No easy feat for Obama to close healthcare deal
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No easy feat
Under the current circumstances, it is no easy feat for Obama and the Democrats to close the deal, analysts said.
First of all, there is still no timeline for the merging of the two versions. To make it worse, there are huge gaps between them.
The two chambers of Congress are still sharply divided over how to finance the expanded coverage, whether to create a government-run plan, and how to restrict the use of federal funds for abortions.
Many political observers agree that Democrats have invested far too much political capital in producing healthcare bills to allow the upcoming House-Senate conference to fail. However, there are a number of landmines that negotiators will have to defuse.
"The Senate bill will be the main legislative vehicle, because it doesn't happen without preserving the 60 votes in the Senate," said Drew Altman, president of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
"But you can't ignore the House. There are powerful committee chairs who have worked this issue for most of their professional lives," he said.
Secondly, although the congressional Republicans, now in minority, cannot pose any tangible threats to the legislation, they could make an issue of public discontent on the bill and seek into political gains in next year's elections.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the most obvious problem with the bill "is that it doesn't do what it was supposed to."
"This fight isn't over," he said.
As Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress worked over the past months to overcome divisions on many tough issues such as abortion, the public option, taxing the wealthy and offending interests like the insurance companies, the public became less trustful of the reform.
Since July, a greater percentage of Americans have disapproved of how Obama handled healthcare than approved, according to Pollster.com, which averages several major polls to mitigate potential bias.
A Washington Post/ABC News survey found that only 37 percent of the respondents said they expected the quality of the new healthcare system to be better than the current one.
A recent article on the Christian Science Monitor observed: "Though Republicans have no means to influence the healthcare legislation, polls suggest they have American public opinion on their side."
Eyeing next year's midterm congressional elections, Republicans are gearing up to make Obama pay a political price for the healthcare reform.
