Senate votes tonight

[Wingshooter]

They are voting Sat. night to open the health care bill for discussions

I hope the vote swings NO!

Senate Health Bill's Progress Hinges on Two Southern Dems - FOXNews.com

Senate Health Bill's Progress Hinges on Two Southern Dems

by

AP

Democratic leaders and the White House are pressing Sens. Landrieu of Louisiana and Lincoln of Arkansas to vote Saturday to move the reform bill to floor debate

Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas emerged several days ago as among the last public holdouts among 58 Democrats and two independents whose votes Majority Leader Harry Reid and the White House must have to overcome the Republicans' attempt to strangle the bill Saturday before serious debate can begin.

Each has moved carefully with an eye on home-state voters. And inside the Senate, each has taken advantage of the political leverage newly available.

A third holdout, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, issued a statement Friday ending any lingering public suspense about his intentions. "The Senate should start trying to fix a health care system that costs too much and delivers too little for Nebraskans," he said, adding his decision should not be seen as an indication of how he will vote on the legislation itself.

Nelson had been publicly signaling his intentions for more than a week, and his words presumably came as no surprise to Reid or the White House, which issued a statement Friday saying the bill "provides the necessary health reforms that the administration seeks."

This sort of political minuet can be delicate, as shown when the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said earlier on Friday that Lincoln had already confided to Reid how she planned to vote.

Republicans, eager to scuttle the bill -- and defeat Lincoln in 2010 -- instantly accused the two-term senator of telling Democratic party leaders before informing her own constituents in Arkansas.

"No other senator speaks for Senator Lincoln. She is still reviewing the bill," declared the senator's spokeswoman, Leah Vest DiPietro, adding her boss had not yet made up her mind. For his part, Durbin sought to quickly close the loop with a statement saying he had been unclear and misinterpreted.

As for Nelson, several officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had insisted Reid omit from the bill any change in the insurance industry's protection from federal antitrust law. The House version of the legislation would expose the industry to scrutiny by both the Justice Department's antitrust lawyers and the Federal Trade Commission.

Reid, who spoke out strongly in favor of the change in antitrust treatment earlier in the fall, left it out of the bill he drafted over several weeks and unveiled on Wednesday.

Lincoln has been the most close-mouthed about her intention. As a committee chairman, she is the most powerful of the group. As the only one of the three seeking re-election next year, she is also the most politically vulnerable.

In public, she has asked that the bill be available for 72 hours before the vote occurs. In private, her demands have been more substantive, according to officials who did not describe them.

She is virtually certain to be criticized no matter what her vote. After the House cleared its version of the legislation this month, a conservative group began airing commercials criticizing Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., for voting in its favor. At the same time, MoveOn.org, a liberal organization, slammed another one of the state's lawmakers, Rep. Mike Ross, for opposing it.

A hint: At home, Lincoln has suggested her vote will be influenced by former President Bill Clinton, who was Arkansas governor for 12 years before winning the White House.

Clinton recently met privately with Senate Democrats, telling them that passing an imperfect bill was better than nothing. "We don't ever go to Washington with the idea that we're going to create a work of art," Lincoln said afterward. "It's got to be a work in progress."

She and the other moderates face pressure from business groups opposed to the legislation. In a statement Friday the Business Roundtable, which represents big company CEOs, said the Senate bill "will not effect the needed changes to measurably improve the American health care system." Democrats and the White House had seized on a report by the same group last week concluding that some of the provisions under consideration by Congress had the potential to tame runaway medical inflation.

Of the three centrists, Landrieu has been the clearest about her intentions, and her interests ranged beyond health insurance to the oysters for which Louisiana is famous. When the Food and Drug Administration proposed banning sales of raw oysters from the Gulf of Mexico during warm weather months, Landrieu and others objected.

A week ago, the agency thought better of the idea and shelved the plan in favor of further study. "I'm really thankful that they listened," said Landrieu, who had met with FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to discuss the issue.

