health care in the next few weeks — a proposition the White House privately put at 51 percent as the month began, according to an official — then, as Emanuel said, they will be seen as smart all over again. But that 49 percent chance of failure could devastate Obama’s presidency, weaken Democrats heading into the fall midterm elections and trigger an even fiercer, more debilitating round of finger-pointing inside the administration.
