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You realize, don't you, that whatever party is in power gets the votes they need, and then allows members to vote against for political cover, don't you?
Washington (CNN) -- Five more House Democrats said Tuesday that they will vote against Senate health care legislation, which puts opponents of reform just 11 votes shy of the 216 needed to prevent President Obama from scoring a major victory on his top domestic priority.
An ongoing CNN analysis shows that opposition in the House to the Senate health care plan has reached 205 members.
A total of 27 House Democrats, including nine who supported the House plan in November, have indicated that they would join a unified Republican caucus in opposing the Senate plan, which passed in that chamber December 24 with the minimum required 60 votes.
Nonetheless, House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut said Monday after a meeting with rank-and-file Democrats that "the votes are there" to pass the health care bill.
Among at least 27 Democrats who will vote against the bill is Rep. Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, who confirmed his opposition Monday.
"Health care reform is needed, but the bill before us is too expensive, does not adequately address rising medical costs and skyrocketing insurance premiums, and tries to do too much too soon," McIntyre said in a written statement. "We simply cannot afford to create a new federal bureaucracy that costs nearly $1 trillion when our national debt is $12 trillion and there is no plan in place to address it. I will not vote for it."
Proponents of the health care plan need 216 votes to pass the Senate measure. No Republicans have indicated that they will vote for the bill, which means Democratic leaders must rely solely on votes from their own members. Democrats hold 253 House seats.
Of the 39 Democrats who voted against the House plan in November, 17 have indicated that they will vote against the Senate plan as written, 11 remain uncommitted, and nine did not return repeated calls for comment.
One member, Parker Griffith of Alabama, became a Republican in December. An additional member, Rep. Eric Massa of New York, resigned his seat last week.
Two top Republican vote-counters, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, released a memo last week saying that a relatively small number of Democrats hold a tremendous amount of sway on the issue.
"We believe House passage of the Senate's health care bill will ultimately be decided by the 37 remaining House Democrats who voted NO to a government takeover last November, and the ... 21 House Democrats who originally voted YES, but may now be on the fence," they wrote.
CNN contacted a number of House Democrats who voted in favor of the November House bill and who also represent conservative or compe ive districts. Of those, eight -- Reps. Michael Arcuri of New York, Marion Berry of Arkansas, Tim Bishop of New York, Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, Daniel Lipinski of Illinois, Jerry Costello of Illinois, Nick Rahall II of West Virginia and Bart Stupak of Michigan -- said they would vote against the Senate bill as written but would consider supporting it with significant changes. Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, who also supported the House plan, said he would vote against the Senate bill outright.
Stupak leads a coalition of conservative Democrats who may play a key role in the health care vote calculus. These lawmakers favor modifying the Senate health care bill to include an amendment from Stupak that will further restrict ways abortions can be funded. During the House health care overhaul debate, 64 Democrats voted in favor of the Stupak amendment.
The Michigan congressman had been negotiating with House Democratic leaders to address the abortion issue, but House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said last week that those negotiations had ended.
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, who recently discussed his concerns over the abortion issue with Stupak, said Monday night: "If they brought the bill down, they're not stopping any abortions. They are stopping millions of people from getting health insurance."
Waxman's committee was one of several to review the House plan last year.
House Democratic leaders also may try to help their members by allowing them to avoid a direct vote on the Senate bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may call for a vote on a rule that would simply "deem" the Senate bill passed. The House then would proceed to a separate vote on the more popular changes to the Senate bill.
Modifying the Senate bill would require use of a parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation, which allows a measure to pass the Senate with a simple majority vote of 51, rather than the 60 votes needed to block a filibuster. However, Senate rules allow the passing of a reconciliation bill only after the underlying bill has been signed into law.
Several House members who oppose the bill as written are skeptical that the Senate will address their concerns in a reconciliation package once the measure has been signed into law.
