Bipartisan Health Bill Looks Increasingly Unlikely

"Congressional Republicans are finding much to dislike in Democratic health care proposals, illustrating the immense difficulty Democrats face in fashioning an overhaul that can attract enough Republican support to be portrayed as bipartisan," reports the New York Times.

Republicans are particularly opposed to the idea of creating a public health insurance plan that competes with private insurers, the possibility that the health care overhaul could cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years, and the idea of using new taxes or fees to pay for reform. Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, said that he did not know of a single House Republican who would support the Democratic proposal. And Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, author of a Republican alternative health care plan, said that there were no Senate Republicans who would sign on to the Democratic plans being crafted in the Senate.

The Senate Finance Committee has been trying to construct a bipartisan bill but had to put negotiations on hold until after the July 4 recess. The ranking Republican on that committee, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, said he wanted the bill to "attract more than a handful of Republicans," according to the article. "This is not going to be a bipartisan bill with just three or four Republicans,'' said Grassley. "This is a bill that gets broad bipartisan support or it is not going to be a bipartisan bill."

Democrats say that they want to achieve a bipartisan bill but would accept winning just enough Republican votes to pass legislation. They accuse Republicans of "misreading of the national mood" and standing firm against reform because of the "political danger in allowing Democrats to score a victory on health care," reports the Times. "I have never seen a party leadership lose two national elections back to back and still defend the status quo from health care to energy policy to the economy," said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff.