Pelosi: Complaints should be about insurer tactics

Pelosi said the GOP should be complaining about the tactics
of private insurance companies.

“If you want to talk about process, let’s talk about the
process that the insurance companies use when they say to you, ‘When you become
sick, your insurance is cancelled.’  When they say to you ‘You’re on your
way to an operation, but your insurance is rescinded because we just feel like
it, and we can do it so we will.’” Pelosi said at a press conference. “Or what
they say when they say to somebody, ‘You have a preexisting condition and so you
cannot have health insurance.’

“Let’s talk about that process,” the Speaker
continued.  “If you want to have some outrage about process, let’s apply
it to the insurance companies.”

{mosads}Republicans are criticizing Democrats for considering the
use of a “self-executing” rule to move the Senate healthcare bill through the
House.

Under the process, the House Rules Committee would craft a
rule that deems the Senate bill passed when the House brings a package of
changes to that legislation to the floor.

The rule would allow Democrats to avoid having to take a
roll call vote on the Senate bill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday said the public is only focused on the main result.

House Republicans call it the “Slaughter Solution” after Rules
Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), and they’ve seized on it as an admission from
the majority that they do not have the votes to pass the Senate bill through
the House.

They’ve also criticized Democrats for trying to duck a tough
vote on a bill they don’t like.

“Everyone from the DNC’s own pollster to any child who has
seen ‘I’m Just a Bill’ on ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ knows that the ‘Slaughter
Solution’ is an underhanded scheme to muddy the truth,” said Michael Steel,
spokesman for House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Pelosi joined Hoyer in
defending the move as one employed by Republicans when they controlled the
House. She said she “didn’t hear any of that ferocity” from Tuesday’s attacks
during “the hundreds of times the Republicans used these methods when they were
in power.”

Democrats have noted that Republicans frequently used
self-executing rules after they regained control of the House in 1995.

The Speaker reiterated Tuesday that “deem and pass” remains
an option under review, but stressed that no decisions have been made.

“We have several options available to us, and that we’ve asked
the parliamentarian of the Rules Committee to tell us what they are,” she
said.  “I’ve told members that until we see the substance from the CBO we
won’t make a determination about how we go forward.  But we want to know
what our options are.”

Democrats are still waiting for the non-partisan
Congressional Budget Office to score their reconciliation package.

Pelosi has said she can’t decide on procedure, schedule a
vote or even complete her whipping until that CBO score arrives.

“As I’ve said over and over, my clock starts ticking on this
when we get the report back from the CBO,” she said.  “I think it will be
pretty soon, and then we can give the notice that we had promised, that we have
sufficient time for everyone to be able to read the bill, review the bill for
the public, see what it is, and then to take a vote.”

In terms of her own vote count, Pelosi said she thinks
Democrats are in “pretty good shape,” but affirmed that many members will
continue to be non-committal until they have legislation in hand.

“People really have to see the numbers,” she said.