WASHINGTON — As momentum built for passage of a historic remaking of the U.S. health

care system, the Democratic House leadership Saturday dropped its controversial plan to use

the "Slaughter Solution" as a shortcut for today's vote.

With several once-wavering lawmakers lining up behind the bill despite the cries of "tea

party" protesters outside, Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., announced at a House Rules Committee

meeting that the leadership had dropped the shortcut

"We've had sanity prevail," said Cardoza, who previously said he would oppose the unusual

parliamentary tactic. "And I'm very pleased about that."

Related: Democrats grow confident ahead of health care vote

Updates as the House gets ready to vote on the health care reform bill

Earlier, House Democratic leaders were leaning toward using the Slaughter Solution, named

for Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, the Fairport Democrat who heads the Rules Committee.

Under that plan, the House would have had only two health care votes today: one that

simultaneously "deemed" the Senate bill passed while setting the terms of debate on fixes to

that bill and one on the legislation fixing the Senate measure. Doing so would have freed

lawmakers from voting directly on the unpopular Senate bill, which that chamber approved on

Christmas Eve.

The decision to drop the Slaughter Solution means the House is expected to take three votes

today: one on the Senate health bill, one on a rule governing debate on a series of fixes to

the Senate bill and one on those fixes.

"We believe this is a better process," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "We

determined we could do this. We believe we have the votes."

The decision to drop the Slaughter Solution was just one important step on an extraordinary

day on Capitol Hill.

While the Rules Committee engaged in a heated debate, leaders lobbied wavering lawmakers on

the House floor in advance of today's vote. Some lawmakers reported pressure of another kind:

vicious racial and sexual insults from the tea party protesters.

Amid the rancor, backers of the landmark bill — starting with President Obama —

shared a sense of impending success.

"It is time to pass health care reform for America, and I am confident that you are going

to do it tomorrow," Obama told Democratic lawmakers at the Capitol. "Let's get this done."

Democrats need 216 votes to pass the health legislation, and they drew closer to that magic

number as the day passed.

Most notably, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ohio, announced that he and several other Democrats

would vote for the bill after striking a deal with the House leadership and the administration

on Medicare payments in their states.

"They met my test, which is to fix my Medicare reimbursement," DeFazio said.

While a handful of anti-abortion lawmakers said they would support the bill, talks went on

between the leadership and several Democrats who fear that the bill does not prevent the newly

insured from getting federally funded abortion coverage. Some lawmakers said Obama might issue

an executive order aimed at placating the anti-abortion Democrats' concerns.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., reassured House members that he had

"the commitment of a significant majority" of senators that they will approve and send the

fixes to the Senate bill to the White House.

The package the House will vote on adds up to a $940 billion, 10-year reinvention of the

American health system that will bring health insurance to 32 million people who now lack it.

Coverage would be expanded through a widening of the Medicaid program for the poor and

federal subsidies for others who are entering the insurance market. Most individuals would be

required to get coverage or pay a fine, and midsized and large businesses would have to offer

coverage to their employees.

Insurers would be banned from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and

would not be able to dump people from the insurance rolls once they get sick.

The package, paid for by tax increases and adjustments to Medicare funding, would reduce

the federal deficit by $138 billion in its first 10 years, the nonpartisan Congressional

Budget Office said. Many of the tax increases would begin immediately, even though most of the

bill's health benefits would not take effect until 2014.

Republicans were aghast both at the substance of the bill and the process that led to it,

saying they were shut out of crafting what will be the biggest social legislation since

Medicare was created in 1965.

"When you see all of the deals that are going on around here, in order to shove down the

throats of the American people this government takeover of health care, it is no surprise to

me that the American people are in full rebellion," said House Minority Leader John Boehner,

R-Ohio, on Fox News. "They don't want any part of this."

But to Slaughter, whose committee worked into the night setting the terms for today's

debate, it was the Republicans who chose not to work with Democrats on health care.

"Nothing would please me more than if we were all working together and we could try to get

this done because it is the most important thing that I think I'll be voting on in my career

here," she said. "I hate it that one of the parties has opted out of something of this

magnitude, but we have to play the hand that's dealt to us."

That involved abandoning the legislative shortcut that Slaughter had defended five days

earlier when she said: "I don't even mind that it's called the Slaughter Solution; I'm happy

to have the solution."

Before Democratic leaders pulled the plug on the shortcut, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, warned

the Rules Committee that following it would cause big trouble.

"We are about to unleash a cultural war in this country," he said, prompting Slaughter to

reply: "I appreciate that you're the bluebird of happiness."

Outside, it appeared that the culture war had begun.

Thousands of tea party protesters, most of them white and middle-aged, surrounded the

Capitol carrying signs raging against the health bill and the president.

They booed the presidential motorcade as it approached and jeered lawmakers as they walked

to the Capitol for votes.

A protester yelled an anti-gay slur at Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., prompting howls of

laughter from the crowd, the Talking Points Memo blog reported.

Another protester spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who is black, said Kristie Greco,

spokeswoman for Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.

Rep. John Lewis, a revered Georgia Democrat who bears the scars of the beating he suffered

as a 1960s civil rights protester, emerged from a House office building where he was greeted

by protesters repeatedly shouting a racial epithet, said Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind.

"I felt like we were in a time machine," Carson said.

Protesters said they came to Washington with a serious message.

"My concerns are about the health care bill, and the direction it takes us is toward

communism, quite frankly," said retired businessman Randy Simpson, 67, of Seneca, S.C.

Cardoza, the California Democrat, said the number of protesters didn't reflect the general

sentiment of the American people. He said his office had received 3,900 comments in favor of

the bill and 2,200 against.

"There are some that think if they just yell louder than everybody else, their side will

prevail," Cardoza said.

News wire services contributed to this report.