Thursday
Mar042010
Democratic Party Not In Crisis, Health Care Bill Will Satisfy Members, Says Pelosi
Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 2:41PM
By Sofia Sanchez
University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service
Despite the fact that the recently-resigned head of the House Ways and Means Committee and his possible replacement are both engulfed in controversy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) downplayed any concerns that she may be leading a party in crisis.
“I feel very strong, we have been very effective in terms of passing the full Obama agenda in 2009. The House Democrats stepped up to the plate," said Pelosi on Thursday.
The Speaker said she and other top Democrats in the House have put the scandal involving Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) -- who earlier this week, after being found guilty by an ethics committee of accepting corporate junkets to the Caribbean, announced that he would be taking a temporary leave from his chairmanship of the tax writing committee -- “behind us." Pelosi promised that work on health care reform and a jobs bill would continue to be a top priority for the House.
“Our members are strong, and they know that we have to be stronger on our message as to what it is we’ve done,” she said. “We have a new chairman of the Ways and Means committee, that is a big change.”
Pelosi, however, was not referring to Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), the number two on the committee before Rangel stepped down. Stark, who has also faced ethics inquiries in the past, announced on Thursday that he would decline the job of committee chair, deferring to the committee's number three person Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.).
When asked if she still intended to honor her 2006 pledge to preside over the most ethical Congress in history, Pelosi responded by saying, “the public trust will always be honored.”
On healthcare reform, Pelosi said she was optimistic that she had the votes necessary to pass the bill in the House.
“I feel very confident that the up or down vote on the majority rule proposal that will come to the House will satisfy Members' concerns about the Senate bill…This is not about doing health care reform under reconciliation. This is about doing corrections to the Senate bill under reconciliation. The bulk of the bill, 75 to 80 percent of it, is already in the Senate bill."
University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service
Despite the fact that the recently-resigned head of the House Ways and Means Committee and his possible replacement are both engulfed in controversy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) downplayed any concerns that she may be leading a party in crisis.
“I feel very strong, we have been very effective in terms of passing the full Obama agenda in 2009. The House Democrats stepped up to the plate," said Pelosi on Thursday.
The Speaker said she and other top Democrats in the House have put the scandal involving Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) -- who earlier this week, after being found guilty by an ethics committee of accepting corporate junkets to the Caribbean, announced that he would be taking a temporary leave from his chairmanship of the tax writing committee -- “behind us." Pelosi promised that work on health care reform and a jobs bill would continue to be a top priority for the House.
“Our members are strong, and they know that we have to be stronger on our message as to what it is we’ve done,” she said. “We have a new chairman of the Ways and Means committee, that is a big change.”
Pelosi, however, was not referring to Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), the number two on the committee before Rangel stepped down. Stark, who has also faced ethics inquiries in the past, announced on Thursday that he would decline the job of committee chair, deferring to the committee's number three person Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.).
When asked if she still intended to honor her 2006 pledge to preside over the most ethical Congress in history, Pelosi responded by saying, “the public trust will always be honored.”
On healthcare reform, Pelosi said she was optimistic that she had the votes necessary to pass the bill in the House.
“I feel very confident that the up or down vote on the majority rule proposal that will come to the House will satisfy Members' concerns about the Senate bill…This is not about doing health care reform under reconciliation. This is about doing corrections to the Senate bill under reconciliation. The bulk of the bill, 75 to 80 percent of it, is already in the Senate bill."