Make-or-Break Time for Dems? Not Quite Yet

15.12.09

Democrats say they are dauntless they can fashion a deal on a health care reform box that can pass before the holidays. But with stalling tactics from Republicans who are of one mind in opposition to the sweeping health system overhaul, and with some hurdles within their own caucus, that deadline is looking next to outrageous.

President Obama invited Majority Leader Harry Reid (left-hand) and all Senate Democrats to the White House for a meeting Tuesday afternoon in what CBS Hearsay correspondent Nancy Cordes called a unity things turned out, seeking to hold together the 60 votes required.

To pick up that unity, some measures in the 2,100-page legislation are being tossed overboard, including a blueprint to allow Americans younger than 65 to buy into Medicare. The Medicare buy-in was a organize Democrats hit on to replace the public option, which didn't have enough votes. Now Democrats say both ideas are to all intents dead.

CBS News chief Washington correspondent and pack of "Face the Nation" Bob Schieffer

Source: CBS News (blog)