What Happen on Monday 12/21

Convenes: 12:01am

Resume consideration of H.R.3590, Health Care Reform. H.R.3590, HEALTH CARE REFORM ALEXANDER- some may be wondering why on earth the Senate is convening at midnight in the middle of a snow storm. The Majority Leader sets the schedule. He plopped down a 400 page amendment yesterday and now he wants us to vote on it. This is the mother of all unfunded mandates. The Majority Leader insists that we vote on it in the middle of the night. It was written in secret. When they are asked to explain what’s in it, they are afraid that they will lose support. Eight Democratic senators asked that any legislation be made available for 72 hours before we vote on it. This bill was given to us yesterday. It is 400 pages. We shouldn’t even think to vote on it until at least Tuesday. We should have an opportunity to amend it. What’s the rush? I think the rush is that they don’t want to explain the bill. Democrats don’t want the American people to know about the $500 billion in taxes that will go into effect next year. All those new taxes on medical devices will be passed on to the consumers. This bill will increase the cost of health care. David Brooks said that according to chief actuary of Medicare this bill will cause national health care costs to increase faster. Then it’s going to be hard to explain to the 9 million people who will lose their insurance under this bill. This bill is like giving you a ticket for the bus when the bus only runs half the time. They don’t want to explain why they changed the abortion agreement. They don’t want to explain the CLASS Act. This is a Ponzi scheme worthy of Bernie Madoff. It’s obvious why the majority cooked up this amendment, brought it forward in the middle of a snow storm. They don’t want people to know what’s in it. MCCAIN-this all began in the presidential campaign. Health care was a big issue. Obama said concerning health care reform “I’m going to have negotiations televised on CSPAN so that people know who are making arguments on behalf of drug companies. There have never been true bipartisan negotiations. AMA signed up because they were promised the doctor’s fix. We should have set up a tent and put up Persian rugs; that’s how this has gone here. It’s the Louisiana Purchase, Florida Flim-Flam. Reid today said that a number of states are treated differently. That’s the nature of compromise. Really? I see Durbin here. I said what’s in the bill? He said, I don’t know. I’m in the dark too. This does not represent 60% of the American people. We will not give up after this vote, believe me. For the first time is history there will be major reform on a party line basis. Today I thought about when I joined the Naval Academy. They taught us about a battle with an American ship and a British ship. The ship was surrounded. John Paul Jones said I have not begun to fight. We’re going to carry this message that we will not commit generational theft. We won’t give them unfair policy where deals are made in back rooms. We have just begun to fight. HARKIN- all we’ve heard is attack, attack, attack, no, no, no. McCain said this is not a bipartisan bill. As I see it, the Republicans have no bill of their own. Our bill has 60 people. They do have the Coburn-Burr bill. It has 7 supporters. They have no comprehensive bill like we have. Who do we deal with? Just McCain? Alexander? Coburn? I’m sorry the Republicans are all split up. So, they’ve come together to say no. We extended a hand. If we wanted to follow republicans, we would have rammed it through like the Republican tax cut through reconciliation. HELP has a mark up that lasted 13 days. We accepted 151 Republican amendments. Baucus didn’t just go the extra mile, he went the extra 10 miles. Republicans have nothing they can agree on—60, a super majority. Comprehensive reform has eluded us for decades. They focus on fear. The American people don’t want fear; they want hope. They want to have the peace of mind that if they lose their job they will have insurance. That they are just one illness away from bankruptcy. We are the only country in the world that allows people to go bankrupt because of medical bills. This bill ends all that. The American people want us to move forward. We’re going to do 3 big things: 1) cover 94% with insurance, 2) crack down on abuses of insurance companies, talks about insurance reforms, and 3) this bill will lower your premiums and you will be able to keep your insurance if you like it. Ted Kennedy fought all his life for health care. He said it ought to be a right, not a privilege. He said that almost 50 years ago. He thought it as a moral imperative. We are called upon to right a great injustice. We are closer than we’ve ever been to making Ted’s dream a reality. The other side says fear; we say hope. They say no, we say yes. CORNYN- parliamentary inquiry. Earlier today, Grassley made a Rule 44 parliamentary inquiry. The question had to do whether the statement under Rule 44 related to the manager’s amendment had been submitted? CHAIR-the Chair is not aware if it has been submitted. DODD- This is the vote to make health care a right. If you believe it is a privilege, you don’t have to vote for this. We believe health care is a fundamental right. This effort has gone on for decades. John Chaffee worked tirelessly on reform. Good people have tried to come up with this issue. It is with sadness that this will