While the Obama Administration is confident that the coming week will produce the first step in a march to victory on health care reform, at least one Republican is saying the way Democrats are fighting for change is “a political kamikaze mission.”

After more than a year of negotiations, White House officials hit the airwaves March 14 to announce that reform would go forward, despite the lingering opposition of Republicans and some Democrats.

“I do think this is the climactic week for health care reform,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told CBS’ Face the Nation. “We do believe that a week from today, we’ll be talking about a bill that has passed the House, not being considered by the House…and us being a signature away from health care reform in this country.”

This week, the House is expected to vote on the Senate bill, passed last Christmas Eve, then a package of changes to that bill using the budget reconciliation process, requiring 51 and not the usual 60 votes for passage.

President Barack Obama would then sign the Senate bill, if passed, and the Senate would then pass the House’s changes via reconciliation through a majority vote. The president would then sign the reconciliation bill, making health reform a reality.

That process starts today (March 15) with the House Budget Committee examining the reconciliation bill, which has yet to get a cost estimate from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

Lamar Alexander

This “final” health care bill would cover 31 million uninsured Americans, would have an individual mandate to secure coverage (with exemptions for low-income individuals), stop practices of denial to those with pre-existing conditions and exclude the controversial public health insurance option, run by the federal government, according to media reports.

While most Democrats in Congress see the legislation as a move in the right direction, that is not necessarily the opinion of Republicans, including Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, who told Face the Nation that House Democrats are being asked “by the president to hold hands, jump off a cliff and hope Harry Reid catches them after the bill is law.”

Alexander called using the reconciliation process by Democrats “a political kamikaze mission” for the party, indicating it will define every congressional race this November and “be a political wipeout for the Democratic Party.”

Getting the votes

Senior White House Advisor David Axelrod told NBC’s Meet the Press that “there will be a vote this week,” to conclude a year-long reform debate and added, “I am absolutely confident that we are going to be successful.”

As for those responsible for getting the votes to ensure the White House’s aforementioned victory, Democratic House Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said that as of Sunday morning, all the votes to pass health care legislation in the House were not secured.

“I am also very confident that we’ll get this done,” Clyburn said on Meet the Press. “I have been talking to members for a long time on this, and they have the will to do it.  They’ve been looking to us to create a way to do it.  I think we have gotten to a place where we do have the way to do it, and I think the members are going to, to vote for this.”

Democratic Senate Whip, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) put aside the criticism of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who called the Senate “an untrustworthy body” last week, saying that once a House member himself, he understood “the built-in skepticism and lack of trust.

“I’ll tell you this, we’re in the process of actually contacting every single Democratic senator,” Durbin said. “When Nancy Pelosi goes before her House Democratic Caucus, it will be with the solid assurance that when reconciliation comes over to the Senate side, we’re going to pass it.”

Republican reaction

Scott Brown

Republican leaders continued their attack on Democrats, meanwhile. Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) who criticized the Obama Administration and the opposing party during the Republican Party’s weekly address.

“Somehow, the greater the public opposition to the health care bill, the more determined they seem to force it on us anyway,” Brown said. “Their attitude shows Washington at its very worst – the presumption that they know best, and they’re going to get their way whether the American people like it or not.”

Alexander, head of the Senate Republican Conference, said his party is “not trying to end the health care debate, we’re trying to change it.

“And we’re trying to say the American people don’t want higher individual premiums, higher taxes, Medicare cuts,” Alexander said. “They don’t want an increase in the deficit. They’re wondering why if we’re trying to reduce cost, it cost a trillion dollars. So what we ought to do this week is defeat this bill.”