Sources: Obama, Dems to sidestep GOP on health care - CNN.com

Sources: Obama, Dems to sidestep GOP on health care - CNN.com: "Washington (CNN) -- President Obama met Wednesday with House Democratic leaders who face the likelihood of having a final health care bill look much more like the Senate's version than their measure.

The meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the chairmen of the three House committees that approved health care legislation was part of efforts by Obama and top Democrats to merge the separate House and Senate bills into a final version capable of winning approval in both chambers.

Senior Democratic sources say Democrats are prepared to short-circuit the traditional legislative process of a formal conference committee comprising House and Senate members to exclude their Republican counterparts during final congressional health care deliberations.

Obama gave his blessing Tuesday for that move, according to two congressional Democratic leadership sources.

Democrats are trying to prevent the Republicans from using Senate rules to slow the push for final passage of a comprehensive reform bill, the sources said.

'There's clearly a tactic of slowing down progress on behalf of the American people,' White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday of GOP maneuvers in the Senate. When asked if Obama supported avoiding a formal conference committee, Gibbs said: 'The president wants to get a bill to his desk as quickly as possible.'"