WASHINGTON — President Obama yesterday pushed wavering House members to OK health-care legislation for his own political standing and for theirs, as the battle came down to a bare-knuckle brawl for votes.
Obama met with groups of liberal and more conservative Democrats in the White House to try to assemble a winning coalition.
“To maintain a strong presidency, we need to pass the bill,” Obama told the liberals, according to Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who attended the meeting.
“He made a very pointed, very realistic case about how this is an opportunity that won’t come around for a long time.”
The heightened presidential pressure came on a day when Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said a dozen centrist Democrats weren’t willing to swallow Senate language that they say provides federal funding for abortion.
“We’re not going to vote for the bill with that language in there,” Stupak, who leads a faction of anti-abortion Democrats who have voted for health reform, told ABC yesterday.
Congressional leaders say they want to bring Obama’s top legislative priority up for a vote by the end of the month.
On Wednesday, Obama called on Congress to stop debating and hold an “up-or-down vote” using a hard-line tactic called “reconciliation” and having the House take up the Senate-passed bill.
“I feel very confident about how we go forward,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters.
Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens) said speakers have a way of delivering votes in the end.
“When they want something done, they tend to get it done,” he said.
But with Pelosi (D-Calif.) hoping for a vote before Easter and the White House preferring a vote before Obama leaves for Guam, Indonesia and Australia on March 18, any deadline appeared flexible, as it has for the last year.
But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) admitted “the world doesn’t fall apart” if the latest deadline isn’t met.
“At this point in time, we don’t have a bill,” Hoyer said. “It’s a little difficult to count votes if you don’t have a bill.”
To get a bill through the House, Obama must thread a legislative needle, picking up the votes of some conservative Democrats who opposed a more expansive version while probably losing votes over the abortion provision, which might not be able to be modified.
The House passed its bill in November with only 220 votes, but since then, a handful of lawmakers have left the House and some former yes votes have announced their opposition.