The hopes of a bipartisan bill to reform the nation’s health care system were dashed after President Barack Obama told Democrats to walk away from the negotiating table, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said.
“We won’t have a bipartisan bill because the White House stepped in here two weeks ago and demanded that [Montana Sen. Max] Baucus break off his talks with the Republicans,” Grassley said in an interview with local reporters. “I don’t think Sen. Baucus wanted to do that. And there was still some very key differences between the two sides.”
Grassley’s pointed to the public health care option, supported by most Democrats but defeated in two Finance Committee votes earlier this week, as the biggest sticking point. And while it didn’t cleared his committee, it will likely come up on the floor of the Senate during debate.
“And I wouldn’t want to say that it’s going to pass in the Senate, but if it would pass in the Senate, that’d be the death knell for any hope of getting a bipartisan bill,” Grassley said.
The New York Times reports Friday that the Finance Committee, of which Grassley is the ranking Republican, finally completed work on the last of dozens of amendments to its version of a health care bill, clearing the way for a vote next week.
If that bill gets out of committee, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will merge the Finance Committee bill with an alternate measure approved by the Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee earlier this year.