Healthcare

Many Republicans are open to supporting a healthcare compromise creating cooperatives for Americans, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said Thursday.

Conrad, the chief proponent of the cooperative compromise, said that while he hasn't engaged in any formal vote counting, more Republicans than those in the so-called "group of six" locked in crafting a bipartisan health bill are open to backing a compromise.

"There are many more who are open to the cooperative option as being a way to bridge the gap between those who are passionately in favor of the public option, and those who are passionately opposed," Conrad said during an interview on the Fox Business Network.

The three Republicans in that group are Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine). Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has said that more than those three Republicans would need to support a final healthcare reform bill for it to be considered "bipartisan."

Conrad continued to push the co-op model, which he first floated as a compromise early in the negotiations over a bill, as the only option likely to pass through the Senate.

"The only plan that has bipartisan support in the United States Senate is the cooperative option," he said.

He explained that while he's not sure what the sure what the vote count would be for a co-op bill, the public option is not viable.

"I've not gone out and done a detailed vote count because we're not at that stage," Conrad asserted. "It's very clear that there are not the votes in the United States Senate for the public option."

As for a timeline, the chairman of the Budget Committee said that while the group of six maintains no timeline to strike a deal, there is still a "good chance" that healthcare reform could pass through Congress this year.

The White House is in "chaos" over its management of healthcare reform legislation before Congress, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) charged late Wednesday.

Cantor, during a short interview on Fox News, said that the Obama administration's recent management of the bill has been in disarray in recent days.

"What I really see right now is a White House in chaos over healthcare," said the second-ranking House Republican.

The White House has had to battle both liberal Democrats and Republicans this week over whether or not final healthcare legislation would include a public (or "government-run") option, versus having cooperatives for consumers.

The Obama administration has also had to respond to charges that Democrats in Congress are mulling "going it alone" on healthcare.

Cantor said that Democrats have sought to go it alone from the outset when crafting a healthcare reform bill.

"They have, from the very beginning, tried to go it alone on this, much to the disappointment to we Republicans in the House, and certainly to the American people," he said.

A healthcare bill establishing cooperatives would be a step along the path to establishing a public (or "government-run") insurance option for Americans, one Republican congressman asserted Thursday.

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), echoing GOP talking points that the public option would inevitably lead to a single-payer system, said that establishing healthcare cooperatives would eventually lead to the public option, and so on.

"I don't really see how that changes the playing field any," Garrett said during an appearance on CNBC when asked about the prospects for co-ops. "The cooperatives would be one step to get us to this bill, and then this bill would get us to the single-payer system."

Co-ops have been floated as a potential compromise to win centrist Democrats' and Republicans' support for a healthcare reform package in Congress before the end of the year.

That proposal's chances, though, have been somewhat hurt by liberals' unwillingness to abandon the public option, and Republicans' attacks on the cooperatives.

"The cooperatives has no difference in effect that the government would still be able to initiate and subsidize their system vis-a-vis the private sector, and the private sector will be squeezed out," said Garrett, a member of the House committees on the Budget and Financial Services.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) is pushing Massachusetts lawmakers to change state laws so that a vacancy in his Senate seat could be filled quickly.

According to a report in the Boston Globe on Thursday, Kennedy, who has been ailing from brain cancer from over a year, has written key Massachusetts officials to push for a change in state law to allow Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to quickly appoint an interim senator, instead of having to wait five months for a special election.

The letter is rife with implications as to both the state of Kennedy's health, but also the current state-of-play in debates over healthcare legislation in the Senate, where 60 votes are expected to be needed to pass the bill.

"I strongly support that law and the principle that the people should elect their senator," Kennedy wrote in his letter, which was obtained by the Globe. "I also believe it is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election."

Kennedy confidantes maintained in the story, however, that nothing should be read into the veteran senator's health status due to the letter. Massachusetts's junior senator, John Kerry (D), said that Kennedy would be available for a healthcare vote on a moment's notice.

"If [Senate majority leader] Harry Reid required 60 votes tomorrow, Ted Kennedy would be on a plane and be down in the Senate to vote," Kerry said.

Centrist Blue Dog Democrats are "making a big mistake" by not backing President Obama's healthcare reforms, Teamsters President James P. Hoffa threatened Wednesday.

"They're a whole new phenomenon," Hoffa said of the centrist Democrats who have been reluctant to back a healthcare bill containing certain taxes and a public (or "government-run") option for consumers.

"A lot of these people we supported, and I think they're making a big mistake by not supporting the president," Hoffa added during an appearance on the liberal Bill Press radio show.

Hoffa's words come after the likely incoming president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, told the Huffington Post that his union may sit out campaigns in which lawmakers broke from the organization.

Hoffa said that the Blue Dogs certainly weren't aiding Obama's efforts to pass health reform.

