Grassley: GOP looking to keep Senate health debate going 'a few weeks'

Republicans are hoping the Senate's healthcare debate lasts at least "a few weeks," Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Thursday.

Grassley told a fundraiser for the Dallas County Republican Party in Iowa that the Senate GOP would seek to slow movement on the Senate's health bill in order to stop reform efforts and start over.

"We can do that unless 60 Democrats decide to stick together. Then we can’t do anything,” Grassley told the audience, according to IowaPolitics.com. “But as long as there’s some split there, we intend to keep this debate going for a few weeks to give you the opportunity to do what you almost did in the case of the stimulus bill.”

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is hoping to start the process toward debating his healthcare bill in the Senate as soon as next Tuesday. There's no definite timeline for how long the debate will last, though Democrats have maintained they still wish to finish health reform by the end of the year -- a deadline about which some Democrats have expressed some skepticism.

The veteran Iowa Republican told the fundraiser that there shouldn't be any rush in getting the bill done.

"When most of the program doesn’t get started until 2013, what’s the hurry of getting to get it done right now instead of getting it done right?” he asked.

A number of amendments are expected to be offered to Reid's health bill, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said the debate should take "weeks and weeks and weeks."

Grassley had been the GOP leader of a bipartisan group's push for a consensus health bill earlier this year, but has since railed against the proposals approved by two Senate committees, and the elements of a bill Reid's expected to unveil.

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