LAMAR ALEXANDER: "So our view, with all respect, is that this is a car that can't be recalled and fixed, and that we ought to start over."
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Democrats would not start the legislative process all over again. She urged the lawmakers at the meeting to remember all of the American families that are struggling to pay for medical care.
NANCY PELOSI: "What we do here must be relevant to their lives. And for them, they don't have time for us to start over."
At the end of the day, even President Obama admitted that differences between the two sides may be too great for compromise.
BARACK OBAMA: "At least we will have better clarified for the American people what the debate is about."
Democratic leaders say they are hopeful that some good will come out of the meeting. But they also made it clear that they are willing to act alone, if necessary, to pass a health care bill.
Democrats in the Senate have lost their sixty-vote supermajority needed to block any effort by Republicans to kill legislation. But the Democrats could try to pass a health care bill using a process called reconciliation. It requires only a simple majority of fifty-one votes.
On Monday, for the first time, President Obama offered his own version of a plan to breathe new life into the legislation in Congress. His proposal calls for insuring thirty million more Americans at a cost of about one trillion dollars over ten years. Republicans have a plan to insure three million more Americans at a cost of sixty billion dollars for the same period.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25