Merkley laments sliding healthcare deadline

The deadline by which health reform will be completed by Congress keeps sliding, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) lamented Wednesday.

Merkley said he saw the Senate finishing its work on healthcare before adjourning for the Christmas holiday, but not finishing up honing language in conference with the House until January.

"It's excruciatingly, painfully slow, but we're still headed forward," Merkley said in an interview with Talk Radio News Service. "During the month of December, we will get it done and send it to conference. But it will be January before it comes back from conference."

But the freshman senator most of all complained about the steadily sliding deadlines for health reform in recent months, blaming Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) for leading Republicans in delaying any progress.

"Now, if you had asked me a few weeks ago, I would have said we were we going to get it done and have it done on the president's desk by Christmas," he said. "If you asked me a few months ago, I would have said we'd be debating it at the end of the August recess."

"So, it keeps sliding forward," Merkley added.

He said that Republicans have sought to block and slow-walk a number of priorities beyond health reform.

"It really comes down to a strategy to derail the Obama presidency," the Oregon Democrat said. "I must say, I've never seen anything like it."

"It's really unbelievable, the dysfunction that's coming from out of McConnell's office in terms of trying to block any problem-solving effort to address with these huge issues facing America," Merkley added.

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