CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript
Statement
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
BLITZER: A video-op moment indeed.
All right. Thanks. We'll stay on top of this story and bring it to you once we get it.
Remember, we're also standing by to hear what the president has just said -- told the reporters in another meeting on the Philippines about this upcoming three-way summit in the Rose Garden.
Stand by for that.
Meanwhile, the president might need a beer or two after he gets an update on health care negotiations in the Senate. Just yesterday, he was applauding a new reform deal in the House as a step forward, but it's a different situation in the Senate.
Let's go to our senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, with more on this part of the story.
All right. What's the latest in the Senate, Dana?
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Wolf, I'm standing again outside of the office of the Senate finance chairman, Max Baucus, where negotiations over a health care deal have been taking place daily. But now the Republicans who have been working towards a compromise are dealing another blow to the president's timeline for health care.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BASH (voice-over): Coming from a Republican, this may sound like good news for the president.
SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: ... that we'll get a bill to the president this fall.
BASH: But what the president and Democratic leaders really want is a bipartisan deal now, before the August recess, to help build much-needed moment th on health care. Yet, two of the three Republican Senate negotiators with the power to make or break that deadline are saying no.
Listen to Mike Enzi and Chuck Grassley in the halls of the Capitol.
SEN. MIKE ENZI (R), WYOMING: The bill is not ready for prime time, so I don't know any way that it can be completed today or next week. And then we're at the August break, and it is important to get it right for America.
GRASSLEY: There's a lot of tough decisions to make, you know. There's a lot of tough decisions to make, and they aren't going to be made real quickly.
BASH: The Senate Democratic leader blamed top Republicans for the delay.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: The only problem we have with having a bipartisan bill is Republican leadership in the Senate. Senator Grassley and Senator Enzi have been under great pressure.
BASH: Multiple GOP sources admit to CNN the three Senate negotiators are feeling GOP heat for negotiating with Democrats and pressure both in private and public to slow down. This was the Republican leader's 30th Senate floor speech saying a version of this...
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: Some in Congress seem to be in such a rush. Such a rush to pass any reform rather than the right reform.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source