Reid: Health Care Will Wait For Brown

The Senate won't take further action to pass a final health care bill before Senator-Elect Scott Brown (R-Mass.) takes his seat, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday.

"We're not going to rush into anything," Reid said at a press conference following the Senate's weekly caucus lunches. "We're going to wait until the new senator arrives before we do anything more on health care."

Across the Capitol, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Tuesday that Congress could pass health care in the roughly two weeks before Brown is seated and Democrats lose their filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate. But that time will mostly be spent focusing on job growth, Reid said.

In a reversal of Reid's earlier statements, however, he did not rule out the use of budget reconciliation to bypass a filibuster.

Sen. Paul Kirk (D-Mass.), a longtime friend of Ted Kennedy who will continue to hold Kennedy's seat until Brown is sworn in, told reporters on his way out of lunch that he's invited Brown to come down Thursday to begin the transition, although he said the timing of Brown's seating is out of his hands.

Asked for his reflections on Brown's victory over Martha Coakley, Kirk quipped, "How much time do you have?"

Kirk called Brown's campaign "impressive" and his victory "solid," but said he does not believe the vote was a referendum on health care reform. "You have to keep in mind that Massachusetts had health reform. I think people think that it's a good thing," he said. "I certainly won't take away from it, and I don't think anybody in the caucus took away from it, that this is a reason not to go forward on health care reform."

Of course, Brown, who campaigned on a promise to sustain the united Republican filibuster of health care reform, won't be joining that caucus.

Comments

[DrDemon]

07:09 AM on 01/23/2010

PU_SSSEY !

[Doug Klinker]

08:39 AM on 01/21/2010

There's a very understandable reason why DC is Zacky Farms right now,... they don't have the support in the House to adopt the Senate version, and if they opt for the nuclear option instead, more support will drop as they strip the bill down to budget related items.
Compound that with only having one shot at a reconciliation bill in calendar year 2010,... and ask yourself,.. do they want to put all the eggs in the HCR basket and be hamstrung on the amnesty issue when that hits the fan?

[oneanddone-2012]

08:34 AM on 01/21/2010

Another 480,000 folks lost their jobs last week. That is nearly a 9% jump in 1 week. Trash this Health care BS and get folks back to work

[potrerohillman]

08:27 AM on 01/21/2010

gutless "leadership" shows that the dems were never serious about health care reform, it ws merely a political ploy. if this country needs health care reform why wait for someone who campaigned as being against it.

the democrats for the most part are tools of the lobbyists.

[fshrmn]

07:56 AM on 01/21/2010

Reid's statement makes no sense. There must be something they are not telling us.

[grf67]

05:26 AM on 01/21/2010

This is stupid. If health care is worth doing, get it done. It is time for the President to stand up and lead or get out of the way. It is time for some backbone; ignor the republicans, they will never vote with you anyway.

[oneanddone-2012]

08:32 AM on 01/21/2010

Health Care is very much worth enacting. But neither of these bills does much for the average JOE. Plus to mant special interest Lobbies will be getting kick backs. Much like the Stimulus, Obama and friends have shafted us

[spaceball]

04:49 AM on 01/21/2010

I switched from being a Repub to a Dem for THIS!!!!!! Not that I will ever change back, but THIS!!!!!! I thought Health Care was a slam dunk by my vote of CHANGE! Damn I have been swindled! WHY?

[PhilipTaylor]

04:45 AM on 01/21/2010

WALL STREET OWNERS OF 70% OF INSURERS+WASHINGTON ARE OUT OF CONTROL

Ask yourself would the Republicans do this if they had a 59 to 41 seat advantage?

WIMPS! WIMPS! WEAK!

Other than C0WARD1CE, below is the only other EXPLANATION:

This was done on the Demands of the Financial Aristocracy that truly runs this Country!

Perhaps we should ask how different are the two parties anyway - both controlled by the Aristocracy

Manipulating and buying Senators to advantage THEMSELVES while Americans are stuck with a bag of Cr@_P.

Yet Everything is orchestrated to appear what it is NOT! So we are to believe this is C0WARD1CE!

Everything we hear is SPUN by the Financial Aristocracy and full of BS! We don’t Buy it!
_____________________

“I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” Will Rogers

Those were 0LD Dems - Everything is controlled messaging by the Financial Aristocracy to keep Americans OFF-BALANCE and achieve their Harvesting GOALS!

[PhilipTaylor]

04:43 AM on 01/21/2010

MAKE IT SIMPLE: Reconciliation Like Republicans DID with 58 votes (see below)

BUT NOW RETHUGS SAY YOU CAN NOT AMEND Meidcare USING RECONCILIATION! BS!

Steps:

1. Amend Medicare to lower age from 65 to 40 for eligibility and tax those making over $550,000 and charge a payroll fee for membership in Medicare for those under 65 to make up the cost! Younger People with lower use and low fees will drop cost per person dramatically.

2. Raise to 27 the age for children covered under parents plans and set up a low cost catastrophic insurance plan for all young adults age 21 to 40, deducted from payroll, not covered under other plans.
_______________________

Bush Republicans passed Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001
with 58 YEAs to Reduce individual income taxes on the 36% to 33% and 39.6% to 35% Costing $MANY$ $Trillions to our Government!

http://acandidworld.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/national_debt.gif

[Scriobhaim]

03:43 AM on 01/21/2010

Poor Har, putting on the brakes nine months before he's actually kicked out of office. Case of premature withdrawal.

[logan9]

02:08 AM on 01/21/2010

Didn't REID and the Democrats put on the brakes at the beginning... Hmmmm, they neglected to even debate single payer, and then sat around and did nothing... sounds like a break to me! And Obama (mostly Rahm) simply assuaged any and all potential parties! What a joke American Government is!

[respected]

01:31 AM on 01/21/2010

A neophyte wants the senate to stop the world until he gets on. He is entering with threats and the dems, with no spine, are already bowing to his demands. Somebody please make this nightmare stop.

[Scriobhaim]

05:44 AM on 01/21/2010

What a riot: "a neophyte", of all things, "entering with THREATS". Yeah, really outrageous threats - shocking, appalling. Take, for instance, the one that goes: "I've been elected senator. Seat me." I guess we ought to rack that one right up there with Hitler's ultimatum to Czechoslovakia. Then there's Brown's other crime against humanity: "I'm going to vote for what I ran on." Egads, WHAT is the world COMING to??!!
Oh, well... at least this neophyte is a bit tamer than the neophyte from Chicago who got into the Senate, waited a few days (for appearance's sake, you know) and then said, "Okey doke, make me President now." Remember him...?

[respected]

07:26 AM on 01/21/2010

A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Reading...understanding the printed page.. How you came up with your right wing rant is worth studying.

[bridgeman]

01:20 AM on 01/21/2010

Harry is trying to save his seat..too little to late Harry.
Stat prepping for retirement...your gone.

[escribacat]

12:48 AM on 01/21/2010

Why do liberals expend so much energy h a t i n g their own when there are so many republicans to h8te?

[bridgeman]

01:21 AM on 01/21/2010

hmmm let me guess...is it because they are hateful people?

[escribacat]

12:46 AM on 01/21/2010

Now that I think about it, I don't know how they were going to get a modified bill through the Senate anyway. Lieberman and the others wouldn't vote for anything more progressive from the house bill.