House progressive won't back Senate healthcare bill

Salon - The co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus says he won't support a plan to have the House pass the Senate healthcare bill, then change the legislation through budget reconciliation.

"It has to be the whole thing" done through reconciliation, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., told Salon Wednesday morning. "The whole issue of parallel -- do this or do that later -- I don't believe that will occur." Getting the House to agree to pass the Senate bill -- without changing even a single comma -- is the only way to send healthcare legislation to President Obama without the Senate having to vote on it again. But Grijalva thinks that option is virtually impossible. "If it is the Senate bill that we're asked to just merely vote on [and] send to the president's desk for his signature, I think it's going to be difficult to round up a majority," he said.

House progressives will meet with leadership later Wednesday. If they won't go along with the Senate bill, it's just another reminder of how complicated the healthcare process is going to be after Scott Brown'svictory in Massachusetts Tuesday night. Read more.