Leading GOP health negotiator: ‘Slow down’

One of the three Senate Republicans in the middle of the effort to draft a bipartisan healthcare reform bill does not want to see any agreement finalized before Congress leaves for its August recess, he said Thursday.

“We need to slow down,” Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said after he and Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) exited a meeting with House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and the House GOP whip team Thursday morning.

“The bill is not ready for prime time so I don’t know any way that it could be completed today or next week or before the August break” that begins a week from Friday, Enzi said.

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has been sending signals in recent days that the bipartisan group including him, Enzi, Grassley, GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Democratic Sens. Jeff Bingaman (N.M.) and Kent Conrad (N.D.) were getting close to a deal. On Wednesday, Baucus told reporters that a preliminary Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of a draft agreement would cover 95 percent of legal U.S. residents for less than $900 billion and be fully paid for over 10 years.

But Enzi has expressed skepticism and hinted that he is not ready to sign off on anything, going as far as to set tough conditions for his support. In a statement issued Wednesday, Enzi said he would not agree to any deal without seeing legislative language and a final CBO estimate nor without promises from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Barack Obama that any Finance Committee agreement would be preserved in whatever bill the president may sign.

–Jeffrey Young