Senate votes to send health care reform to floor debate
Senator Mary Landrieu
After ten hours of floor speeches and debate, the United States Senate is set to vote at 8:00 PM EST to send it’s version of health care reform to the Senate floor for debate. For a while, it looked as if they may fall two votes short of the 60 votes they need, but in speeches on the Senate floor, the last two Democratic holdouts said they would vote for cloture. That is the procedure to move the legislation forward for debate. Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas did their best to make sure their intentions were known. That is to say, they are not promising they will support whatever final version of the legislation that survives the debate on the Senate floor. They are instead voting to move the legislation forward to consideration by the full Senate.
I have not done the extensive reading of this legislation that I did with the House’s version, but one thing is abundantly clear. Weeks in the making, with Senate Majority Leader Harry
Senator Blanche Lincoln
Reid working behind the scenes to craft the bill, this is going to be a very expensive set of reforms, to the tune of $979 billion. It is also worth noting that as in the bill in the House, these reforms will not take effect until 2014. I understand that such a massive reform package will take some time to implement, but I find it odd that they would wait such a long time. If the reforms are needed so desperately, why wait four years enact them?
While some may certainly feel the two Senators should have voted to stop the legislation before it could proceed further, they seem to have a much different opinion. Landrieu said in her speech that doing nothing was not an option and Lincoln said this vote would mark the beginning and not the end of consideration of the bill in the Senate. No doubt, these two Senators will have to explain their decision to their constituents, as well they should. If this legislation stays anywhere close to it’s current form and they vote to pass it at the end of the debate, they will have even more explaining to do.
While the reform won’t go into effect until 2014, the tax increases will start next year. This is part of the financial manipulating that they are using to claim the plan is “deficit neutral.”
I agree, if the reforms were so deperately needed shouldn’t they go into effect right away?
I certainly agree with the notion that if these two senators really harbored doubts about the bill the time to vote against it would have been now. 97% of all bill that make it to the floor for debate pass, so if these two senators really opposed the legislation they should have stopped it now so that they could work out the issues.
Mr Pink Eyes´s last blog ..Senate votes to move healthcare reform bill forward to debate
Depending on how the final version looks, there is no way this is going to be good for American small businesses or families. The man I work for said his taxes would be going up substantively, if this legislation is enacted. I would assume he is getting those numbers from his accountant.
I have made mention of this in some of my articles, but it bears mentioning again. My employer has struggled to keep from laying a single employee off and has actually added another employee who drives one of our wreckers. If this legislation goes into effect, it is very likely that he will have to lay off one or more of us, just to be able to meet the mandates the federal government are crafting. It’s sad, really.
How is it that people don’t understand that? If a company’s expenses go up while they are already struggling the best case scenario is the company won’t hire more employees while the worse case scenario is they will have to lay off.
Too many people who vote for these politicians based on class warfare and the with the attitude that they want to stick it to the rich just don’t seem to understand basic economics. Not that I am economist by any means but I understand that if businesses have less money they have to hire less people.
Good luck with your job, I hope this doesn’t end up hurting you first hand.
Mr Pink Eyes´s last blog ..Senate votes to move healthcare reform bill forward to debate
I don’t know how that escapes these politicians who seem to think the best thing to do is to raise taxes on those who have more. Putting economics aside, that doesn’t even good common sense.
As for my job, I believe it is fairly secure, but one never knows. I would hate to see anyone lose their job where I work. We need everyone. Thanks for being concerned.
Glad to hear your job should be secure, but it is always sad when a company that you work for is forced to lay anyone off. Especially when it comes as an unintended consequence of government action.
Mr Pink Eyes´s last blog ..Healthcare reform bill could be in trouble as fissures open in the Democrat Party? I declare bullshit!
I know something about both of the Senators having lived in both Louisiana and Arkansas. Mary L. will in the end vote for this bill if her vote is required for passage and he re-election is not until 2012 as best I recall. Blanche Lincoln is entirely another story, this lady is in a box facing re-election in 2010. If she goes against her party the will run another against her in the Democratic primary and she will have few funds to fight that and she will lose. On the other hand should she vote with her party on the bill the firestorm she will face in Arkansas will almost assure her defeat in the general election. So one good thing to come of this is that almost for sure this Democrat will be gone after the 2010 election. The old saying will hold true here,”Its as ill wind that doesn’t blow someone some good”. Just as the Alamo and Pearl became rallying cries I suspect I will hear “remember Obamacare”.
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Yes, Senator Lincoln is in a bad place here. She has told Jason Tolbert of The Tolbert Report (the link is in the sidebar) that she will not vote for final passage of this bill in it’s current form. She is certainly between the proverbial rock and hard place.