"From the beginning, Congressman Arcuri has been opposed to the Senate bill," a spokesman said in a statement. "If there are so-called guaranteed fixes from the Senate through the reconciliation process, Congressman Arcuri would carefully review these changes by the Senate and would need some way to ensure that their guarantees would absolutely be included in a final bill. As with any piece of legislation, he would review all proposed changes before casting his vote."
Pelosi and House Majority Whip James Clyburn have said in recent days that they will have enough votes when the measure comes up. But Clyburn said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that they still lacked the votes to secure a victory.
"No, we don't have them as of this morning, but we've been working this thing all weekend," he said.
Massive advertising campaigns both for and against reform may be responsible for the high volume of phone calls flooding Democratic House offices.
"The House phone system is overloaded due to an unprecedented amount of calls attributed to the significant interest in the health care bill," a House Administration Committee spokesman said Tuesday. CNN received a busy signal at least once at nearly every House office it called this week.
You realize, don't you, that whatever party is in power gets the votes they need, and then allows members to vote against for political cover, don't you?
that's a lotta votes
jack was born this year. either that or he is stupid.
Kucinich Switches Vote on Health Care
By JEFF ZELENY AND ROBERT PEAR
Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, said today that he plans to support the health care bill when it comes up for a vote this week. He becomes the first Democrat to publicly disclose his intention to switch from a no to a yes vote on the legislation.
“I’ve decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation,” Mr. Kucinich said at a morning news conference in the Capitol. “If my vote is to be counted, let it count now for passage of the bill, hopefully in the direction of comprehensive health care reform.”
Mr. Kucinich said he was “quite aware of the historic fight” underway and decided to drop his opposition that the bill did not go far enough. He said, “I believe health care is a civil right.”
In an interview five days ago, Mr. Kucinich said he could not support the legislation and dismissed suggestions that his vote would derail the Democratic health care agenda. But since then, the congressman has come under extraordinary pressure from groups across the Democratic spectrum, including Moveon.org, which encouraged him to support the bill.
He said he still did not think the legislation went far enough — he has long advocated a single-payer system — but said his objections should not stand in the way of the bill.
“In the past week it’s become clear that the vote on the final health bill will be very close,” Mr. Kucinich said. “I take this vote with the utmost seriousness. I’m quite aware of the historic fight, which has lasted the last century.”
He added: “The president’s visit to my district on Monday underscores the urgency of this vote.”
In a private conversation aboard Air Force One, en route to Ohio on Monday, President Obama pressed Mr. Kucinich for his support for the bill. The White House did not know what the congressman had decided until earlier today, when his aides advised administration officials and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of his plans.
While supporting the Senate bill, Mr. Kucinich said he did not like the procedure that might be used to pass it without an up-or-down vote in the House.
“I don’t like much of anything about this process,’’ Mr. Kucinich said.
Explaining factors he had considered in making his decision, Mr. Kucinich said, “We have to be very careful that the potential of President Obama’s presidency not be destroyed by this debate.’’
Mr. Kucinich said he would vote for the Senate bill even though he believed it was seriously flawed.
“Something is better than nothing — that’s what I keep hearing from my cons uents,’’ Mr. Kucinich said.
The congressman said he would keep working for a government-financed single-payer health care system.
“I don’t like this bill,’’ Mr. Kucinich said. “But I made a decision to support it in the hope that we can move toward a more comprehensive approach.’’
Mr. Kucinich said he had not received anything from Congressional leaders or the White House in return for his support.
“There was no Nebraska or Louisiana type deal,’’ Mr. Kucinich said, referring to states that received extra Medicaid money in the Senate bill.
Mr. Kucinich’s support of the health care legislation gives Ms. Pelosi a bit of breathing room as she searches for 216 votes needed to pass the bill, in a vote that may be taken at the end of the week. But it does not bring a close to the vote-counting efforts that are continuing on Capitol Hill, where Democrats are still trying to persuade other undecided lawmakers to support the measure.
I wonder what it took to buy him off.