be a partisan vote. Tonight, this is our answer. The 60 of us will vote to move forward. No one was a bigger champion that Ted Kennedy. He knew it was going to take an incremental approach. If he could have written it alone he would have written it differently. I think history will judge us well for taking on this challenge again. MCCONNELL-the bill we are voting on tonight will impact everyone in America. Make no mistake, if the people who wrote this bill were proud of it, we wouldn’t be voting in the dead of night. $1 million for unnamed health care facility in the US. No one will claim it. 1 state in 50 will not have to pay for Medicaid expansion, but the rest of the states will have to pick up the tab. No one imagined this is how this would end—a couple of cheap deals and a vote in the dead of the night. How did this happen? The final product is a mess and so is the process that brought us to vote on a bill that the majority of the American people oppose. Any challenge of this size and scope has been done on a bipartisan basis. Social Security Act was approved by all but 6 members. ADA was approved with only 8 senators voting no. Americans believe that on an issue this important, one party should not be able to impose their will. This bill is not about reform, it’s about “making history”. In the end, it’s not about differences between 2 parties, it’s about a $2.3 trillion 2,000 page bill that doesn’t reform health care. Obama said that his plan would bring down the costs of premiums, will not increase the deficit now or in future, and no family making under $250,000 wouldn’t see their taxes increased. We will have an open and honest debate, bringing all parties together negotiating on CSPAN. That was then. This is now. The Reid plan raises health care costs. It raises premiums. It raises taxes on 10s of millions of families. It cuts Medicare by $.5 trillion. For the first time in history, the bill uses taxpayer dollars for abortion. Everything the President set out to do changed. 12 months and $2.3 trillion later, lawmakers are poised to vote on a bill that doesn’t bend the cost curve. The impact of this vote will long outlast this one frantic, snowy weekend. This legislation will reshape this nation. Americans don’t want it. They don’t like lawmakers messing with their health care. They won’t even give us 72 hours to examine the details. When we woke up yesterday morning we hadn’t seen the details of the bill we’re being asked to vote on tonight. Can all these Americans be wrong? Americans are asking democrats to put party loyalty first. It’s not too late. All it takes is one, just one. One can stop it or everyone will own it. REID- all over this country, people are dying too soon. The medical records will show that they died of complications, but the truth is that they died because they lacked the necessary insurance. Every 10 minutes another American dies due to lack of health insurance. Medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in America. This bill protects patients and consumers and greatly reduces our debt. This makes it illegal for an insurance company to deny coverage to children because of a preexisting condition. This bill closes the donut hole. Contrary to what McConnell said, premiums are reduced. This bill will lower the deficit. What McConnell is saying is without basis or fact. It cuts the deficit more sharply than any other legislation. McConnell said this will reshape our nation. That’s why we’re doing this. With this vote we will reject the idea that good health depends on wealth. It confirms that health care is a fundamental right. This is not about partisanship or procedure. We all know that we are here at this hour because of the Republicans. for weeks we’ve heard opponents criticize the length of this bill. I see the people behind the bill. Tells story about Lisa—we want to be able to go to a doctor. This bill will make it illegal to use preexisting conditions as an excuse to take our money and deny coverage. I will vote for this bill because I believe Caleb deserves a new pair of legs. Mike Tracy’s son is diabetic. He can’t afford to treat his diabetes. Now it’s turned into Addison’s disease, which they also can’t afford. TODAY’S ROLL CALL VOTES 385: Cloture vote on Reid-Baucus-Dodd-Harkin amendment #3276; Inovked: 60-40 SCHEDULE FOR MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2009 The Senate stands in recess until 12:00 o’clock Monday, December 21. At 12:00 noon, the Senate will resume consideration of HR3590, Health Care Reform, and will resume post-cloture debate on the Reid-Baucus-Dodd-Harkin amendment #3276, with the time until 12:30pm equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders or their designees. Beginning at 12:30pm and until 6:30pm there will be one hour alternating blocks of time, with the Democrats controlling the first block. All post cloture time will continue to run during any recess, adjournment or period of morning business until 6:30pm Monday. If all post-cloture time is used, the vote on adoption of the amendment would occur at approximately 7:20am Tuesday, December 22. Immediately upon adoption of the amendment, the Senate will proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Substitute amendment #2786.

Votes: 385: Cloture vote on Reid-Baucus-Dodd-Harkin amendment #3276: ; Inovked: 60-40 This was posted on http://democrats.senate.gov/calendar/2009-12.html