Democrats say elections won't stop health care

(AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

From left, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. and Councilwoman Hope McDonald-Lonetree of the Navajo Nation, take part in a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009, between House members and Native American leaders to discuss affordable health care.

WASHINGTON— Far from chastened by off-year election setbacks, congressional Democrats vowed no let-up in the drive to pass controversial health care Wednesday, arguing that the way to regain voter trust was to complete what they started in more prosperous political times.

Any suggestion that "we ought to run like scalded dogs from trying to fix health care for this country is wrong. I believe the judgment might be more punishing if we throw in the towel because it's difficult," said North Dakota Rep. Earl Pomeroy, a political moderate and supporter of the legislation.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes to have legislation on the House floor for a vote on Saturday. President Barack Obama, who has made a health care overhaul the signature initiative of his first year in office, planned to visit the Capitol on Friday, according to congressional officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the meetings have not been announced.

There is no timetable in the Senate, where the overhaul's ultimate fate is in considerably more doubt, but supporters gave no indication that the election results had complicated the challenge facing Majority Leader Harry Reid.

While Democrats surrendered governorships in high-profile races in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday, they also held a House seat in California and gained one in New York that had been in Republican hands for generations.

Depending on how quickly the newly elected lawmakers are sworn in, it was possible the most immediate impact of the elections would be to increase support for the legislation. "From our standpoint we picked up votes last night," said Pelosi, D-Calif.

Across the Capitol, there was evidence of incremental progress toward passage of the bill atop Obama's domestic agenda when two swing-vote Democrats sent signals they would vote to allow debate to begin over Republican objections.

One of them, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, described Tuesday's elections as a referendum on the economy rather than health care. He said blocking debate on the bill would mean the end of efforts to control health care costs.

"We're making progress on health reform," said Reid, D-Nev., who had set off alarms on Tuesday about the prospects for the bill's passage this year. "We're not going to be bound by any timelines," he said then, although his office quickly sought to soften the impact with a statement saying there was no reason the bill couldn't be passed by year's end.

Democrats have said for months their success as a party in 2010 would hinge on their ability to implement Obama's legislative agenda. At the same time, a president's party almost always loses House seats in midterm elections, and often Senate seats as well. A bad economy and high unemployment would make that even more likely.