With last week's health care summit showing no sign of getting either side to budge, lawmakers Sunday staked out positions in the battle many believe is imminent: a presidential effort to push legislation through without Republican support.
On the political talk shows, Democratic and GOp leaders fought over budget reconciliation, the parliamentary procedure that could allow a vote in the Senate and circumvent a GOp filibuster.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told CNN's State of the Union that he and other lawmakers do not think something of this magnitude ought to be jammed down the throats of a public that doesn't want it through this kind of device.
And Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, told ABC's This Week that It would be a political kamikaze mission for the Democratic party if they jam this through.
But Democrats cast it as a chance to enact critical reforms. We'd really like to get a bipartisan bill, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, told FOX News Sunday. In the absence of that, he added, the maneuver could help the country move forward on health care reform.