Over recent weeks, Landrieu has issued a string of statements outlining the areas she wanted addressed for the benefit of her constituents -- issues that could be dealt with only after health legislation made it to the Senate floor.

After meeting with Reid almost a month ago, she mentioned the "unique challenges Louisiana is facing in terms of Medicaid."

In a Senate speech and statement, she noted that Louisiana has the highest breast cancer death rate in the country and the lowest female life expectancy of any state. And she said, "Unless something is done, annual health care costs for small firms over the next 10 years are expected to more than double to reach $339 billion in 2018."

Landrieu can point to provisions in the legislation that are designed to attack all three problems.

They include Section 2006.

Reading it is of little assistance. "Special adjustment to FMAP Determination for Certain States recovering from a Major Disaster" is the title, and about two pages of similarly indecipherable legalese follows.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, it will send an additional $100 million to Louisiana to help it cover costs for Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor.

Should Landrieu decide to side with Republicans this weekend, she would also be voting to deny her state those funds.

[Guest TurboniumOxide]

Let them eat cake. This is such an obvious scam. Landrieu is such a whore, and her constituents are the worst of the worst. Did you know that the Army Corps of Engineers was found at fault for the Katrina Damage? What a load of *****. These people ( our government ) need cleansed.

[Guest KarlS]

+1 on the cleansing! They do not listen to anyone but themselves. We vote them in and they forget. Heck even the Chinese warned Obama he should not allow health care to proceed because we can't afford it. Do you think he was listening? I doubt it. I've come to the belief this is being done to purposely to collapse our dollar.

[greenego]

This too will pass. The political elite know whats good for you and me and don't gave a damm what you think. So what this will cost jobs. Just more people to be dependent on them (government).

[Wingshooter]

+1 on the cleansing! They do not listen to anyone but themselves. We vote them in and they forget. Heck even the Chinese warned Obama he should not allow health care to proceed because we can't afford it. Do you think he was listening? I doubt it. I've come to the belief this is being done to purposely to collapse our dollar.

So have I. Obama has an agenda and it is not the well being of the American people.

[Semiauto]

Washington DC is, indeed, the anus of America.

[Wingshooter]

Well, it passed. I guess it's open for debate now. At this pace the Great O might get to sign it into law pronto. Stupid.

[Guest SUNTZU]

The Associated Press: Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle

WASHINGTON — Invoking the memory of Edward M. Kennedy, Democrats united Saturday night to push historic health care legislation past a key Senate hurdle over the opposition of Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama. There was not a vote to spare.

The 60-39 vote cleared the way for a bruising, full-scale debate beginning after Thanksgiving on the legislation, which is designed to 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.

The spectator galleries were full for the unusual Saturday night showdown, and applause broke out briefly when the vote was announced. In a measure of the significance of the moment, senators sat quietly in their seats, standing only when they were called upon to vote.

In the final minutes of a daylong session, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans of trying to stifle a historic debate the nation needed.

"Imagine if, instead of debating whether to abolish slavery, instead of debating whether giving women and minorities the right to vote, those who disagreed had muted discussion and killed any vote," he said.

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."

For all the drama, the result of the Saturday night showdown had been sealed a few hours earlier, when 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.

Lincoln, who faces a tough re-election next year, said the evening vote will "mark the beginning of consideration of this bill by the U.S. Senate, not the end."

More at link. Healthcare = abolishing slavery.

[Wingshooter]

The Associated Press: Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle

More at link. Healthcare = abolishing slavery.

We have some twisted minds in DC. I wonder what they're smokin' up there.

[Guest SUNTZU]

Our money and freedom.

[Guest SUNTZU]

YouTube - HowTheWorldWorks's Channel

Just found this guy's youtube channel. I like it so far.

[tntnixon]

I've been thinking (I know it's usually a bad idea), Landrieu was sooo smug about the fact that she got $300 million for her state. There was no mention of the over $10billion this bill will cost her state. How many people would trade a $100 bill for $3 and think they got a good deal?