Democrats win Senate test vote on healthcare
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Senate Democrats proved that they really did have enough votes to push their version of healthcare overhaul through the chamber by Christmas, as they won a key test vote early Monday.
By a vote of 60-40, Democrats passed a cloture motion that limits debate on an amendment by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to the healthcare bill. To pass the final bill, Democrats also need to win two more procedural votes with at least 60 votes.
As expected, the vote was along party lines.
Republicans complained that they had been shut out of the legislative process, that the current version was hastily put together with the political goal of winning 60 senators.
“This process is not legislation. This process is corruption,” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said on the floor Sunday.
Republicans are embarked on a “no-holds-barred mission of propaganda, obstruction and fear,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said. “There will be a reckoning.”
Minority Leader Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said his party was acting in good faith. “I really don’t believe that this bill can be sold on its merits,” he said.
He also attacked Reid for scheduling the first vote at 1 a.m.
“If I had my way we’d vote at 10 o’clock in the morning,” Kyl said.
The heart of the Senate legislation is extending coverage to about 31 million Americans who lack insurance. The bill creates an insurance exchange and requires most Americans to have health insurance.
Democrats have also trumpeted a Congressional Budget Office estimate that the bill would cut the deficit by about $132 billion in the first decade and more in the next 10 years.
Unlike the House version, the Senate bill has no ‘public option,’ which would set up a government alternative to private insurance plans. Negotiations are expected to meld the two bills after Christmas.
On the policy side, Republicans have argued that the bill is unfair to seniors because it cuts Medicare, but Democrats have replied that the cuts will not change the level of service seniors receive. The GOP has also complained that new taxes and fees are too onerous.
-- Michael Muskal
