Legislation moves to floor after Thanksgiving as Dems overcome key hurdle
Associated Press
updated 7:17 am ET, Sun. Nov. 22, 2009
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., speaks Saturday after the U.S. Senate voted to begin debate on health care legislation on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., right, and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, look on.
photo by Jose Luis Magana/AP
WASHINGTON - A bruising debate on health care awaits the Senate after Thanksgiving now that the historic legislation has cleared a key hurdle over the opposition of Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama.
The bill would extend coverage to roughly 31 million who lack it, crack down on insurance company practices that deny or dilute benefits and curtail the growth of spending on medical care nationally.
In the final minutes of a daylong session, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans on Saturday of trying to stifle a historic debate the nation needed.
GOP warns of ‘unsustainable debt’
The Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the vote was anything but procedural — casting it as a referendum on the bill itself, which he said would raise taxes, cut Medicare and create a "massive and unsustainable debt."
Two final Democratic holdouts, Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, announced they would join in clearing the way for a full debate.
"It is clear to me that doing nothing is not an option," said Landrieu, who won $100 million in the legislation to help her state pay the costs of health care for the poor.
Landrieu and Lincoln, who faces a tough re-election next year, both stressed they were not committing in advance to vote for the legislation that ultimately emerges from next month's debate.
Of particular contentiousness to moderates is a provision for the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies, subject to state approval — a part of Reid's bill expected to come under significant pressure as the debate unfolds.
Positive response from White House
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the president was gratified by the vote, which he says "brings us one step closer to ending insurance company abuses, reining in spiraling health care costs, providing stability and security to those with health insurance, and extending quality health coverage to those who lack it."
Vice President Joe Biden told Iowa Democrats that the Senate handed the president a big victory with its decision.
"Tonight we have more momentum than we've ever had in the history of health care discussions,'" Biden told about 1,000 Democrats in Des Moines.
"I see the special interests raising tens of millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat our agenda," Biden said. "We've never thought change would be easy. You all knew change would be hard. It's hard to change the direction of a nation that's been adrift for at least eight years."
The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide subsidies to those who couldn't afford it. Large companies could incur costs if they did not provide coverage to their workforce. The insurance industry would come under significant new regulation under the bill, which would first ease and then ban the practice of denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.
Congressional budget analysts put the legislation's cost at $979 billion over a decade and said it would reduce deficits over the same period while extending coverage to 94 percent of the eligible population.
Kennedy’s legacy figures prominently
Memories of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a long-time proponent of health care, figured prominently Saturday night.
Sen. Paul Kirk of Massachusetts, appointed to office this fall after Kennedy's death, said he spoke for those "who for so many years revered and loved and elected and re-elected" him.
Sen. Chris Dodd of Conn. referred to Kennedy's "lifelong quest" for national health care and said "we will pay him the highest compliment by fulfilling that" goal.
Reid said he had talked with Kennedy's widow, Vicki, about the vote and they both agreed "Ted would be happy."
© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Bruising debate awaits health bill in Senate
Legislation moves to floor after Thanksgiving as Dems overcome key hurdle
Associated Press
updated 7:17 am ET, Sun. Nov. 22, 2009
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., speaks Saturday after the U.S. Senate voted to begin debate on health care legislation on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., right, and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, look on.
photo by Jose Luis Magana/AP
WASHINGTON - A bruising debate on health care awaits the Senate after Thanksgiving now that the historic legislation has cleared a key hurdle over the opposition of Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama.
The bill would extend coverage to roughly 31 million who lack it, crack down on insurance company practices that deny or dilute benefits and curtail the growth of spending on medical care nationally.
In the final minutes of a daylong session, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans on Saturday of trying to stifle a historic debate the nation needed.
GOP warns of ‘unsustainable debt’
The Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the vote was anything but procedural — casting it as a referendum on the bill itself, which he said would raise taxes, cut Medicare and create a "massive and unsustainable debt."
Two final Democratic holdouts, Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, announced they would join in clearing the way for a full debate.
"It is clear to me that doing nothing is not an option," said Landrieu, who won $100 million in the legislation to help her state pay the costs of health care for the poor.
Landrieu and Lincoln, who faces a tough re-election next year, both stressed they were not committing in advance to vote for the legislation that ultimately emerges from next month's debate.
Of particular contentiousness to moderates is a provision for the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies, subject to state approval — a part of Reid's bill expected to come under significant pressure as the debate unfolds.
Positive response from White House
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the president was gratified by the vote, which he says "brings us one step closer to ending insurance company abuses, reining in spiraling health care costs, providing stability and security to those with health insurance, and extending quality health coverage to those who lack it."
Vice President Joe Biden told Iowa Democrats that the Senate handed the president a big victory with its decision.
"Tonight we have more momentum than we've ever had in the history of health care discussions,'" Biden told about 1,000 Democrats in Des Moines.
"I see the special interests raising tens of millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat our agenda," Biden said. "We've never thought change would be easy. You all knew change would be hard. It's hard to change the direction of a nation that's been adrift for at least eight years."
The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide subsidies to those who couldn't afford it. Large companies could incur costs if they did not provide coverage to their workforce. The insurance industry would come under significant new regulation under the bill, which would first ease and then ban the practice of denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.
Congressional budget analysts put the legislation's cost at $979 billion over a decade and said it would reduce deficits over the same period while extending coverage to 94 percent of the eligible population.
Kennedy’s legacy figures prominently
Memories of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a long-time proponent of health care, figured prominently Saturday night.
Sen. Paul Kirk of Massachusetts, appointed to office this fall after Kennedy's death, said he spoke for those "who for so many years revered and loved and elected and re-elected" him.
Sen. Chris Dodd of Conn. referred to Kennedy's "lifelong quest" for national health care and said "we will pay him the highest compliment by fulfilling that" goal.
Reid said he had talked with Kennedy's widow, Vicki, about the vote and they both agreed "Ted would be happy."
© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment