BOSTON — A panicky White House and Democratic allies scrambled Sunday for a plan to salvage their hard-fought health care package in case a Republican wins the Senate election Tuesday in Massachusetts, which would enable the GOP to block further Senate action on the bill.
The likeliest scenario would require persuading House Democrats to accept a bill the Senate passed last month, despite their objections to several parts.
Aides worked frantically Sunday amid fears that Republican Scott Brown will defeat Democrat Martha Coakley in the special election to fill the late Edward Kennedy’s seat. A Brown win would give the GOP 41 Senate votes, enough to filibuster and block final passage of the House-Senate compromise on health care now being crafted.
“Understand what’s at stake here, Massachusetts. It’s whether we’re going forward or going backwards,” President Barack Obama said at a rally for Coakley in Boston. “If you were fired up in the last election, I need you more fired up in this election.”
The president made a direct appeal to independents who are trending away from the Democrat and sought to court voters angry over Wall Street abuses. He assailed Brown, who downplayed his party affiliation during the campaign, as a typical Republican who sides with special interests.
The unexpectedly tight race for the seat, in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 1, reflects a nasty anti-establishment environment that threatens Obama’s support in Congress.
House Democrats, especially liberals, say the compromise bill hashed out by the House and Senate is vital because they view the Senate-passed version as doing too little to help working families.
Under the Senate bill, 94 percent of Americans would be covered, compared with 96 percent in the House version. The House plan would increase taxes on millionaires while the Senate plan would tax high-cost health-insurance plans enjoyed by many corporate executives as well as some union members.
The House passed its own version last year, and members assumed it would be reconciled with the Senate bill and then sent back to both chambers for final approval by the narrowest of margins.
If Coakley wins in Massachusetts on Tuesday, final passage of a House-Senate compromise is not guaranteed but seems likely.
A GOP win would likely kill that plan because Republicans could block Senate action on the reconciled bill.
The newly discussed fallback would require House Democrats to swallow hard and approve the Senate-passed bill without changes. Obama could sign it into law without another Senate vote needed.
House leaders presumably would urge the Senate to make some changes later under a complex plan requiring only a simple majority, but it is unclear whether that could happen.
The plan is problematic. House liberals already are bristling over changes the Senate forced on them earlier, and some might conclude that no bill is better than the Senate bill.
Republican activists openly scoffed at the notion of Democrats passing the highly contentious health package after a GOP takeover of Kennedy’s Senate seat. But some Democrats said failure to pass a health bill would cripple their ability to tell voters this November that they accomplished anything with their control of the House, the Senate and the White House.