"The president needs every Democratic vote, whether it's in the House or the Senate," he said. "The fact that they're basically chopping up the bill certainly doesn't help him."

The son of the legendary union leader Jimmy Hoffa also said that the bruising healthcare battle might have taught the president a lesson or two.

"I think he's really learning a lesson about how divided this town is," he said. "I think he came here he had the idea that he could charm everybody."

Related links:

• Congressman: Public option just like the post office


• Harry Reid's ready to use 'any legislative means necessary' on health bill


• Waters: Obama has 'seen very clearly' he must back public option


• White House messaging on public option confusing Grassley


• Blue Dog: Votes aren't there to go it alone on public option

The Obama family will trek to Martha's Vineyard for vacation next week, and it looks like at least one conservative group plans on taking full advantage of the President's exclusive vacation locale.

Greg Sargent obtained an internal memo from Conservatives for Patients Rights, a group opposed to Democrats' healthcare reform.

Among other interesting nuggets--CPR thinks the public option is "far from dead," for example--the memo makes clear that the group is planning a "Martha's Vineyard ad strategy."

The subject line of the memo reads: "Martha's Vineyard: Public Option is (still) Patient Enemy #1."

After pledging to "deliver a decisive blow to the President's big government agenda," and arguing that "there is opportunity in quagmire," the memo closes with this:

We will continue to carry this message forward into next week with our Martha's Vineyard ad strategy--even on vacation, the President will get no quarter on the public option from Conservatives for Patient's Rights."

The Obama administration has "seen very clearly" that it must back a healthcare bill containing a public option for consumers after suffering the backlash of liberal members of Congress.

"What happened was that there was a great pushback from the progressives in this party, from the leadership of this party," Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said during an appearance on MSNBC. "And I think they have seen very clearly that they must have a public option to get this bill passed."

The White House has backtracked from statements from some administration officials earlier this week that it could support a bill without a public option after liberal lawmakers made clear they wouldn't support such a bill.

The White House has also had to alternately manage relations with Congress after the New York Times reported Wednesday that they were set to abandon compromise efforts with Republicans in order to "go it alone" on healthcare.

Waters said she would "absolutely not" support a bill without a public (or "government-run") option, and insisted that lawmakers and President Obama needed to do a better job of explaining the controversial provision to Americans.

Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) said he "of course" stands by remarks publicized earlier this week that he would vote against the interests of his district on healthcare if he believes it's in his constituents' best interests.

"Of course I do," Massa said in an interview on Fox News when asked if he stood by his remarkts. "I am always going to cast a vote in the interest of helping my constituents."

"Until we can solve some of those problem, I'm not going to weathervane an opinion," he added. "Of course I have to do -- as I said clearly -- what is good for my constituents, and I'm not going to back off of that."

Massa is a proponent of a single-payer system favored by liberals, but is seen as unlikely to garner enough votes to pass out of Congress.

He told liberal bloggers last week that he wouldn't automatically sign onto any healthcare bill to come through Congress.

"I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to be helpful," he said.

Massa defended those remarks, saying that Americans shouldn't want their representatives to be "weathervanes" on public opinion.

"You want your member of Congress to be deliberative," he said. "You don't want your member of Congress to stick his or her finger up in the wind and find out what people are saying today, because tomorrow it's going to be different."

Democrats will pay a price at the polls if they decide to "go it alone" on healthcare reform legislation, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) vowed Wednesday.

DeMint said that if Democrats choose to abandon talks with Republicans, or even use procedural maneuvers to pass a healthcare bill containing a public option with only a simple majority in the Senate, they would suffer losses in the next election cycle.

"I think the American people are already outraged," DeMint said in an interview on CNBC. "If we get into this kind of backroom shenanigans, I think the American people are going to throw them out of office -- and they should."

The conservative South Carolinian asserted that it would harm everyone from President Obama to Democrats downballot.

"If he passes this without any Republican support -- or really, any American support -- I think it's going to hurt his presidency, I think it's going to hurt the Democrats in the next election," he said.

The Obama administration's messages to lawmakers about whether or not it supports a public option have only resulted in confusion for one key healthcare negotiator, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

Grassley told Iowa reporters Wednedsay that he'd suggested to President Obama in a meeting in early August that he needed to make clear whether or not he could support a bill without a public (or "government-run") option.

"I thought a statement from him would be very helpful," explained Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, the lead group negotiating a bipartisan health bill in the Senate.

But while Grassley said that statements this past weekend about Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the necessity of the public option seemed like a trial balloon, White House backtracking has only resulted in confusion about the president's stance.

"When Sebelius said what she did -- I thought maybe it was a trial balloon," Grassley said. "But then I saw so much backtracking by White House personnel."

"I don't know, but I can tell you that we've had these trial balloons before," the Iowa Republican added. "So you just don't know is the best answer to your question."