Democrats say elections won't stop health care -- GOPUSA

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Democrats say elections won't stop health care
By DAVID ESPO
Associated Press
November 5, 2009

Page 2 of 2

But there was at least anecdotal evidence to the opposite.

Rep. Tom Perriello, a Virginia freshman, said he had gone from being opposed to the legislation to being undecided. "I think it's a stronger bill," he said, adding pointedly that the election in his home state "reminds us just how important it is to deliver results."

Republicans, celebrating their best election night in several years, alternately taunted Democrats and sought to shake their confidence on one of the most sweeping pieces of legislation in recent memory.

"Let's throw his bill aside," Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said of Reid in remarks on the Senate floor that referred to the election results. He said he sensed hesitation among Democrats, and noted Reid does not have 60 votes needed to pass the overhaul.

"You wouldn't vote for this bill if we offered it," he said to the Democrats. "You shouldn't vote for it just because your leadership and your president want to see it happen."

Corker didn't say so, but Reid needs 60 votes only because Republicans, unanimously opposed to the measure, have threatened a filibuster to block its passage. Absent their delaying tactics, a simple majority would be sufficient.

One group, the conservative "American Future Fund," readied a print ad that warned Democrats they risked their majority if they pursued the health care legislation. "Blue Dogs: Vote with Pelosi and prepare to color your district red next year," it said.

In the Senate, where Reid has struggled for months with health care, it was unclear how the elections would affect a strategy that has been sketched in private by Democratic officials.

The majority leader announced last week he would include a government insurance option in legislation he would send to the floor. That was widely seen as a gesture to liberals in his caucus and union voters back home in Nevada, where he faces re-election next year.

Within a few weeks, he will need the 60 votes for the proposal, and if he is unable to get them will presumably fall back to a weaker measure, perhaps one that holds the government option in abeyance until it is shown that consumers don't have adequate choices for affordable insurance.

According to this scenario, it would then be up to liberals, generally in safe seats, to decide whether to yield to the moderates who often struggle to survive -- or risk collapse of one of the overhaul effort.

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Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Charles Babington, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Ben Evans, Andrew Taylor, Ken Thomas and Erica Werner contributed to this story.

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