| Although it was highly anticlimactic, awfully frustrating for Americans, and just the beginning, the early hour of this morning marked a historic vote for health care reform.
So what exactly happened? Well, the US Senate voted 60-40 NOT in favor of PASSING the bill -- but in favor of ending debate and stopping further filibustering on a specific set of amendments put forth by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Yes, they voted for "cloture" -- to end debate on the bill. Were the debate to continue, Republicans (or Sen Lieberman or Nelson) would have more and more chances at filibustering the bill (a process by which they are allowed to read every page of the phone book aloud or do other things a 2nd grader wouldn't even do, in order to stall the process of moving a bill forward)... |
| Republicans have already filibustered the healthcare bill a few times, which not only stalls debate, but which allows for a full 30 hour debate after the filibuster ends. The bill would actually only have needed a majority vote to continue passing through these hoops in the process of moving a bill forward, but in order to STOP DEBATE on a bill (read: stop cranky senators from filibustering it), the Senate needed 60 votes. The Democrats have 58 Senators, there are 2 Independents (Sanders and Lieberman) and there are 40 Republicans. Every single Republican Senator was committed to voting against moving the bill process forward (in other words, every Republican senator was in favor of continuing to filibuster the bill). In order to make 60 votes (again, to stop a filibuster), Democrats pandered to Senator Lieberman (independent) and Senator Ben Nelson (democrat) and others who were threatening to filibuster the bill. The bill was watered down greatly.
The public option -- widely popular by the American public -- was a measure to allow individuals buying health insurance to buy from many sources, one being a government health insurance plan that would increase choice for consumers and increase competitiveness of the private health insurance market which right now has NO incentive for affordability and non-discrimination. The public option was swiftly stripped away in order to please a few Senators so that they would not filibuster the bill from moving on in the process. Then a Medicare buy-in was presented, allowing those aged 55 and over to buy into Medicare, a hugely popular government-run health insurance program for those 65 and over. That was then stripped out for the same reason.
It seems that the process around this hugely popular health care bill is being watched by more Americans than ever before -- and its colors are showing. Americans are fuming at the undemocratic process of our government. There's a growing movement of folks who are passionate about slowly but surely making this whole process more democratic in the future. Some of this will come from voting out obstructionist elected officials. And some will arise from greater awareness and pressure from the public about undemocratic procedural issues (the ones we weren't educated on in our high school politics and American government classes).
What's the next step for this bill? There are four more procedural steps like this (in which it is expected that there will continue to be a 60/40 vote split and the bill will continue to move forward). The next step is a conferencing between the Senate and the House bill to create one solid bill (the Senate and House bills are different right now, as the house bill contains a "public option" and crucial senators are refusing to vote for a bill with a public option. Also the senate bill has an individual mandate -- that every American will HAVE to buy health insurance or pay a penalty, and without insurance regulations or the option of a 'public option' this may be prohibitively expensive for many people). So after conferencing and presenting a compromise bill between the House and Senate, the bill will come to a vote -- Dems hope that will happen the eve Christmas, and Republicans would do oh so very much to stall that process and take the process over into the new year.
But what the heck is in the bill that the Senate finally voted to stop Senators from filibustering? Well, mcjoan at dailykos has a nice summary of what is contained and what is missing from the Senate bill.
Recommended reading is this article from the New York Times, which highlights the events of today, including a Republican who prayed that a key Democrat would not be able to show up for the vote (Senator Coburn), other Republicans who lamented the late-night 1am EST vote (although the resolution to go to war in Iraq, Medicare Part D, and a ton of other votes were even later in the night and pushed forth by Republicans), and Republicans claiming that this bill was not really legitimate unless 75 or 80 Senators voted for it (a super super super majority). A few days ago on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Nation magazine's Washington editor Chris Hayes said of Senator Coburn and other Republicans that they have withdrawn completely from the project of legislating, and instead are jokers.
And for a precise look at how absolutely perverse our democratic system can be, definitely read Ezra Klein's "The Death of the Public Option". It's short, easy to understand, and a must-read, no matter how frustrating.
For Americans, the process from here until passage of the bill requires much scrutiny. There's a chance to pressure our elected officials to ensure this bill will improve affordability, possibly by taking out a health insurance mandate (that all Americans must buy health insurance) if there aren't affordability practices put in place, and oh so much more. There's much to fix, and much to reflect on about American democracy, but onwards we move... |
