Obama Lobbies for Health Care Votes, Pressure Mounts on Democrats

President Obama went to Capitol Hill Saturday morning to press fellow Democrats to vote for the trillion-dollar health care reform bill that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership unveiled last week. The bill would expand access to health care insurance through a public health insurance option and subsidies for low and middle income consumers. It is paid for, in part, through tax increases on individuals making more $500,000 per year.

As the president emerged from his motorcade to go into the Capitol, a group of protesters shouted at him and waved signs saying "Kill the bill!" "Kill the Pelosi Bill!" Following the closed-door session with House members, White House spokesman Bill Burton said that the president told House Democrats that "we should take this historic opportunity to pass health care reform so that he can sign a bill by the end of this year." Burton also said that spontaneous chants of "Fired up, ready to go" came from some members as the president left the meeting.

Whether the Democrats have the votes for final passage remained an open question as late as Saturday, even after the President met with still-wavering members of his own party. Among the arguments the White House has been making to members this week has been that the bill will improve the Democratic Party's long-term prospects.

No member of the House leadership, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, indicated Saturday that the president's trip to Capitol Hill had secured the votes to pass the bill. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the Democratic whip, said after the meeting that while Obama's visit had helped the Democrats "come together as a caucus, I don't know whether it would actually do anything about adding to the numbers...I have not counted anything about numbers that he would add to it."

Republicans uniformly oppose the bill and most House Democrats will vote for it, but a crucial block of pro-life Democrats have withheld their support because of lingering questions over whether federal funds could be used for abortion services. Some Blue Dog Democrats oppose giving illegal immigrants access to health insurance, even if they pay for the insurance with their own money.

Although some conservative Democrats announced Friday that they will vote against the bill, a key endorsement came Saturday morning from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops after the House Rules Committee voted to allow for an up-or-down vote by the full House on an amendment to prevent insurance companies from participating in the new government exchange if they also cover abortion.

The bishops have pressed for months to strengthen restrictions on abortion funding in the overall health care legislation and wrote a letter to House members Saturday saying that the amendment, to be introduced by pro-life Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak, "will ensure that no government funds will be used for abortion or health plans which include abortion." But liberal Democrats, including Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), vowed to defeat the amendment. "We're going to be organizing today to vote against the amendment," she told C-SPAN Saturday.

Just before the president began his meeting with the Democratic caucus, a raucous debate broke out on the House floor during its rare Saturday session to consider the bill.

Republican members pressed for additional time to debate individual items in the bill, but Democrats refused. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mi.), the longest serving member of the House and a leader in the health care debate, presided over what he called "the somewhat disorderly House," and told Republicans at one point, "There's no advantage to be achieved by making all of this fuss."

"The chair will try to enforce these rules in a fair and proper way," he said, as Republicans repeatedly interrupted him to make parliamentary inquiries. Dingell continued and implored both Democrats and Republicans to try to give "reasonable courtesies to members on the other side of the aisle."