Mike Conaway: “Later this week the Speaker is going to ask the House to take the final vote on health care reform, including the Senate…”

“Later this week the Speaker is going to ask the House to take the final vote on health care reform, including the Senate health care bill. The Senate bill contains such rarified legislative compromises as the Cornhusker kickback, the Louisiana purchase, and Gator aid, and for the first time ever, it allows for Federal funding for abortions. Nevertheless, the Speaker has asked us to vote on it. I understand my Democratic colleagues are being assured that the Senate will take up the bill of fixes if the House will simply just pass their underlying reform bill. I offer a word of caution to my friends on the other side of the aisle: once you pass their bill, there is not a guarantee that can be made that will force the Senate Democrats to take up your fixed bill and pass it. The bill that passed out of the Senate satisfies 59 sitting Senators, all of whom voted for it. The compromise that will pass out of this House will please far fewer. Simple logic tells us that the Senate Democrats do not have a real and abiding interest in bailing out House Democrats for having passed the Senate bill. Of course, simple logic has never really been a part of this debate. Madam Speaker, my Democratic colleagues are playing a game of chicken with the United States Senate.”