Today in Washington D. C. - Dec 15, 2009 - Many Dislike Dem Health Bill

The Senate reconvened and resumed consideration of the Reid substitute amendment to H.R. 3590, the vehicle for Democrats’ health care reform bill.   Five hours are scheduled for debate on amendments.   At 6 PM, there will be a series of 4 votes on an amendment from Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) to express the sense of the Senate on taxes, the motion from Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) to send the health bill back to the Finance Committee to remove taxes on people making less than $250,000/year, the amendment from Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) to allow re-importation of prescription drugs into the U.S., and an amendment from Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) to require FDA safety certification of imported drugs. Following the votes, the Senate may take up a motion from Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and John Thune (R-SD) to send the bill back to committee to delay the effective date of tax increases in the bill until the benefits begin (2014, in the latest version) or an amendment from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) concerning a single-payer system.

Senate Democrats will make the trip down Pennsylvania Avenue this afternoon to meet with President Obama on their 2,074-page $2.5 trillion health care bill, where, according to Politico, he will warn them “that this is the ‘last chance’ to pass comprehensive reform.” Democrat leaders have been working hard create the illusion that passage of their bill is inevitable, but there are so many problems with this bill that so many across the country acknowledge, it’s difficult to make that case.

In fact, Senate Dem. Majority Whip Dick Durbin said on MSNBC this morning, “We are moving toward 60 -- we think we'll have it by next week,” meaning they still don’t have 60 votes at the moment.

And of course, many Democrats remain uncomfortable with this bill. The Washington Post notes that Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) left a Democrat caucus meeting early last night, “telling reporters he remained undecided.” The Wall Street Journal adds, “Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) continues to raise concerns that the legislation doesn't go far enough to ensure taxpayer dollars won't be used to fund abortions.”

On top of that, frustration from the left has been boiling over after “Senate Democratic leaders appeared poised Monday night to abandon efforts to create a government-run insurance safety net in their push for health-care reform,” as The Washington Post wrote. Many liberals among the Democrat base are upset with news about deals struck yesterday in attempts by Majority Leader Harry Reid to secure Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-CT) vote. According to ABC News, liberal groups are even targeting White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel in TV ads about these deals.

Meanwhile, governors are weighing in on the unaffordable Medicaid mandates places on the states in the Democrat’s bill. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told ABC’s “Good Morning America” “that the legislation, in its current form, would be devastating to his state's bottom line. ‘This is the last thing we need, another $3 billion of spending when we already have a $20 billion deficit,’ Schwarzenegger said of the costs the bill would impose on California.” And a spokesman for Democrat Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe apparently told the The Tolbert Report that the governor has concerns about the financial impact of the bill on his state. Democrat governors across the country have previously raised concerns about the mandates in the bill and their effects on state budgets.

Republicans have been working hard to get Democrats who have serious problems with the bill on the record about it.& Roll Call identifies, “A group of moderate Democrats have repeatedly joined the Republicans in supporting losing amendments aimed at removing Medicare cuts and tax increases from Reid’s bill, and the GOP believes there are only so many of these losses centrist Members of the majority can stomach before they walk away from the health care package in its entirety. . . . ‘At the end of the day, Democratic leaders will be asking their Members to forget about everything they had problems with and voted against, and vote for a [final] product because the president asked them to,’ a senior Republican Senate aide said Monday. ‘It’s an extremely difficult sell.’”

Despite all of this, Democrat leaders seem determined to plow ahead. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell remarked on their stubbornness at trying to pass such a bad bill this morning: “Americans are outraged at what’s happened here. The latest CNN poll says 61% of Americans oppose this bill. This bill is completely out of touch with the public. . . . And yet Democrat leaders in Washington are still insisting that we pass this bill. Even as the opposition grows, supporters of this bill are drafting plans and cutting deals to make this bill the law of the land by Christmas. The supporters of this bill seem to think this is about them, about their legacies. This isn’t about them. This is about the American people. This is not about making history. This about doing the right thing for ever single American’s health care. And Americans have a message: Higher premiums, higher taxes, and higher health care costs are not what they signed up for. This is not what they were promised. This is not reform.”

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