The Senate will not vote on health care reform legislation before the August congressional recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.

“We’ll come back in the fall,” Reid said at a Capitol Hill news conference.

“I think that it’s better to have a product that is one that’s based on quality and thoughtfulness rather than trying to jam something through.”

The Nevada Democrat did make clear that he believes the critical Senate Finance Committee can come up with a deal and pass health care legislation in committee before leaving for the August recess.

President Obama has been pushing for both the House and Senate to pass health care legislation before going on their August break — a goal that has appeared increasingly unlikely due to fierce Republican opposition and cost concerns cited by fiscally conservative Democrats.

Reid’s announcement did not change Obama’s timetable, according to a senior administration official. The president still wants the House and Senate to vote before the August recess.

Reid initially tried to blame Republicans, saying they’re the ones who tell him they want more time. But he also admitted, under questioning, that many of his fellow Democrats — including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus — have said they too want and need more time.

All of the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee had a long meeting Thursday morning, just before Reid’s news conference, which one source described as “contentious” and several Democratic senators told CNN was “lively.”

Coming out of that meeting, Baucus said “there’s general agreement but there’s also general concern because this is so complex.”

“There are just so many different aspects and each state is significantly different from the other. So there’s general agreement about where the process is going, but there’s concern in different pockets,” he said.

Earlier Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had tried to be more upbeat about the prospects of getting a bill passed by the August recess, despite remaining differences among House Democrats.

Pelosi downplayed talk of a Democratic split, however, telling reporters Thursday morning that she believes the party “will reach consensus” on the issue.

“I am more confident than ever,” Pelosi said. “When we work out some of the differences that we have it will be very apparent to everyone else that the momentum is there. When the bill is ready, we will go to the floor and we will win.”

Pelosi also echoed Obama’s remarks from a prime time news conference Wednesday night, in which the president repeatedly emphasized that the spiraling costs of the current system would bankrupt the nation while denying coverage to millions more Americans.

But she, too, had a tough meeting with Democratic leaders Thursday morning.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-South Carolina, described the session as “the longest whip meeting we’ve had since I’ve been whip. And it might be one of the most contentious.”

Clyburn suggested delaying the recess for the House in order to pass a health care package.

“We are committed to getting this thing done before we go home for August recess,” he said. Otherwise reporters will say “that we went home on vacation in August without having done it. That’s the headline. And so we must stay here and get this done.”

The president was slated to take his reform pitch to Ohio Thursday afternoon, touring the Cleveland Clinic — a hospital he has repeatedly praised as a model of high-quality, low-cost care — and hosting a town hall meeting in Shaker Heights.

Bills considered so far by House and Senate committees include Democratic proposals for a government-funded public health insurance option, mandates for people to be insured and employers to provide coverage, and an end to lack of coverage due to a pre-existing condition.

Republicans oppose a government-funded option and any requirement for employers to provide coverage. They also call for limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, which Democrats don’t favor, along with a number of provisions contained in the Democratic bills, including increased efficiency in Medicare and Medicaid and a focus on preventive health programs.

Republican opponents of the Democratic plans said Wednesday that most Americans like the current system, which they said must be made less expensive and more accessible.

“What we do think is that we ought to target the problems, and there are ways to do that on a bipartisan basis,” argued Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky.

Obama and Democratic leaders say the problems are deeper and systemic, with spiraling costs that eventually will bankrupt the country and with 12,000 people a day being added to the current figure of 46 million without health insurance.

(Source: CNN)