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Amazing what a little Bribery will get you in the Senate...
A compromise was also struck with Nelson to limit the availability of abortions in insurance sold in the exchange to be implemented in the new program. At the same time, he would also get millions in Medicaid funds for Nebraska, which boasts a heavy insurance and anti-abortion lobby.
"The bill also includes provisions Nelson won in negotiations shielding Nebraska from an unfunded mandate and new national protections barring public funding of abortion," said a statement issued by Nelson's office.
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ABC News President Obama Praises Senate for Advancing Health Care Bill Obama Takes Aim at Critics, Hails Legislation as a "Big Victory" By HUMA KHAN and Z. BYRON WOLF
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2009—
President Obama hailed Senate Democrats' advancing the $871 billion health care bill as a "big victory for American people," even as the legislation lost many of the components he had pushed.
The president took aim at critics who say the health care bill would add to the budget deficit and praised the Senate for standing up to special interest groups.
"I just want to be clear, for all those who are continually carping about how this is somehow a big-spending government bill, this cuts our deficit by $132 billion the first 10 years and by over $1 trillion in the second," the president said today at the White House. "The argument that opponents are making against this bill does not hold water."
This is the second time Obama has spoken in support of the Senate health care bill, which is on the road to a final vote on Christmas Eve.
In recent days, the Obama administration has tried to push the point that while the bill may not have everything it and some other Democrats had wanted, it would still have positive ramifications for Americans.
Obama hailed the legislation Saturday as "the largest deficit reduction plan in over a decade," and praised Senate Democratic leaders for making changes that he said would make the health care bill stronger.
Vice President Joe Biden wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times Sunday that "While it is not perfect, the bill pending in the Senate today is not just good enough -- it is very good.
"I share the frustration of other progressives that the Senate bill does not include a public option. But I've been around a long time, and I know that in Washington big changes never emerge in perfect form," Biden wrote.
Moderate and liberal Democrats unified behind a health care overhaul bill in the Senate in the wee hours of the morning today after negotiating behind closed doors in a process that Sen. John McCain assailed as "one of the great Bernie Madoff gimmicks."
In a narrow vote in the wee hours of the morning, Democrats broke a Republican filibuster and inched their sweeping health care package toward passage before Christmas.
Today, Democratic leaders hailed the support of medical associations. The American Medical Association endorsed the Senate health care bill, with Dr. Cecil B. Wilson, the association's president, appearing with Democratic senators at a press conference. While it expressed its support for the plan, the AMA would like to see measures to repeal the existing Medicare payment formula for doctors to prevent periodic reimbursement cuts.
All 60 members of the Democratic caucus -- liberals who wanted a public option voted for a bill without one, and moderates concerned about the cost -- voted to limit debate on compromise language introduced Saturday morning. The 40 Republicans opposed and assailed Democrats for crafting back-room deals that benefit a few senators.
"It's one of the great Bernie Madoff gimmicks that I've ever seen, that anybody's ever seen," McCain, R-Ariz., charged on "Good Morning America" today, adding that this was an "unsavory practice that the American people will reject resoundingly."
The strict timeline -- a series of early morning procedural votes though one of the worst snow storms in Washington, D.C., history -- was set by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass a bill before the Christmas holiday.
An agreement on the compromise to bring Sen. Ben Nelson, the final Democratic holdout, onboard with the legislation, was announced Saturday morning. But today's vote signaled that all Democrats will support the bill.
Nelson secured a special break for his state's contributions on Medicaid funding, protected some Nebraska insurers from a new tax in the bill and got Democratic leaders to agree on slightly tougher restrictions on how abortions could be offered in insurance plans under the bill.
McCain criticized Democrats for providing concessions to a few Democrats, such as Nelson, who had been skeptical of the bill, saying it would cost people in other states.
"This was behind closed doors," McCain said. "The Republicans were never brought in to the negotiations and this is what you get -- a split country -- where the American people are opposed to what we're doing and opposed to us."
As for whether the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who had fought for health care overhaul much of his Senate career, would approve, McCain said his friend would not like the the partisan nature of the legislation.
"I think that Senator Kennedy would appreciate the outcome," he said. "I don't think he would appreciate it on a party-line vote. There has never been a major reform accomplished in the history of this country that wasn't bipartisan. ... He never engaged in this kind of unsavory process of offering people different deals, which in the end cost people from other states lots of money and puts burdens on them."
