Modern News

After voting to move the Health Care Reform to the floor for debate in the Senate, once again on a Saturday in the dead of night, Democrats are looking to unify to try and push President Obama’s Health Care Reform agenda through the Senate in hopes of passing this legislation by their sated goal of the end of the year.

The $848 billion+ 10-year plan would be the largest most intrusive change to the U.S. Health Care system in 40 years, since the implementation of Medicare in 1965.

“Our plan saves lives, saves money and saves Medicare,” Reid told reporters over the weekend and said, “we can see the finish line” and also made the prediction that  the bill would pass the Senate.

Standing in Senator Reid’s way, are all Senate Republicans (who all voted not to debate this bill with no defectors) and a hand full of moderate and conservative Democrat Senators whom said they voted for the debate but need to see major changes happen to this bill in order to vote if off of the floor.

The list of Democrats that want to see the bill change contains Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson, and Joseph Lieberman to name a few, and may be growing.

“My vote to move forward on this important debate should in no way be construed by the supporters of this current framework as an indication of how I might vote as this debate comes to an end,” Landrieu said. “Much more work needs to be done.”

Critics are claiming Mary Landrieu got a little quid pro quo for her vote,  although she’s denying that claim.

Landrieu said she won the inclusion of almost $300 million in federal assistance for low-income people in her state, not $100 million, as the Congressional Budget Office originally estimated. In remarks on the Senate floor before her vote, She said the aid was the No. 1 request of Louisiana’s Republican governor and that was “proud to have asked for it.”

The addition of the money “is not the reason I am moving to debate,” she said. The reason is “the cost of health care is bankrupting families and it is bankrupting our government.”

Lieberman and the only Republican to support the bill, in committee, Olympia Snowe both have gone on the record saying neither would support a bill that contained a Government-Run Option

Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman both talked to Reuters about this vote:

No Republicans backed the procedural motion and a handful of conservative Democrats, whose votes were crucial, supported the floor debate but remained uncommitted to the bill itself.

One of those was Democratic Senator Ben Nelson, who said on Sunday that he could not support the plan without big changes.

“If there are a whole host of other items that are the same as they are right now, I wouldn’t vote to get it off the floor,” Nelson said on the ABC’s “This Week” news program.

Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman, usually an ally of the majority Democrats, said he could not support the bill either if the “public option” — for a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private firms — stays in the bill.

“I don’t think anybody feels this bill … will pass” as written, Lieberman said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.

Caution would seem to be the message coming from some of these Democrat Senators about the final passage of this bill but history shows, they are far more likely to vote for the final legislation after having voting to debate it… than to vote it down.