Healthcare reform: Obama faces crunch vote


By Felicity Spector
Channel 4 News 
Updated on 21 March 2010
It's being called "Historic Vote Sunday": today the US House of Representatives votes on whether to pass Barack Obama's flagship healthcare reforms into law.
U.S. President Obama meets with House Democratic Caucus members on Capitol Hill in Washington - Reuters It's a true political cliffhanger: at the last count, the Democrats are still a handful of votes short of the magic 216 they need. Nineteen are thought to remain undecided, and the White House is confident enough will come round.
On the early morning talk shows, neither side was giving any ground. Majority Whip James Clyburn insisted: "We'll be there". Republican leader John Boehner warned his party would "have an effort to repeal the bill" if they manage to get control of Congress after November's mid-term elections.
But all that is a way down the line.
Today's debate will begin with a few one-minute speeches, then any points of order, or objections against the rule - which can take up to 20 minutes of debate time - plus some votes. Finally there'll be a two-hour debate on the bill itself - the narrower version that's been approved by the Senate, and a vote.
But there's one last Republican effort to scupper the whole thing, with a procedural mechanism known as a "motion to recommit". If that fails there'll be another debate and vote on various revisions to the bill included in a budget reconciliation measure.
If the Senate bill is passed, it will then go straight to President Obama who will sign it into law. The Senate itself will discuss the reconciliation measures within the next few days.


There's so much at stake here that the Democratic leadership has thrown everything at winning over those last few votes.
Yesterday President Obama gave a highly emotional address at the Capitol - telling Democrats they were on the verge of making history.
"Every once in a while a moment comes where you have a chance to vindicate all those best hopes that you had about yourself, about this country", he said. "This is one of those moments."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been wringing arms and making deals. The latest, last night, was aimed at the Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak - leader of a fiercely anti-abortion group who's said he won't support the bill unless it includes tight restrictions banning federal funding for insurance plans that cover terminations.
There's now talk of Obama issuing an executive order to reinforce it.
CBS News reckons it's the most heavily lobbied bill ever - with 4.525 lobbyists working on both sides, which works out at eight for every member of Congress. Millions of dollars has been spent on targeting the fence-sitters. And out in the country, the public outbursts of anger and frustration continues.
Last night members of the Congressional black caucus reported racial slurs being hurled at them by so-called "Tea Party" activists - conservative republicans vehemently opposed to the healthcare reforms.
Rep Barney Frank was also heckled with openly homophobic chants - while one banner depicted a large gun, declaiming that if the House didn't kill it, a Browning could. Rep James Clyburn called it "shocking" and said he hadn't witnessed such hateful scenes since he led civil rights protests in the 1960s.
But if the Democrats do overcome the rancour and get their magic number, Obama will have succeeded where Theodore Roosevelt failed, where Kennedy failed, where Clinton failed.
As David Gergen, the former White House chief of staff now at the Harvard Kennedy School, put it: the entire Obama presidency is on the line.
"If he fails, it will, it could be almost catastrophic for his presidency. If he wins, he will definitely get a place in the history books."
History or catastrophe: it'll all be clear in a couple of hours.
Whether it means Obama will hang on to control of Congress come November depends on how quickly he can bring in some of the benefits of his reforms - and how easily he can move beyond the polarising debate that's overshadowed the last 12 months.