Baucus Bill Passes

Interested parties from both sides of the health care debate have eagerly anticipated today’s vote by members of the Senate Finance Committee on the Baucus bill.  Democrats outnumber Republicans in the Finance Committee 13-10, so a favorable Democratic outcome was all but certain. It was expected that today’s vote would be divided strictly upon party lines with the one possible exception being Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, who’s become predictable for voting against her own party on a number of major issues. For this reason, Democrats have eagerly courted Ms. Snowe over the past year, hoping that any affirmative vote from the senator would signify true bipartisan effort toward healthcare reform and would be viewed as a huge win for the Obama White House. Only in today’s Washington D. C. could one Republican vote be considered bipartisan, but that’s what they will say and that’s what the leftstream media will dutifully report.

Sometime following the opening  statements of Finance Committee Chairman, Sen. Baucus, and Committee Co-chair, Sen. Grassley, highlighting opposing merits of the bill, Sen. Snowe announced that she would indeed break with the Republican party line and vote instead with the committee Democrats. Regarding her decision, Sen. Snowe stated, "I do it with reservations, because I share my Republican colleagues’ trepidation about what will transpire on the Senate floor, what will emerge in the House-Senate conference, and how indeed the Finance Committee bill will be merged with the Health bill." Sen. Snowe went on to add that before voting on a motion to consider the unified bill, " I certainly think we should have a final CBO score on the statutory language that is available on public websites, so everybody has a chance to review it." Good luck with that. For the naive few still harboring any hope for a change of Snowe heart come the next trillion dollar legislative vote, the senator closed by adding, "My vote today is my vote today. It doesn’t forecast what my vote will be tomorrow." 

At the end of the day, the America’s Healthy Future Act was approved in the Senate Finance Committee by a vote of 14-9. The results of that vote are:

Voted Yea:

• OLYMPIA SNOWE (R-ME)
• MAX BAUCUS (D-MT)
• JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV (D-WV)
• KENT CONRAD (D-ND)
• JEFF BINGAMAN(D-NM)
• JOHN F. KERRY (D-MA)
• BLANCHE L. LINCOLN (D-AR)
• RON WYDEN (D-OR)
• CHARLES E. SCHUMER(D-NY)
• DEBBIE STABENOW (D-MI)
• MARIA CANTWELL (D-WA)
• BILL NELSON (D-FL)
• ROBERT MENENDEZ(D-NJ)
• THOMAS CARPER (D-DE)

Voted No:

• CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA)
• ORRIN G. HATCH (R-UT)
• JON KYL (R-AZ)
• JIM BUNNING (R-KY)
• MIKE CRAPO (R-ID)
• PAT ROBERTS (R-KS)
• JOHN ENSIGN (R-NV)
• MIKE ENZI (R-WY)
• JOHN CORNYN (R-TX)

So what happens after the bill leaves the Senate Finance Committee floor today victorious? Word is: lots. Some predict the bill that will eventually come to vote will most likely in no way resemble the bill being voted on in committee today that was given a modest cost estimate last week by the CBO. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will next meet with the chairs of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health Committee, Senators Baucus and Dodd, both Democrats, who will then attempt to find acceptable compromises among the two bills where a new version will emerge and then be brought before the Senate for a vote.