Slaughter Strategy

Here's the bottom line: For health reform to become law, the 2,700-page Senate bill somehow has to get through the House. The trickery that Speaker Pelosi is concocting to get that done almost defies belief. It's aptly called the "Slaughter Strategy," after Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-NY, who cooked it up. Here's how it would work: The House would "deem" the main Senate bill to have passed without directly voting on it as long as the House approves a companion bill of amendments to the Senate bill.

One Simple Agenda

Let's cut to the heart of the matter: First, let's start by setting aside the extraordinary complexity of thousands of pages of health reform legislation. Next, let's throw out the labyrinth of details about the Senate reconciliation process. Not important. Only one thing matters. President Obama must convince the House to pass the Senate bill. Everything else, including any separate legislation passed through the budget reconciliation process, is a side show at best.

Summit Standoff

The consensus among most pundits and reporters was summed up by The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan in her column today: "Boy, that didn't work." The White House expected a slam dunk, building on what it considered a triumph at the House Republican retreat in Baltimore a month ago, so it could convince rank-and-file Democrats that the time has come to get health reform done. I was at the retreat in Baltimore, invited to do a session on health reform for members, and was in the room during that remarkable 70-minute exchange.

Expert Advice

We hosted a conference call on Tuesday with the former parliamentarian of the Senate, Robert Dove, so colleagues and journalists could ask the authority with 36 years of experience in Senate procedures about using reconciliation to pass health reform legislation. Dr. Dove concluded it would be a long, exhaustive process that would likely produce a Swiss cheese of legislation because reconciliation simply isn’t designed for such complex policymaking.

A Summit Primer

Starting Over

The Democrats seem to be in the anger phase of grief over the collapse of their health overhaul, with a sharp and heated meeting between top White House advisers and Senate Democrats on Wednesday. Politico reports: "Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats. Five sources who were in the room tell Politico that Franken criticized Axelrod for the administration's failure to provide clarity or direction on health care and the other big bills it wants Congress to enact."

Stalemate

Congress is at war with itself over the best way to proceed after Massachusetts transformed the political landscape, and Mr. Obama needed to do a lot more than restate the problems in our health sector which virtually everyone agrees must be fixed in order to move Congress off dead center. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) crystallized the dilemma, telling reporters yesterday: "The Republicans are our opposition. The Senate is our enemy."

Listening to America

As Washington continues to reel from Scott Brown's astonishing victory in Massachusetts, Democratic leaders still are not giving up on trying to pass their health overhaul legislation, despite today's news reports that health reform is dead. Here's a scenario that should send chills up anyone's spine: In yet another rebuff of representative democracy, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday "We will move forward" as she tried to convince colleagues to swallow the despised and pork-laden Senate bill.