Democrats Face Hurdle In Health Care Bill

Copyright © 2009 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

GUY RAZ, host:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Guy Raz.

A moment for the history books today as the House of Representatives get set to vote on a comprehensive health care bill that would expand coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. Earlier, President Obama drove down Pennsylvania Avenue to rally his fellow Democrats. Afterward, he spoke to reporters back at the White House.

President BARACK OBAMA: I just came from the Hill where I talked to members of Congress there and I reminded them that opportunities like this come around maybe once in a generation. Most public servants pass through their entire careers without the chance to make as important a difference in the lives of their constituents and the life of this country.

RAZ: Though a vote may not happen for hours, the tone of today's debate suggests a deep partisan split.

Representative LOIS CAPPS (Democrat, California): Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent�

Representative TOM PRICE (Republican, Georgia): I object.

Rep. CAPPS: �to revise my�

Rep. PRICE: I object�

Rep. CAPPS: �remarks in support of�

Rep. PRICE: I object.

(Soundbite of gavel hitting)

Rep. CAPPS: �that insures that no mother�

Representative JOHN DINGELL (Democrat, Michigan): There is no request before the House yet.

Rep. PRICE: Mr. Speaker, parliamentary inquiry.

Rep. DINGELL: (Unintelligible). The gentlewoman compelled�

Rep. PRICE: Mr. Speaker, parliamentary inquiry.

(Soundbite of gavel hitting)

Rep. DINGELL: The gentleman is out of order.

RAZ: It was truly a House divided. Here's Democratic Congressman James McGovern of Massachusetts.

Representative JAMES McGOVERN (Democrat, Massachusetts): By the time my kids retire, health care will take up 50 percent, half of our entire economy. We simply cannot leave that kind of debt for future generations. My Republican friends see things differently. Their prescription for health care is take two tax breaks and call me in the morning.

RAZ: On the opposite side of the aisle, Republicans were unanimous in their opposition, referring to the bill as a job killer and a government takeover of health care.

Here's Republican Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

Representative MARSHA BLACKBURN (Republican, Tennessee): This is a wrong step for America. What you are doing is sacrificing the future of our children, our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren to pay, to pay for federalizing, nationalizing government control of health care.

Rep. DINGELL: Time of the gentlewoman has expired.

Rep. BLACKBURN: Let's oppose the rule and take it down.

RAZ: Meanwhile, off the House floor, there was turmoil among Democrats after a middle of the night decision by House leaders to allow abortion opponents to offer a controversial amendment to the bill.

House Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter was matter of fact when asked why the amendment was allowed.

Representative LOUISE SLAUGHTER (Democrat, New York; Chairwoman, House Rules Committee): We need a vote.

RAZ: That simple answer set off a furious scramble among those on both sides of the abortion debate and raised questions about whether the gamble will pay off.

NPR's Julie Rovner has been on Capitol Hill all day and joins me here in the studio. And, Julie, tell us what the bill says about abortion now.

JULIE ROVNER: Well, the effort in the bill was to be neutral - to neither expand nor contract abortion rights. That meant keeping in place the Hyde amendment that bans federal funding of abortion. That has to be renewed every single year. But the idea was to let people use private funds to buy private plans that offer abortion as a benefit. And most private plans do.

Now, no one was particularly happy with that compromise, particularly abortion opponents. They were afraid that the subsidies that were going to be in the bill would end up with federal funds subsidizing private plans that offer abortion. They threatened that they had enough votes to block the bill from coming up if they weren't allowed to offer an amendment to make the abortion ban stricter.

Here's how the lead sponsor of that amendment, Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak, put it.

Representative BART STUPAK (Democrat, Michigan): We want to send a message: if you're going to start messing with abortion and health care, you got a problem.

ROVNER: Democratic leaders have been trying to work out a compromise for weeks. But late last night with no compromise and needing the votes of those pro-life Democrats to get the bill passed, they decided they basically had no choice but to let Congressman Stupak offer his amendment.

RAZ: And, Julie, what would that amendment do?

ROVNER: Well, it would go well beyond the Hyde amendment, which, as I mentioned, has to be renewed each year. It would make it permanent law. And in banning subsidies for private plans, abortion rights supporters worry that basically, Congressman Stupak's amendment would end up prompting those private plans to simply stop providing abortion as a covered benefit even to people who don't receive the subsidies.

Here's how House Pro-Choice Caucus head Diana DeGette of Colorado put it.

Representative DIANA DEGETTE (Democrat, Colorado): People need to know that this is not just a clarification of the Hyde amendment. What it is saying is people cannot get insurance coverage for a legal medical procedure with their own private dollars, and that is unacceptable.

RAZ: So, Julie, how much does the outcome of this amendment affect the outcome of the overall bill?

ROVNER: Well, very much so. Congressman Stupak says he's got 20 or so pro-life Democrats who won't vote for the bill on final passage unless his amendment passes. He wouldn't say as of this afternoon whether or not he's actually one of those members.

Meanwhile, Congresswoman DeGette said this morning she wasn't sure that the pro-choice members will be able to vote for the final bill if the amendment does pass, which could also threaten final passage of the bill, although, by this afternoon, abortion rights backers seemed to be softening that rhetoric somewhat.

In the end, it's just a matter of the Democratic leaders having to get 218 votes from their 258 Democrats and knowing that whatever they do is going to win some people and lose others. They just have to hope that whichever way it goes wins more votes than it loses.

RAZ: So, explain something here: you have a president who supports abortion rights, a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate that supports abortion rights, but abortion rights could be curtailed if this bill becomes law?

ROVNER: That's absolutely true. And it's because there's so many fewer Republican moderates in the House and Senate who support abortion rights. They've largely been replaced by Democrats who don't. So, if this passes the House, this amendment, it's likely to also pass the Senate, which is overall less supportive of abortion rights than the House is. So, if that happens, of course, it will be very difficult to take it out of the bill.

I can't imagine President Obama vetoing his central domestic priority over abortion language. And I would add parenthetically that many of the abortion restrictions in law now were signed by President Clinton, not because he supported them - he didn't - but because they were included in bigger bills that he didn't want to veto. So, I think that's why the pro-choice members of the House are so worried about this particular amendment.

RAZ: That's NPR's Julie Rovner. Julie, thanks so much.

ROVNER: You're very welcome.

Copyright ©2009 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.