Some liberal Democrats are also unhappy, even though they voted with their caucus. Anti-war Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who earlier helped break a Republican filibuster of a troop funding bill he opposed in order to make room on the Senate schedule for health care reform, cast blame at the White House for not pushing hard enough to include a public health insurance option.
"Unfortunately, the lack of support from the administration made keeping the public option in the bill an uphill struggle," Feingold said in a written statement.
Feingold supported the bill, however, as did every other Democrat, even though he disliked elements of it. "While the loss of the public option is a bitter pill to swallow, on balance, the bill still delivers meaningful reform, and the cost of inaction is simply too high," Feingold said.
Democrats Unite on Senate Health Care Bill
The proposal would cost $871 billion over the next 10 years to give access for 31 million Americans who don't currently have health insurance. It counts on lower Medicare costs, taxes on the insurance industry and medical device makes as well as a special tax on high-cost insurance plans, to pay for the legislation.
Every person would be required by the government to have insurance or pay a fine. People making up to $88,000 for a family of four would get help from the government to pay for insurance. Medicaid would be greatly expanded for the poor.
But one of the biggest weaknesses of the bill, McCain said, is that tax increases and cuts in Medicare and other funding would kick in as soon as the bill is passed but the benefits won't begin to accrue until four years later.
"That's nutty stuff ... it's unacceptable," he said.
Republican senators, seeking to delay the vote and turn public opinion even further against it, launched a rhetorical attack on Nelson, the conservative Democrat who withheld his support for a health reform compromise until the last moment.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called provisions inserted to woo Nelson's vote a "kind of smelly proposition."
"This is supposed to be all of our health care ... not just for them," he said at a Capitol Hill press conference.
It was not just Nelson's home state of Nebraska that won concessions in closed-door negotiations, but because Nebraska's carve-out is permanent, the conservative Democrat is catching the most fire from Republicans.
Vermont and Massachusetts will also benefit from special treatment in how the federal government subsidizes state Medicaid programs, although supporters argue that those two states were being penalized because they already help provide insurance for nearly all of their citizens.
Republicans vowed to delay a final vote until Christmas Eve, even though the vote this morning effectively broke their filibuster of health reform legislation.
Why is the GOP fighting it when the passage looks clear for Democrats?
"Because they [Senate Democrats] haven't got the American public," McCain said. "They had 60 percent of the United States Senate, 60 percent of the American people are against this. They want it stopped and they certainly -- as they find out more about this unsavory process we've been through, the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, the Florida FlimFlam and all of the other kinds of dealing that went on -- they'll find it very distasteful."
Republicans Assail Concessions to Some Democrats
Other goodies were tougher to trace. The bill authorizes $100 million for hospital construction for a medical school opaquely described as "an academic health center at a public research university in the United States that contains a State's sole public academic medical and dental school."
Eleven hospitals would potentially qualify for some of the money, according to Democratic staffers. But the Secretary of Health and Human Services would be in charge of doling the funding out.
On the Senate floor, Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina said the Democrats had to "cook up a deal in a back room that is sleazy in my view."
Republicans would never do that sort of back-room negotiating of a bill of this scope, Graham said.
"We're not going to put the whole nation at risk and take a broken system and make it worse just to get a vote," Graham said. "No way in hell."
"This process is not legislation. This process is corruption," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. "It is a shame that the only way we can pass this legislation is to buy votes."
McConnell said Republicans will insist on using all their parliamentary time even after that vote, when it is clear that the bill will pass. If Republicans insist on all their time for debate, a vote on final passage of the bill is likely to occur at 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
"People have to show up and vote at least three more times," McConnell said, arguing that time is good for the process as lawmakers and the public read through the bill.
The Congressional Budget Office updated its cost estimate Sunday, guessing that deficit reduction under the bill could actually be half of the more than $1 trillion forecast between 2020 and 2029.
"This is not over, by any stretch," McConnell said.
If Senate Democrats pass their bill later this week as they seem sure to do, the next step will be a post-holiday conference to reconcile the House and Senate versions. Given the real differences between the two, that may not be easy.
The House version includes a public health insurance option, while the Senate version would follow the model of insurance for federal workers, allowing insurers to create national health plans overseen by a federal agency.
There are also differences in how the legislation is paid for: The House taxes wealthy Americans, while the Senate would, among other revenue measures, tax high-cost insurance plans. Unions oppose that measure.
But those fights, assuming Democrats can maintain perfect attendance this week, will wait for after the holiday.
