It’s hard to overestimate the magnitude of President
Barack Obama’s historic victory on health care reform Sunday night — but the win was a split decision for Democrats, not a knockout.
The victory, almost inconceivable a month ago, provides an immense and immediate boost for Obama, who had staked his presidency on an all-out push for reform, and who needs the momentum from the win to have any hope of pushing through two other legislative goals this year, financial regulatory reform and new jobs legislation.
But House
Democrats, who have endured months of draining debate and attacks from tea party activists, including a derisive serenade from a group of protesters on a patch of grass outside the chamber Sunday, were more relieved than overjoyed — and many may have been casting votes, on a warm spring night, for their own political extinction.
The president watched the vote with a jeans-clad White House chief of staff
Rahm Emanuel, press secretary
Robert Gibbs, and about 40 other staffers in the Roosevelt Room.
Out of deference to the possible consequences for House Democrats, the White House publicly refrained from expressions of jubilation or even relief, but Gibbs Tweeted the moment the bill passed: “POTUS watched vote in room aptly named for president who started this - cheers and clapping at 216 - high five for Rahm, hugs all around.”
"I know this wasn't an easy vote for a lot of people, but it was the right vote," Obama later told reporters in the East Room of the White House, reading from a prepared statement. "Tonight's vote is not a victory for any one party… . It's a victory for the American people, and it's a victory for common sense."
In a reference to his 2008 campaign slogan,
Obama added, “This is what change looks like.”
Administration officials see House passage of the Senate reform bill as a vindication of Obama’s legislative strategy and, above all, his toughness.
"The issue and the legislation itself are probably the biggest thing to become law in 50 years,” said a senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Any time you get something that 14 administrations have talked about or worked on and you get it finished, I think it's a big deal. To put it in the context of here and now: For all the people who wondered if the president's tough enough, I think it's safe to say I don't know another leader who wouldn't have cut a deal or cut and run from the issue months ago."
The official said Obama will sign the bill "later in the week," but not Sunday night or Monday.
The Senate must now pass a complicated reconciliation package to defuse political fallout from the "Cornhusker Kickback” and other controversial deals made to get the bill passed there — and postpone an excise tax on high-end “Cadillac” health plans.
To see reconciliation through, Obama will be working the phones and making personal pitches with the same intensity that he afforded House Democrats, the official said, adding that since Monday, Obama has taken part in 92 meetings or phone calls with members on health reform.
