Health Care Refore bill PASSES in the Senate - as expected
Thursday, December 24, 2009
As expected, the Senate passed its version of the health care reform bill in a 60-39 party line vote on Christmas Eve. Mentioned in a previous article, left to debate before the final version that would contain material from both the House and the Senate, would be the one most complicated task called the 'public option'. This can either make or break the bill, and everyone involved in both the House and Senate know how critical this matter is. Some will use it to help pass the bill, and others will use it to help defeat it. Regardless, President Obama is extremely happy that now the country is ever so close in receiving the biggest expansion of medical coverage since Medicare was enacted more than forty years ago.
So now it is up to a conference committee, and their task is to reconcile the differences, including public option and issues on abortion. Now all that is needed from each chamber is a simple majority vote. It already must be considered the #1 single, largest legislation that will arrive at President Obama's desk for signing in 2010.
So the stage is now set, and it will be up to the conference committee to resolve differences. Obviously the Republicans are together in trying to defeat the bill, but they simply do not have enough power on their own to defeat it. Most likely how it will be defeated would be from Barack Obama's party alone, as there are a few Conservative Democrats that still need to be swayed into Obama's corner when it comes to health care.
Because of this fight, President Obama's popularity has been falling at a rapid rate, down further than any point in his Presidency. But there are 3 more years to go in his first term. Not many people think that he will now sit back and rest, and travel to Camp David for vacations as often as prior President Bush has. Of course, he has one of the most challenging jobs a person can have. The responsibility is enormous, and the lives of all Americans are affected by his decisions.
Now, we must sit back and wait, to see what the final outcome of the Health Care Reform bill will be, or will it be rejected entirely at the end.
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