Reid's recipe for getting health-care deal done

Senate's point man for bill has been slow to tip his hand as he faces challenges

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 4, 2009

Of the Democratic senators who have set out to transform the nation's health-care system, one of the least likely is Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, whose legislative priorities typically fall more toward protecting the interests of his native Nevada.

Despite the prospect of a potentially tough 2010 reelection fight, the combative Democratic leader has assumed full ownership of a 2,074-page bill that would cost $848 billion over 10 years and institute the most far-reaching changes to the system in generations. As the Senate debate unfolds on the chamber floor, Reid has remained burrowed in his office, looking past the daily political drama playing out and, as he said recently, "getting my deals done."

When the debate over the economic stimulus program entered its final stretch earlier this year, Reid called on President Obama to act as salesman in chief for the legislation, closing every deal with high-voltage White House charm. Ten months later, as the president juggles a full slate of challenges, Reid has opted to confine health-care negotiations largely to the Senate chamber and his adjoining suite of offices, urging colleagues to negotiate compromises among themselves and to bring their concerns directly to him.

For Reid, success means emerging from the marathon debate with a bill backed by the 60 senators needed for final passage, something he hopes will come to pass as soon as late next week. Democrats' concerns will be addressed in individual amendments, but many others will be crowded into an omnibus "manager's amendment," a package Reid is expected to offer at the end of the process that will include many of the perks and fixes that members of his caucus are requesting.

(More here.)