House Passes Health Care Bill but Senate Can Still Sink It

Saturday (or was it very early Sunday?), The House passed its version of the health care reform bill, which includes a public option as the government-run program is called, by a vote of 220-215. Some 39 Democrats voted against the legislation, while only one Republican broke ranks to vote for it, Joseph Cao of Louisiana. The victory was a bit too close for comfort for the Democratic leadership and the Obama White House. That said when it comes to legislation, the margin of victory doesn't matter much. Now, the Senate will dither through the end of the year, and this thing is not out of the woods yet.

To non-Americans, the very idea that 39 members of the ruling party would vote against the president on a bill this fundamental to his administration is incomprehensible. In most parliamentary democracies, this kind of rebellion leads to ministers resigning and governments falling. In America, though, it is merely part of the aggravation of trying to get something done.

Indeed, the founding fathers set up a system where several steps are necessary to pass any kind of law. Committee votes, floor votes, conference committees, more floor votes, For even a popular bill to become law, no fewer than 7 different votes must be held, and the proposal has to pass each of them. A single defeat more or less scuttles the idea.

The health care reform bill is far from popular in a great many quarters. It has survived no fewer than four committee votes in the House and two in the Senate. Now, the full House has had its floor vote, and the next stop is the Senate. Presuming it passes there in some form or another (a rather large assumption to be sure), the Senate and House versions will have to be reconciled, voted out of the conference committee, and that version of the bill then gets considered by both chambers. Those who think a bill is feasible by Christmas are optimists, or they don't understand the workings of the US Senate, or both.

Much has been made of the need for the Democrats to get 60 votes out of the 100 in the Senate to break a filibuster. This is an old Senate custom whereby passing a bill takes only a simple majority, but ending debate to get to that final vote requires a 3/5 majority. Well, that much is true, and there are some senators who sit in the 60-member Democratic caucus who are going to be trouble, e.g,, Ben Nelson of Nebraska. The odds on any of the Republicans voting "aye" are slimmer than slim. The whole blogosphere knows Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has his work cut out for him to get those 60.

However, there is another rule in the Senate that may well prove even tougher to overcome. The parliamentary move is called "a hold," and it allows a single senator to prevent a bill from going forward simply by telling the chamber's leadership that he or she wants to put a hold on the bill. Then, nothing happens until the senator changes his or her mind. That's right. Mr. Reid really needs 100 votes as "ayes" and abstentions. The GOP may want to go ahead and filibuster to showcase their genius, such as it is. But that is rather obvious.

Less apparent is the problem posed by Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), a Democrat who lost his party primary, ran and won re-election as an independent and spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2008. He represents Connecticut, where there is a town called Hartford, where the insurance industry lives. He has little reason to back the Democrats' plans to change insurance in America and plenty of reason to do what his constituents and donors in the insurance biz want. Yesterday on one of the Sunday pundit shows, he said that he would not vote for any bill that had a public option in it as a matter of conscience. Once one stops laughing at the idea of Mr. Lieberman having a conscience, one is tempted to cry at the idea of this man being able to deny millions of Americans health insurance simply because he feels like it.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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