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Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, after securing a sweetheart deal for his state as part of the health insurance reform bill, said Tuesday that three other senators have told him they want to bargain for the same kind of special treatment.
"Three senators came up to me just now on the (Senate) floor, and said, 'Now we understand what you did. We'll be seeking this funding too'," Nelson said.
But the Democratic senator, who has faced a heap of criticism for appearing to trade his vote on health care for millions in federal Medicaid money, said he's considering asking that the Nebraska deal be stripped from the bill.
Do you think most progressives like this bill with the private insurance companies still involved. No we want them out they have no business in the health care business.
The government does a much better job for U.S. citizens.
They take a section of the population that private insurance in most cases won't touch the 65 year old plus,with no exclusions on health conditions of the past and they take care of them. Just think if all the young and healthy were covered under this plan there most likely would be surpluses.As long as private insurance the thieves of the country was not involved.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
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"To get all 58 Democrats and two independents on board, Reid, among other things, had to drop a government-run insurance option and a Medicare buy-in and had to increase taxes by $25 billion more than planned, bringing the total tax increases to $518 billion. "
Theres your change!
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.
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It's no longer about party politics, Ray. Look at this bill and you tell me that it's what you wanted...seriously.
They are literally passing the cost of much of this medicare\medicaid coverage onto the states to avoid looking like they are increasing the deficit. The CBO scoring looked only at the cost to the FEDERAL government. Through unfunded mandates (wow, does that sound familiar?) they are literally FORCING the states to pay for what they themselves are unwilling to take 'credit' for.
Now, where are the states going to come up with this MANDATORY funding? That's right, more and higher taxes. You will be paying more for not only others within your own state to have healthcare...you will be paying for people in other states to receive healthcare.
And as far as much more being shoved down the Republican throats...
Pucker up, Ray...it's coming your way too...
Oh, and one more 'present' from the Reid...look in the bill under unrepealable.
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quote:Originally posted by raybond: Republican whiners you don't get it a lot more is going to be shoved down your throats.
the best way to pass legislation right? Seems to be the only change I can see going on. We go from promised transparency and openess...putting bills online for the people to read (so Obama said in pre election speeches) to now.....now its closed door secret meetings to draft bills, discuss them, and get votes to pass.
This was not passed because the PEOPLE want it, it is passsed because OBAMA wants it. What OBAMA wants you better get!
This is sick, and has its own form of corruption written all over it and you all know it.
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In recent weeks, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has faced ire from advocates for the public option, which he successfully forced the Senate to drop from its legislation by threatening to filibuster it. Now, a new CNN poll has found that Lieberman’s “favorable ratings have taken almost a 10-point drop in the past two weeks“:
Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-Conn.) favorable ratings have taken almost a 10-point drop in the past two weeks, a new poll found.
31 percent of people told a CNN poll conducted Dec. 16-20 that they had a favorable opinion of Lieberman, a key Senate centrist who’d opposed healthcare reform only until recently. Opinion toward Lieberman, though, was down from a 40 percent favorable rating in the same CNN poll conducted December 2-3 of this year.
Poll respondents’ unfavorable opinion of Lieberman ticked upward over the same period. 34 percent of those polled said they now have an unfavorable opinion of Lieberman, compared to 28 percent who have an unfavorable opinion.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
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Senate Passes Sweeping Health-Care Bill 60-39 Vote Is Landmark in Effort to Expand Insurance Coverage
By GREG HITT and JANET ADAMY [Reid HealthCare] Associated Press
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., center, answered questions outside of the Senate chambers on Capitol Hill.
WASHINGTON -- The Senate approved sweeping health-overhaul legislation on Thursday, a landmark moment for White House-led efforts to expand insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans.
The bill, approved by a 60-39 vote, would deliver on a long-promised Democratic goal of extending coverage to nearly every American, and would represent the biggest expansion of the federal safety net since the 1965 creation of Medicare, the health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled.
Thursday's vote was a victory for President Barack Obama, who made the issue his top domestic priority despite lingering divisions among Democrats and the fierce opposition of Republicans. And it was a validation of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to build consensus on his side of the aisle, rather than reach across party lines, a move that would have forced a lowering of ambitions.
The News Hub panel discusses the Senate's 60-39 passage of a historic health-care bill that would extend insurance to 30 million Americans who don't have it or who can't afford it.
Negotiations now must begin to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, with the compromise bill facing another vote in each chamber. President Obama hopes to sign the bill before his State of the Union address in late January.
