The last Democratic holdout in the Senate against healthcare reform, Sen. Ben Nelson (D) of Nebraska, said Saturday that he is now prepared to vote for the bill.
In a Saturday morning press conference, he said he thought the Senate bill would be a landmark piece of legislation to compare with the creation of Social Security or the passage of the Civil Rights Act last century.
Though Nelson has now thro
wn his support behind the Senate bill, he acknowledged that he would withdraw his support if meetings between the House and Senate change any of the provisions for which he negotiated.
That would appear to give Senate Democrats the 60 votes they need to end a Republican filibuster and, after weeks of negotiation, finally pass their version of healthcare reform. Reaching 60 votes on a bill of such complexity, Senator Nelson said, "is an accomplishment of historic proportion."
Obama sets the tone
In his weekly radio address Saturday, President Obama pitched the Senate’s bill as a patient’s bill of rights where Americans “can find on any page patient protections that dwarf any passed by Congress in at least a decade.”
Senate Democrats say the plan, which is built on the 10-year, $848 billion plan introduced earlier this month, will cover 31 million uninsured Americans by requiring citizens to get health coverage. Moreover, it would offer expanded benefits for the poor and create insurance-purchasing exchanges overseen by Washington to help the uninsured find and buy policies.
It includes hundreds of billions of dollars to subsidize coverage for lower-income Americans. Cuts in Medicare spending and a 40 percent excise on the most expensive healthcare plans would defray most of its costs, Democrats say.
Republicans: What about us?
Republicans, meanwhile, are incredulous. Conservatives have backed tort reform and measures that would allow Americans to buy health insurance across state lines as ways to expand coverage and rein in costs – ideas th
at have been non-starters among the Democratic majority. Republicans have been virtually excluded from the process, they say.
"They are virtually thumbing their nose at the American people, who are virtually screaming at us, 'Don't pass this bill,' " he added.
Some 51 percent of Americans oppose healthcare reform while 39 percent support it, according to Pollster.com, which averages polls from across the political spectrum to minimize bias.
The precis of the Republican argument: Healthcare reform is another billion-dollar spending bill with fuzzy cost-containment measures that could hobble an already troubled American economy.
