Re: Health Bill Passes Key Test in the Senate With 60 Votes – NYTimes.com By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and ROBERT PEAR Published: December 21, 2009
WASHINGTON — After a long day of acid, partisan debate, Senate Democrats held ranks early Monday in a dead-of-night procedural vote that proved they had locked in the decisive margin needed to pass a far-reaching overhaul of the nation’s health care system.
…Each side blamed the other for the extraordinary series of votes — at dawn Saturday, after midnight Monday, at dawn again on Tuesday, at 1 p.m. on Wednesday and finally on Christmas Eve, when most Americans will be sequestered for the holiday.
The Democrats charged the Republicans with obstinately throwing every procedural obstacle in their way, including filibusters and the full 30 hours of debate allowed under the rules after each filibuster is broken by a vote of 60 senators.
The Republicans charged the Democrats with recklessly rushing to adopt a dizzyingly complex 2,700-page bill that would affect virtually every American, and would reshape one-sixth of the nation’s economy at a cost of $871 billion over 10 years.
The truth is that the Republicans in Congress are in the minority and they hate it. What did they expect after eight years of the worst governance in history? It looks to me like the Democrats are getting the votes to bust the filibuster and that makes the Republicans hate it even more. It sucks to be a small minority. So, the Republicans are throwing every political trick and procedural nuance they can at the Democrats but they still cannot kill this bill. They hate that, too.
Historically, this is not the smallest minority ever. In 1869, in the 41st Congress, the Senate had 74 members. There were 11 Democrats going up against 61 Republicans with 2 vacancies. Like I said, it sucks to be a small minority, but I’ll bet they didn’t use tricks to try to spoil Republican’s legislation.
The Republicans think that the Democrats are rushing things with this health care bill that is just too long to be a law. The truth is, Republicans don’t give a sh!t what is in the bill, they want it killed dead no matter what. If they had their way, they would delay the bill until after the State of the Union address or until hell froze over if it wasn’t already dead by then. And speaking of rushing things, remember Terry Schaivo? They passed the most hurried legislation ever, and against one person – her husband – in the dead of night.
One more thing. $871 billion over ten years sounds like a lot of money – until it is compared to the cost of the occupation of Iraq, and the war in Afghanistan. The Republicans hate it that the health care reform doesn’t cost more than the wars.
Finally, what they hate the most is the idea of doing something for you and me that will curtail the insurance industry’s abuses. They hate that real bad.
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From the eMail Bag: Fixing the Filibuster, Part 3
The Progress Report wrote:
The Senate minority has the power to ensure the failure of our government. Never before in the history of the United States has a major political party set out to purposefully ensure the failure of the government. The right-wing nut jobs are forcing every bill in Congress to a 60 vote margin, and impossible bar to reach, and are using this tool to bring down the President.
This unprecedented use of the filibuster is obvious in its intent. The Republicans find themselves, as a result of the horrible abuses of power by President George Bush, in the smallest minority they have seen in several generations. They are striking back with everything they can throw at the Democrats from the filibuster, to heckling at town hall meetings, to employing their own cable television network (Fox) to propel their talking points and other proapganda. It is time that the Democratic majority fights back.
I have emailed my Senators urging them to convince the Democratic majority to employ the “Nuclear Option”, a parlimentary proceedure that is not a Senate rule, but has been used in the past to overcome filibusters. It is time to act. Here is my email to my two Senators.
Please do something, call or write your Senators.
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