House Dems will get a visit from the president

President Barack Obama will speak to House Democrats at a conference next week, House leaders said Thursday.

The
president will huddle with Democrats at their “issues conference”
either next Wednesday or Thursday, said Rep. John Larson (Conn.),
chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

The meeting will
focus on jobs and innovation, but Obama will also likely seek to
soothe House Democrats’ concerns about outstanding differences with the
Senate on healthcare reform.

The huddle comes as House Democrats
— most notably Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — seem somewhat upset
that the White House has seemed to favor the Senate-backed “excise tax”
to pay for healthcare reform, rather than a surcharge on millionaires,
which the House included in its version of the bill.

On a conference call Thursday afternoon, House Democrats expressed their concerns about healthcare negotiations with the Senate.

“Everyone’s letting us know that they want to make sure, as you can fully appreciate and respect, how much effort and time went into putting forward the House bill and how much they favor those positions,” Larson told reporters after the conference call.

Though members “equally understand how important it is to get a bill done,” Larson said before adding that Pelosi would make clear how her members feel.

Pelosi quipped Tuesday that Obama had shifted some of his positions since the campaign, a comment that many believe was directed at the president’s support for an excise tax.

The scope of the insurance exchanges has emerged as another key difference between the two chambers. The Senate established a series of statewide exchanges, while the House prefers a single, national exchange that they say would increase choice for consumers.

“That is one of the issues that’s outstanding,” Larson said. “We think it makes sense and based on the number of the comments from members from specific states like Texas and others who feel like that would leave an awful lot of people out without a national exchange.”