Just When You Thought It Was Safe: 3 Potential Obstacles to Health-Care Reform
OPS_admin | Nov 23, 2009 | Comments 0
Harry Reid may have gotten the Senate to move his health-care bill forward, but a handful of conservative Democrats could still keep the bill from getting a final vote.
It was high drama for a Saturday in the U.S. Capitol Building — at least what counts for high drama in the Senate. Would Majority Leader Harry Reid be able to deliver every single senator in his caucus for a vote that would allow his historic health-care bill to move to the floor for debate? In the end, Reid won that victory, with caveats from a handful of reluctant senators. Hundreds of millions in Medicaid funds were handed to Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., for the very poorest of her state’s poor in exchange for her vote (a move Capitol Hill staffers dubbed the “Louisiana Purchase”).
The fate of national health-care reform rests on Reid’s ability to repeat his 60-vote feat in order to close debate and bring the bill to a final vote, and there’s no guarantee that he can. In fact, it’s looking a little dicey. But even among veteran Congress-watchers, there’s no consensus on whether or not Reid will succeed in the end. To do so, the majority leader will need to negotiate three points of contention.
Full Story Just When You Thought It Was Safe: 3 Potential Obstacles to Health-Care Reform | Politics | AlterNet.
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