Tax News

CCH (cch.taxgroup.com) reports:

  Senate negotiators failed to meet on July 30 as hopes of forging agreement on sweeping health care reform legislation before the Senate recesses for a month-long break on August 7 began to fade. The slow progress has frustrated Democratic leaders who believe that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is devoting too much time to Republican concerns in hopes of producing a bipartisan bill. Republican leaders fear that Democrats are seeking to shut them out of the process.

  That pressure led Finance Committee ranking member Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, to push back. In a tersely worded statement, Grassley warned that rushing a bill through committee without Republican backing would do more harm than good. "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," stated Grassley.

  The situation in the House was not much better as liberal members threatened to withhold their backing of that chamber's health reform legislation. Still seething over a deal brokered by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., and conservative Democratic Blue Dogs (TAXDAY, 2009/07/30, C.1), members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) held a press conference to reiterate their belief that any health care reform must include a public health plan option. The House Energy and Commerce Committee began to mark up its portion of the bill in hopes of wrapping up deliberations prior to the August break scheduled to begin in the House on July 31.

White House

  With growing public wariness over a public health insurance option, the White House is signaling that an alternative to a government-run plan might be acceptable under certain conditions. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, at a press briefing on July 30, said the administration has not drawn a line in the sand as long as the final plan meets President Obama's health care reform goal to ensure choice and competition.

  While the relevant House and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees include a public option, the Senate Finance Committee is widely expected to propose a network of nonprofit co-ops instead of a government-run plan. The White House will continue to evaluate each proposal to "see what commonality there might be," Gibbs said.

  Obama has said he will not sign a bill that adds to the deficit in the long run and does not provide affordable and accessible health care insurance. Unless final legislation contains genuine insurance reform, the president will not sign it, Gibbs stressed.

  By Jeff Carlson and Paula Cruickshank, CCH News Staff