Pelosi Vows Passage of Health-Care Overhaul

'It Will Win': Confidence Grows as Democrats Plan to Resume Talks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, July 27, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/26/AR2009072602856_pf.html

Defying skeptics in her party, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed Sunday to overcome lingering obstacles and pass health-care reform in the House, restoring momentum to President Obama's top domestic priority and order to her own unruly Democratic caucus.

"When I take this bill to the floor, it will win," Pelosi (Calif.) said on CNN's "State of the Union." "This will happen."

The speaker, who has struggled to overcome a series of recent setbacks, raised the stakes by planning to restart talks Monday among bickering Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee, one of three House panels with jurisdiction over health care and where the bill stalled last week. Democratic leaders are newly confident that these differences can be resolved, possibly in time to bring a House bill to the floor before lawmakers depart Friday for the August recess, although Pelosi did not commit to a timetable.

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House leaders face two rebellious factions: the Blue Dogs, who want more cost savings in the health-care bill, and newly elected Democrats from moderate districts, who are protesting the surtax on wealthy households that would fund about half of the House bill.

Rep. Jared Polis, a first-term Democrat who represents the affluent Boulder, Colo., area, signed a letter with 20 fellow freshmen and one sophomore member objecting to the tax, which would apply to families with incomes of $350,000 and higher. Polis and his allies worry about the tax hitting small businesses, like the thriving Boulder Book Store and the Mountain Sun brewery in Polis's home town.

Polis said he is encouraged that Pelosi is considering revising the surtax provision so that it hits only millionaire households, a threshold Obama endorsed at his news conference Wednesday. But Polis said he still worries about the small-business impact -- a question he knows Republican critics will raise, as well.v

She declines to take on what she believes to be losing causes (impeachment, anyone?), but when she commits to something, it generally happens. In fact, I was just trying to think of counter-examples, but didn't come up with anything. That is probably the fault of my memory and the late hour, but my major point remains: She usually know what she is doing, and wins when she goes after something--and this one is too big to lose.