Senate Health Markup Off to a Rocky Start
UPDATED, 11:49 A.M. ET: The Senate Finance Committee has postponed the markup of its health reform bill, which was scheduled to begin this week, until after the Fourth of July recess, sources said Wednesday.
-- Lori Montgomery
Original Post
By Ceci Connolly
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, with Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) filling in for ailing Chairman Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), opened with an acrimonious start this morning.
First, Dodd was forced to cool his heels for 15 minutes waiting for a quorum -- eight committee members -- to begin Day One of marking up a massive health-reform bill.
Once he had the eight senators around the tables, Dodd was immediately interrupted by several Republicans who questioned how they could act on a bill that is not yet completed and has not been scored by the Congressional Budget Office, the advisory panel that calculates the financial impact of proposed legislation.
"This is a joke," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "This is the most incredible markup I've been to in my years in the Senate and in Congress."
The CBO issued a preliminary analysis that estimated the bill would cost $1 trillion and cover just 16 million additional people, far short of the 46 million Americans who do not have insurance today.
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said the thorniest elements of the issue -- "the key moving parts which will drive the cost of this bill -- are blank."
The sections were left blank "intentionally," Dodd replied, to give the two sides more time to negotiate.
Of the three unresolved sections, two are especially controversial and could be costly: a requirement that businesses contribute to the cost of employees' insurance and creation of a government-sponsored public insurance plan to compete with private companies.
Sen. Mike Enzi, the ranking Republican, said the drafting of the bill was a far cry from the collegial, bipartisan approach Kennedy has followed.
"The process of putting this bill together was a real departure from this committee's record of bipartisanship," he said in an opening statement. The Kennedy staff, Enzi said, "started with solutions and worked back to the problems."
Still, Enzi stressed, he didn't blame Dodd. "In recent weeks, he has assumed a greater role in leading this process and his presence has dramatically improved the committee process."
By
Paul Volpe
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June 17, 2009; 11:45 AM ET
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Posted by: saelij | June 17, 2009 3:41 PM | Report abuse
the biggest joke is the drunk mccain.
Posted by: donaldtucker | June 17, 2009 3:42 PM | Report abuse
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA WANTS TO TURN AMERICA INTO ANOTHER BANKRUPT SOCIOLIST CALIFORNIA!!!
No surprise that California, one of the richest but also most liberal state, especially in fiscal term, is the first state to go bankrupt. Now Californian socialist model with its highest tax rate, strictest enviromental protection rules, and very generous welfare and health care systems is copied by Obama administration with its ambitious, costly health care reform for everybody including 12 milliions illegal immigrants who would be naturalized under Obama immigration reform.
Posted by: TIMNGUYEN1 | June 17, 2009 3:58 PM | Report abuse
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The problem the Democrats are having is how to take care of the unions, trial lawyers and other members of their base. Since nobody wants to give anything up, the only way this bill is going to get through is for the Democrats to ram it through with no debate or modification by the Republicans. We'll know the fix is in if unions are exempt from paying anything and trial lawyers see no caps on malparactice litigation. It will be a bad bill but Obama and the Democrats will be in contol of 1/6 of the nation's economy. That is what is really driving force behind this bill.