Rank-and-file senators stopped just short of sounding a death knell for a broad-but-troubled effort to overhaul the healthcare sector. The president's suggestion about a cooling-off period—a short cooling-off period—ring true with some Senators who think that it might be good to give them a chance to reorganize and re-order.  Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said that health reform is now a “stalemate,” adding that it may not be possible to “solve it this year.” These comments come just a day after President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to move forward with their legislative effort to reshape the healthcare sector.  But lawmakers from both sides of the Capitol have been wrestling with how to move dueling legislative packages, and alternative paths have proved tough to reach.  Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the Senate's leadership team, said that the focus has now shifted to job creation. “That's what we're going to work on for now,” he said, adding that the plan is to eventually get back on to health reform, but declined to say when. “We don't have a timeline,” he added.

 On the other hand, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that Congress can't afford to let healthcare reform die because the financial consequences of maintaining the current system are too great.  Responding to President Barack Obama's plea to approve healthcare reform in his State of the Union Address, Pelosi said she would explore every viable option to get a bill to the president's desk. “Even if everyone loved their health insurance in this country, we would still have to do this bill. We cannot sustain the cost of the current system,” Pelosi told reporters. Still on the table is an option for the House to approve the Senate's healthcare reform bill while simultaneously amending it through “reconciliation.” Under this procedure, the Senate would attempt to approve the changes the House made to its bill on a simple majority vote. “We're not talking about minor tweaks” to the Senate bill, Pelosi cautioned. The bills are in about 75%-80% agreement, yet, “there are some things that are not the same, and we have to find a way to move forward.”House leaders are also considering another approach where provisions unlikely to make it through reconciliation could be introduced in a series of smaller bills. Pelosi would not elaborate on what these “sidebar” bills would specifically address.