Balance of Power

If the leadership has to make last-minute changes, Hoyer said he’ll try to allow a 48-hour review period so lawmakers can read the final version. But he also argued that the health care overhaul ideas have been “very widely discussed” already, with Democratic members holding roughly 600 town hall meetings over the last four months and President Obama holding his own televised town hall on ABC News last month.

“I think this has had as extensive a hearing as any piece of legislation we’ve considered,” Hoyer said.

There’s a big difference, of course, between debating general ideas of the health care overhaul and giving lawmakers — and the public — time to look through an actual bill. The trick is to find some balance between allowing enough time to study the bill, for that handful of lawmakers who actually do that kind of thing, and not letting it hang out there so long that Republicans and various interest groups can pick it apart.

But Democratic leaders seem to be trying to avoid a repeat of what happened last month with the climate change bill, when House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio stalled a vote on a substitute amendment, filed for the first time early that morning. Boehner read, line by line, much of the amendment. It was the rough House equivalent of a Senate filibuster — or, as GOP aides called it at the time, a “fili-Boehner.”

But the definition of “enough time” may be different for Hoyer and Boehner. Hoyer is talking about 48 hours. Boehner already is serving notice, though, that giving 48 hours’ notice and holding lots of town hall meetings aren’t good enough. He’s holding out for 72 hours’ notice on the bill and amendments.

“Except for national security, health care is the single most important issue facing the nation. It affects every single American family,” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. “Not allowing at least 72 hours for members and the American people to review the bill — and any last-minute amendments — would amount to criminal malpractice on the part of the Democratic leadership.”

As for the town halls, Steel said, “the issue of American health care has been discussed since 1776 or so, but we haven’t had a single discussion of the Democrats’ bill. Hell, we haven’t even seen the thing yet.”

Maybe the Democratic leadership should get start making plans for how to head off the next fili-Boehner.