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By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 6, 2009; 12:11 PM
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday became the most prominent elected Republican to urge Congress to complete work on health-care reform, departing from the widely held GOP view that lawmakers should scrap the current process and start over again.
The governor said he shared President Obama's goal of "slowing the growth in costs, enhancing the quality of care delivered, improving the lives of individuals, and helping to ensure a strong economic recovery." Echoing other high-profile Republicans who have spoken up in recent days, Schwarzenegger urged lawmakers in Washington "on both sides of the political aisle at the national level to move forward and accomplish these vital goals for the American people."
The consensus approach is not taking hold with GOP leaders in Congress. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in remarks prepared for delivery on the Senate floor, conceded "Americans aren't happy with the status quo" but said Democrats' closed-door deliberations, now that five committees have finished their work, would result in legislation that would harm seniors and drive up the federal deficit.
"The final bill will be worked out, out of sight, by a mere few whose decisions will affect everyone in America," McConnell said.
The Senate Finance Committee wrapped up work Friday on a reform bill, but committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) promised his members that before voting they would have a "reasonable" amount of time to review the bill's price tag, as assessed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That report, committee aides said Monday, will arrive later than expected.
The panel's vote is expected to be close, and passage could hinge on a handful of senators who have indicated that the CBO's report may sway them.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) already has begun informal discussions with senators and White House officials, a spokesman said, about merging the Finance Committee's bill with another, passed by a different Senate committee in July. Reid's talks are intended to establish areas of broad policy agreement so that official negotiations can focus on thornier issues, Reid spokesman Jim Manley said.
But Democratic leaders in Congress, along with White House officials, took heart from pro-reform statements from some high-profile Republicans, including former Senate majority leader Bill Frist and former health and human services secretary Tommy G. Thompson. Those encouraging words could resonate with moderate Democrats who are reluctant to approve such consequential legislation along a party-line vote, and could help to convert a handful of Republican lawmakers.
Thompson teamed with former House majority leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) in citing some "troublesome and unresolved" issues in the Finance Committee's bill. The two men urged Congress nevertheless to overcome its differences and get the job done. "Failure to reach an agreement on health reform this year is not an acceptable option," Thompson and Gephardt wrote. "It is time for action."
Mark McClellan, like Thompson a prominent member of President George W. Bush's administration, also urged lawmakers on Monday to seize the moment. "The health-care problems facing this country are urgent and large, and we need to do something about them," said McClellan, a former Medicare and Medicaid administrator who is now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. "I don't want to miss this opportunity."
Their comments came on the heels of Frist (Tenn.) telling Time magazine that he "would end up voting for" reform were he still a senator. Frist, a heart surgeon, later qualified his position to ABC News Radio, saying that the Finance Committee bill is "not where I want it to be. It's going to cost way too much, and we're not going to get all the uninsured into the marketplace."
President Obama on Monday held a pep rally for about 150 doctors at the White House, urging them to use their professional clout to keep the pressure on Congress for reform.
"If you're willing to speak out strongly on behalf of the things you care about and what you see each and every day as you're serving patients all across the country, I'm confident we are going to get health reform passed this year," the president told the doctors, who wore white lab coats under the brilliant fall sun.
and we all know that AHNOLD is fiscally responsible
__________________
Looney tunes deductive reasoning:
--Me smell Mohican burning
--Me last Mohican
--Must be me!!!
--EEEOOOWWW!!!!!
Ahnold says pass healthcare reform
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