Obama, Democrats meet on healthcare

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President Obama met this morning with top congressional Democrats even as polls show that American support for the healthcare overhaul bill is rising.

Obama met with Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California and, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, as they continued to work on resolving differences in the measures passed by each chamber. Democrats are pushing to get a bill to Obama’s desk before the State of the Union speech, likely at the beginning of February.

But the politics remain paramount. A surprisingly close special election in Massachusetts could cost Democrats their much-needed 60th vote to pass whatever is negotiated.

And although the latest polls show that Americans back healthcare legislation, 49% to 46%, the politics remain far from bipartisan. According to a Gallup poll, a large majority of Democrats want their representatives to vote for a healthcare bill, but a majority of independents and a larger majority of Republicans oppose the legislation.

Today’s meeting centered on the differences between the House and Senate bills including the role of the national exchanges and how to fund the bill’s almost $1-trillion cost over 10 years.

House leaders dislike the Senate’s approach, which includes a tax on high-end health insurance plans, and the Senate opposes the House’s plan to increase payroll taxes on the wealthy.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said he is looking at a new tax on unearned income such as capital gains. The advantage is that the tax would hit the wealthy, so it would be politically more acceptable to Democratic constituencies.

The Senate and House bills passed narrowly in both chambers. Only one Republican in the House voted yes on the bill and no Republican voted in favor of the Senate version.

That makes every Democratic vote crucial.

In the Massachusetts race, state Atty. Gen. Martha Coakley, the Democrat, maintains a double-digit lead in polls over state Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican, for the seat formerly held for more than four decades by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Although that sounds like a lot, it is closer than expected in the normally Democratic and liberal state.

The special election takes place Tuesday.

-- Michael Muskal
twitter.com/LATimesmuskal