Thursday, March 18, 2010

House to vote on health care bill Sunday


Democratic congressmen revealed the 10-year, $940 Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 today, three months after the Senate first passed the compromise bill in December. Democratic leaders have pledged to vote on the bill within 72 hours, which means that a vote in the House will most likely come Sunday. Republicans have reaffirmed their stance against the bill, and no Republican has said he/she will vote for the bill. Said House Minority Leader John Boehner, "We're going to continue to work closely together and to do everything that we can to make sure that this bill never, ever, ever passes." Additionally, according to a survey by CNN, 27 Democrats have said they will vote against the bill, including nine who supported the bill last November. This vote is so important to President Obama that he has postponed a trip to Indonesia and Australia until June in order to be in Washington this weekend. This vote will definitely be a defining moment for Obama's presidency, and it seems logical for him to postpone the trip. The majority of issues surrounding his time in office thus far have dealt with health care, and he has made health care reform the largest issue in domestic policy. If this vote fails, I don't think it would be possible to call the first year of his term a success. Unfortunately, I think the Republican opposition is too strong for this bill to be passed, as there is such a uniform consensus against it. Additionally, it's not a good sign that some House Democrats are against the bill. We'll see Sunday (or some other time in the near future), but I sense failure on the horizon. If you have a lot of extra time you could read all 153 pages of the proposed health care bill, as it can be accessed at http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/03/18/health.care.pdf.

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