Chris Good, writing in The Atlantic, looks at the lineup.
"We would be a go knowing that it was a beginning, that there will be changes in the future, and that we know it's not a perfect plan, and if we thought the president could do more or that we could do more to get the Senate to come our way, because, you know, we had a pretty good plan we voted out of the House," [California Democratic Representative Lynn] Woolsey told The Atlantic after meeting with President Obama and members of her caucus, as well as representatives from the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus, at the White House this afternoon.
"I don't think that there's a lot of wiggle room," Woolsey said. "I believe the president has reached out as far as he can to the conservatives, and this is probably the plan [we will vote on]."Woolsey said she thinks other members of her caucus feel the same way.
Much depends on Senate Democrats.
Progressives still want the public option, Woolsey said, and they still believe it can be passed through the Senate via reconciliation. As House Democrats wait for assurances from the Senate that certain "fixes" to the Senate bill will be passed in the upper chamber through the reconciliation process, Woolsey says the public option is one of those fixes she and other progressives are looking for.
At a meeting at the White House, Obama reminded progressives that all Congressional Democrats' futures depend on the outcome.
An aide to a progressive caucus member described today's White House meeting as a frank discussion.
"The president gave everyone the hard sell," the aide said. "He said if this doesn't happen, if health care goes down, we're all equally sunk." There were no threats or condemnations, the aide said--just a frank discussion.
The aide said support from Progressive Caucus members is not a done deal, and that they won't all necessarily vote the same way.
"As far as how the caucus will vote, no one can answer that question," the aide said. "I think there will still be some 'no' votes from the left."
