House is scheduled to vote on legislation

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Wolf says Democrats still scrambling to gain needed support today

By Garren Shipley -- gshipley@nvdaily.com

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on controversial health-care legislation today, but it may not happen unless Democrats can round up the votes, according to a local congressman.

As of late Friday, a final vote on the Affordable Health Care for America Act was scheduled for sometime this afternoon.

Democrats are scrambling to find the 218 votes they need to pass the bill, according to Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th.

"They were close I heard, and now they may not be," he said. "The official thing is 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. Saturday."

House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters earlier in the day that the vote might slip later into the weekend.

While they hold 258 of the 435 seats in the chamber, a number of Democrats have expressed serious reservations about the bill.

"You have the illegal immigration issue, you have the abortion issue," Wolf said.

Anti-abortion Democrats want language in the bill that would guarantee federal dollars aren't used for the controversial procedure, while some members of the party's Hispanic caucus want language removed that would bar illegal immigrants from benefiting under the bill.

All 177 Republicans have said they will vote against the legislation.

Tuesday's landslide in Virginia and Republican win in traditionally Democratic New Jersey definitely had an impact on the debate, according to Wolf, whose district stretches from the Washington suburbs to Warren, Clarke and Frederick counties and the city of Winchester.

"I thought it was a very powerful signal," Wolf said. "It's had a big difference on a lot of people."

Democrats from Republican-leaning districts who rode President Obama's coattails into office are starting to look over their shoulders, he said.

"Add to that the numbers that came out today, 10.2 percent unemployment, the highest since 1983," Wolf said.

Voters are angry, he added.

"They're continuing to lose jobs. The [$787 billion] stimulus package which was not very successful," he said.

Obama administration economists predicted unemployment wouldn't break 8 percent if Congress approved the spending package.

"That has a lot of people very, very concerned," he said. "Politically, I think it's a difficult issue for some people."

Financially, the timing of the bill couldn't be worse, according to Wolf.

Even before the economic downturn, Washington was facing a massive pile of debt and unsustainable entitlement obligations -- $53 trillion as of this year and climbing, according to Wolf.

Even without health care expenditures tacked on top of the growing tab, Congress is on track to spend $1 trillion more per year than it takes in for years to come.

Democrats argue that the bill reduces the deficit by $30 billion over the first 10 years of the legislation. But opponents say that's only because it starts collecting new taxes immediately and pushes off providing any benefits for three years.

The bill is House Resolution 3962.