Republicans said the bill would impose massive regulatory and financial burdens on taxpayers and businesses, and would dig the government even deeper in debt. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) told the chamber just before the vote that Democrats should expect an "earful" from angry constituents when they go home
"This fight is long from over," Mr. McConnell said. "My colleagues and I will fight to ensure this bill doesn't become law. That's the clear will of the American people."
All 58 Democrats and two independents voted for the bill, while 39 Republicans voted against it. Sen. Jim Bunning (R., Ky.) did not vote.
Mr. Reid said he also expected to get an earful, but from Americans who will benefit from the expanded health-care coverage and new rules on insurance companies. "Our charge is to move forward," he said, adding that the bill meets a national need that presidents have pushed for since Harry Truman. "Though some may slow the progress, they cannot stop it," he said.
At the White House, President Obama welcomed the Senate vote and said, "We are now finally poised to deliver on the promise" of expanding care and overhauling the nation's health system. Mr. Obama pressed lawmakers to "finish the job" and deliver a compromise package to his desk in the "coming weeks."
With Christmas looming, Mr. Reid closed a series of last-minute deals to secure the support of balky Democrats and then plunged the Senate into a forced march, beginning with a 1 a.m. vote Monday and culminating with Thursday's roll call at 7 a.m. on passage of the bill.
The 10-year $871 billion measure would expand Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor, and create new tax subsidies to help lower- and middle-income families comply with a mandate to purchase insurance. That mandate would be enforced by a financial penalty of up to $750 for any individual who fails to get coverage.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the legislation would reduce the budget deficit by $132 billion over the next decade, through a combination of tax increases on the health-care sector and spending cuts, which largely fall on Medicare payments to health-care providers. Related Content
* Health Blog: Six Key Numbers * Both Sides Fight to Shape View of Bill * When the Changes Could Take Effect * Rove: The Real Price of the Senate Health Bill * Interactive: The Faces of Health Care * Vote: Do you support the Senate bill?
The last time the Senate voted on Christmas Eve was 1895, the issue then being whether to provide federal benefits for U.S. servicemen. In a ceremony with 19th-century echoes, senators rose one by one Thursday from their simple wooden desks to cast their votes. Vice President Joe Biden presided over the chamber.
"Mr. President, this is for my friend Ted Kennedy. Aye," said 92-year-old Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, referring to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, who was a champion of universal health care. Sen. Kennedy's widow watched the vote from the gallery.
Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) called the vote the "most important" in his more than 20 years as a U.S. senator. "Progress is not easy," he said. "Today we were able to prove it is not impossible."
Mr. Reid, clearly worn from the week's grueling schedule, initially voted "no," to the surprise of many in the chamber. He put his head down on his desk, laughing, then stood again and changed his vote to "aye."
Republicans accused Democrats of rushing the vote and noted that Mr. Reid put out a nearly 400-page amendment to the bill on Saturday "over the weekend of a snowstorm," as Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) put it. "This has been very troubling to a lot of us," he said.
The bill's passage puts Mr. Obama on the verge of creating a near-universal health-insurance system, an accomplishment that has eluded presidents since Theodore Roosevelt. By the end of the next decade, 94% of legal residents would have insurance coverage, up from 83% now, according to estimates by the CBO.
As soon as next year, consumers who enroll in new plans would no longer face lifetime limits on their insurance coverage, and insurers couldn't drop people's coverage because they get sick. By 2014, insurers could no longer deny any customers coverage because of a pre-existing health condition.
Insurance companies warn that the changes could raise premiums by bringing more people with health problems into the system while healthy people choose to go without coverage.
New state-based health-insurance exchanges would become the main marketplace for people buying coverage without the help of an employer, as well as some small employers. By 2019, about 30 million people are expected to get coverage through them.
Under the Senate bill, the exchange won't include a public health-insurance plan – one of the most contentious aspects of the health debate. The Senate jettisoned the provision after Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, and some centrist Democrats objected to the idea. Instead, consumers would be able to shop on the exchange for plans managed by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees insurance policies for federal workers.
The late-December vote means Congress won't conclude action on the bill by year's end, as the White House had once wanted. Leaders of the House and Senate are readying for negotiations that will begin shortly after the first of the year, and hope to forge a compromise package swiftly, possibly by the president's State of the Union address in late January.
"Everyone is pushing for that," said Dan Pfeiffer, Mr. Obama's communications director. Mr. Pfeiffer suggested Senate passage is a demonstration that Congress and the White House can tackle seemingly intractable issues. "It's not always pretty, but Washington still has the capacity to deal with big problems," he said.