So, starting over = bad, but voting for a bill you don't like on the "hope" that you can "change" it later = good. Yeah that makes sense.
Me too.
Everybody... Time to watch Fox News to find out. They are likely the only ones to report the buy-off.
Obama probably promised them 1000 virgins for each in the afterlife
actually, it won't be a report per se. more than likely it will begin with a provocative question such as "Was Kuchinich paid off by Obama?" Then, Glenn Beck will say something like "I am not saying he was paid off, but a lot of people sure are curious as to his complete 180 degree about-face. If he wasn't paid-off, then why doesn't call me on my cell phone in the next three seconds to tell me--nay, the fine people of this great republic--that he is voting this way of his own accord. In fact, we have his number displayed here, and I'm calling on all of you out there in 'real' America to flood his phone line demanding the truth."
Well, however it's reported, do you think CNN, MSNBC, etc. will want to break that news?
your su ions are not newsworthy, .
This is so mindbogglingly stupid and sad.
I think it was the only thing that would have caused Kucinich to change his mind. Obama told him the truth.
The NY Times did...
Grandama's not shovel ready!!!
You should give up your day job and become a newswriter for Fox News.
I don't think Kucinich was "paid off."
He may be a socialist nut job but, I don't think Kucinich is a liar and he claims Obama didn't offer him anything in exchange for his voting in favor of Obamacare.
What's your theory, then?
"a decision to support it in the hope that we can move toward a more comprehensive approach"
Easy assumption is that MN told DK where MN is going next on health care reform, ie, which is where DK wants to go, strong public option, single-buyer/single-payer, hard-ass compe ion to shrivel the for-profit insurance companies into insignificance.
pussyeater's head explodes, as a black man in pussyeater's White House "take over health care":
CBO’s Health Care Report Is Very Good News for Reform Advocates
No more excuses. This week, a variety of wavering House Democrats that they wouldn’t make up their minds on health care reform until they got the final score on the package from the Congressional Budget Office.
It took longer than expected, but the CBO has weighed in. Democrats looking for an encouraging score should be thrilled.
A Democratic source provides TPM with the CBO’s final numbers on the health care reform bill — the composite analysis of the Senate health care bill as amended by a soon-to-be-released reconciliation bill, which makes a number of amendments. The findings, as expected, keep the bill in line with the Senate bill’s stand alone score:
The bill would reduce the deficit by $130 billion in the first ten years, and potentially by $1.2 trillion in the second ten years (though CBO always warns that projections into the second decade are extremely unpredictable).
The legislation is fully paid for, reduces the deficit in this decade, and even more in the next decade. It will bring coverage to 32 million Americans — slightly better than the earlier estimate — and extend Medicare solvency by at least 9 years while closing the prescription drug “donut hole.”
Generally, when a report like this comes out, both parties find specific points to suggest that the score helps their side, not the other. But a report like this one should prove exceedingly difficult for Republicans to spin. If I had to guess, the GOP will talk up the overall price tag — it’s a 10-year, $940 billion package — because it slightly exceeds the $900 billion ceiling originally talked about.
But for anyone serious about the substance, condemning health care reform over a $4 billion-a-year difference is pretty silly.
By any reasonable measure, this is a very strong CBO score, which should push some on-the-fence Democrats off the fence and into the “yes” column. No more “wait and see”; no more excuses. This is a reform package that works, and does exactly what these Democratic holdouts say they want.
And with this, the clock starts on the final vote. If the leadership can get 216 votes together, House members will decide the fate of health care reform on Sunday morning — 72 hours from now.
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/...paign=alternet
What's your problem with "pussy eaters?"
Do you prefer Philadelphia freedom?
Last edited by Wild Cobra; 03-18-2010 at 01:46 PM.
I eat the pussy,alot.
Ah yes. Let the people rejoice. For after their government is done taking another trillion dollars away from them there will be a little something left over for the defecit.
Money is currently flowing in to the coffers of bribed democrats
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