Pelosi touts tax breaks for business in push for healthcare reform

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is seeking to shore up support for healthcare reform by highlighting its popular tax measures.

Pelosi is touting a February Kaiser Health Tracking Poll that shows broad, bipartisan support for tax credits that businesses can claim for insuring workers.

Over 70 percent of Democrats and Republicans polled said the tax credits are either extremely or very important. Sixty-seven percent of independents agreed with this sentiment. 

Seventy-five percent of participants also support a mandate for businesses to offer health coverage. The Virginia General Assembly recently voted to block such a requirement from affecting commonwealth residents. The vote was largely symbolic, however, since Federal law would likely trump anything passed at the state level. 

Democratic leaders in the House are trying to garner the 216 votes they'll need to win approval of the Senate healthcare bill and a package of changes to that legislation that would later be considered by the Senate under budget reconciliation rules preventing a GOP filibuster.

The House is aiming for a vote this weekend, before President Barack Obama begins an overseas trip.