The House passed its version of health legislation Nov. 7, and tough negotiations loom with the Senate on a compromise package. Potential flashpoints include taxes and abortion policy, as well as the House's proposed government-run health plan.
Mr. Reid, at least for now, is declining to entertain questions about how the two bills will be melded. He said he is looking forward to spending a few days at home in Nevada over the holidays. "I'm going to sit back and watch my rabbits eat my cactus," he said.
The Senate bill would leave the existing employer-based health system largely intact, in an effort to ensure that already-insured Americans see no change in coverage. However, large companies would have to pay a penalty to the government if they do not provide affordable insurance and their workers end up seeking government assistance.
The last time Congress seriously pushed health overhaul legislation, in 1994, the effort died in the Senate. Fifteen years later, an opening to revive the issue was created with the election of a Democratic president and strong majorities in both chambers of Congress.
A series of breaks helped the Democrats secure the 60 votes needed to override the Republican filibuster. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania switched parties. Al Franken, a Democrat, prevailed in the Minnesota Senate race by a tiny margin after a months-long recount. After Sen. Kennedy's death, the Massachusetts legislature changed state law to allow his replacement to be seated immediately, rather than waiting for a special election.
"It would be hard in our lifetimes to recreate that moment," said Sen. Robert Casey (D., Pa.).
Write to Greg Hitt at greg.hitt@wsj.com and Janet Adamy at janet.adamy@wsj.com
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
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A little higher than that Glass but not much.Sometimes I get a wish for the good old days. Thats ok suffer you don't have to be an english teacher to do my job just understand the criminal mind .If need be I have a lap dog to type things up for me and take notes And just for the record republicans in prison are always not Guilty because it was somebody elses fault even though they did the crime.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
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Catholic Hospitals Endorse Senate Abortion Compromise The Catholic Health Association — which represents hundreds of Catholic hospitals across the country — said said in a statement that it was ‘encouraged’ and ‘increasingly confident‘ that the abortion compromise in the Senate health care bill “can achieve the objective of no federal funding for abortion.’” The announcement represents a break from the the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ strong opposition to the Senate’s less stringent restrictions and provides critical political cover for pro-life Democrats who are hesitant to vote for a bill opposed by Catholic organizations. Under the Senate measure, women are required to purchase abortion services with private premiums and pay for the care with a separate transaction. States could also prohibit insurers in the exchange from offering abortion services.
The NYT explains the theological underpinnings of the endorsement:
“The Catholic Health Association seems to be using traditional principles of cooperation with evil,” said Prof. M. Cathleen Kaveny of the Notre Dame University Law School. Such principles, she said, could permit support for “imperfect legislation,” as long as one’s intent was not to “further abortion,” one made every effort to “minimize the harm,” and one achieved “an extremely important good that can’t be achieved any other way.”
In contrast, she said, “some bishops have adopted a prophetic stand against abortion that wants to eliminate any form of cooperation with evil no matter how remote.”
Catholic hospitals (like any hospitals) hope to minimize the number of uninsured patients who receive uncompensated care and achieve the “extremely important good” of expanding health care coverage to everyone. Earlier this month, Ellen-Marie Whelan and Jessica Arons analyzed the Catholic Bishop’s criteria “that they set as priorities to be included in health reform legislation” and concluded that health care reform meets these self-imposed goals:
As our analysis shows, there are a number of ways both bills would achieve the Bishops’ “pro-life” goals: they would save the lives of thousands each year, reduce the suffering of millions, and increase the dignity with which people are treated when ill. Moreover, providing quality health care to women and families in need is a much more effective and humane way to reduce the number of abortions than restrictions on funding ever have been. In the United States, as throughout the world, restrictions on abortion make the procedure more expensive and less safe; they do not make it less common.
The question before any pro-life Catholic organization is this: “Is it worth jeopardizing legislation that would provide nearly universal access to health care, improve quality, be much more affordable, assist the poor and low income, reduce fraud and waste, protect the conscience of providers, and so much more simply because it would preserve the status quo on public funding for abortion but not impose new restrictions on private coverage?” Fortunately, the Catholic hospitals have decided that it is not.
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), meanwhile, has responded to the hospitals’ endorsement by reiterating his opposition to the Senate language, arguing that he has commitments from at least 10 Democrats who voted for House health care bill to oppose the final bill if it doesn not reflect the House bill’s compromise.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
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