Senate passes health-care bill, now must reconcile it with House
I'm the one re-writing history? They voted on it and got 60, then later on there was a reconciliation bill passed by both the house and senate that only needed 50 votes that just changed a few minor things. It wasn't illegal by any means. At the end of the day, that actual healthcare bill was passed with 60 votes.
The final bill was nothing but rehashing of the same crap that has been gone through by everyone and their moms for a year before the bill passed. They didn't slide in any mysteries.
Like I said, you can criticize the bill but shoved down our throats it was not. You'd know that if you didn't get so caught up in the talking points that are fed to you.
quit acting silly,
you CANT REWRITE HISTORY..
nor can you make the vote to pass Obamacare anything other than what it was, a BYPASS of normal procedure especially a procedure on a trillion dollar spending fiasco that no one, NO ONE to this day fully understands, nor that the American people were ready to embrace.. If its ok with you we would like our elected officials to understand and be able to explain to us what they are about to spend our money on..
liberal mindset is very annoying... stop it
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House could bypass vote on US healthcare bill
By Anna Fifield in Washington
Published: March 16 2010 20:26 | Last updated: March 16 2010 22:35
Struggling to shore up support for US healthcare reform, Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives are considering using a complicated manoeuvre to pass a bill without having to put it to a vote.
The tactic, which would “deem” the bill passed once a series of fixes to it had also been passed, would prove highly contentious given the wide scope of healthcare reform. Republicans on Tuesday condemned even the thought of using it.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
In depth: US healthcare reform - Feb-21Republicans set to fight healthcare reform - Nov-10Top US court rejects healthcare challenge - Nov-08Obama accused of missing healthcare opportunity - Oct-22Editorial: Healthcare reform - Oct-18Republicans seek to frustrate health reform - Oct-17“Anyone who endorses this strategy will be forever remembered for trying to claim they didn’t vote for something they did,” said Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate.
“It will go down as one of the most extraordinary legislative sleights of hand in history.”Democratic leaders in the House have pledged to hold a vote on healthcare reform before President Barack Obama leaves for Indonesia and Australia on Sunday.
But House majority leaders are still short of the 216 votes needed to pass the Senate bill, pushing them to now consider a strategy under which Democrats would incorporate the Senate bill into a rule governing the terms of the healthcare debate on the House floor.
Once that rule was passed, House leaders could “deem” the Senate bill to have passed without ever putting the reform bill itself to a direct vote.
This would enable Democratic lawmakers who are still reluctant to vote for the healthcare bill or are facing opposition in their home districts to say that they never voted for the actual bill, while still achieving one of Mr Obama’s core domestic aims.
“We have several options available to us,” Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, said on Tuesday, adding that she had still not made a decision on whether to move ahead with the “deem and pass” strategy.
Ms Pelosi acknowledged that, despite intensive meetings with wavering lawmakers, she was still having trouble attracting support. “There are a lot of members who don’t want to vote for it,” she told reporters.
Because Democrats have lost their super-majority in the Senate and have no prospect of any Republican support, the only option for enacting healthcare legislation is to have the House pass the Senate bill, and then for both chambers to pass a package of fixes that would bridge some of the differences between them.
This is crunch week for Democrats as they make a final push to pass healthcare reform, after a year of debate that has culminated in a series of surprising procedural manouevres given that Democrats enjoy a large majority in the House, and had a super-majority in the Senate until January.
As the arm-twisting continues, Mr Obama has this week been holding one-on-one sessions with wavering Democrats in the Oval office, trying to convince them to vote for his signature reform.