In the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., U.S. Rep. Brian Baird’s eight staff members have fielded roughly 4,000 phone calls regarding health care reform over the past week. They’ve come from all over the country.
“My staff is playing geography bingo,” the Vancouver Democrat joked Wednesday. “When they get calls from all 50 states, they win a cupcake.”
It’s all hands on deck at Baird’s office as pressure builds toward a House floor vote on health reform, possibly this weekend. As one of 37 House Democrats who voted against the House reform bill in November, Baird is being targeted from all sides.
“It paralyzes us to some degree,” he said. “Everyone is treating all the callers with utmost courtesy.” But some calls are obviously responses to exhortations from talk radio hosts, he said, and some callers appear to have no idea who they are talking to.
On Tuesday, Baird was invited to the White House for a 30-minute sit-down with President Barack Obama about the pending legislation and how he might vote on it.
The president applied no strong-arm tactics to get Baird to commit to voting for the bill, Baird said.
“I wouldn’t describe it as pressure,” he said. “I would quite fairly describe it as a dialogue. I talked with him about the fact that the current system is unsustainable, costs are spiraling out of control, too many people don’t have insurance, and it’s getting worse, not better.”
Obama discussed the merits of the House strategy for passing health care reform, which is to adopt the Senate health reform bill and a series of House-driven changes to it, possibly simultaneously.
Baird said he didn’t budge.
“I discussed alternatives I would like to see,” Baird said. “I told him we ought to do smaller steps or a broad rewrite.”
Possibly because Baird is not seeking re-election, there was no offer of a quid pro quo from the president during the White House meeting.
“There was no ‘What do you need?’’’ Baird said. “There was a discussion. I commended him for his initiative in tackling an issue that everyone knows is a tremendous threat to the nation. I told him I would remain undecided and consider it carefully once I got the final language. I will not move from that position.”
As for the process the House might use to circumvent a Senate filibuster, Baird said, “I would prefer a straight-up, straight-down vote on the Senate bill first and then on the modification language.”
He also wants to see the final bill “scored” for its fiscal impact by the Congressional Budget Office. The Senate bill was scored, he said, and the CBO determined that it would actually save money relative to the status quo.
“They had quite a good analysis about how private insurance premiums would be affected,” Baird said. That’s important, he said, because with insurance companies in California proposing 30 percent increases in premiums in a single year, members of Congress “need to know that not passing this legislation has consequences, as well.”
Baird said he would not be influenced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s announcement Wednesday that he would drop his opposition to the House bill and vote for it after meeting with the president.
“Our reasons are much different” for opposing the bill, he said.
In their meeting, Baird said, the president vented a bit about his frustration with Republican leaders. “He talked about members of the Republican Party being in the room with him for hours and hours, saying they agreed with him in principle, but then turning right around and saying they couldn’t support things that they had said they agreed with” in their meetings.
Baird said he reiterated his refusal to vote for any sweeping health reform bill until he has had time to read it and review its projected fiscal impact.
Obama “recognizes and actually respects that, in my view,” he said. “This is a very thoughtful man who actually enjoys the policy discussion and debate. He emphasized quite fairly that the idea that the Senate bill is being jammed through is laughable. No bill in history has generated so much debate. It’s been a remarkably open process on the Senate side.”
Baird said he has not been lobbied directly by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is scrambling to line up the 216 votes she needs to pass the sweeping $1 trillion overhaul of the nation’s health insurance system.
He said he’s gratified that Pelosi has agreed to observe a 72-hour period between the time the 2,000-plus-page measure is formally introduced and the scheduled House floor vote.
Baird has consistently called for a 72-hour “read the bill” period throughout his dozen years in Congress.
Kathie Durbin: 360-735-4523 or kathie.durbin@columbian.com.
