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HARRY HAMBURG / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks at a news conference Tuesday in the Capitol. After voting to quash an amendment to the health care reform bill that would have restricted abortion access, he announced an agreement had been reached related to the public option.
Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Harry Reid
Sun Archives
- Report: Democrats reach deal to drop government-run plan (12-8-2009)
- The skinny on the health care reform bills in each chamber of Congress (11-22-2009)
- Senate bill would cover Medicaid expansion for all states (11-19-2009)
- Long-sought , Harry Reid's goal of health care reform a step closer (11-19-2009)
- 2,074-page health bill includes surgery, payroll tax hike (11-18-2009)
- Harry Reid to present $849 billion health care bill (11-18-2009)
Sun Coverage
As the health care debate pressed forward Tuesday in the Senate, it was hard to decide whether to keep an eye on the floor action or behind the closed doors where deals were being made down the hall.
Developments were playing out in both theaters of operation on two of the trickiest issues that have dogged Democrats — abortion and the public option — as they try to craft legislation that can win the necessary 60 votes for passage.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid instructed a behind-the-scenes group of 10 senators to step up their efforts this week to reach a compromise on the public option, and the nudge paid dividends. Well past dinnertime, a broad agreement was announced.
But Reid also became central to the abortion debate as he voted against a pivotal amendment to restrict access to the procedure, setting up a complicated negotiation with the House.
Democrats are racing the clock to pass President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy issue by year’s end. Their struggles show not only the pressures on Reid but also the challenges of maintaining a big-tent caucus whose 60 members carry so many diverse political views.
As Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon put it late Tuesday: “We are stretching the big tent to get everybody under.”
Momentum has been building for an alternative to the public option — the proposed government-run insurance plan that would operate similar to Medicare and is coveted by progressives as competition to private insurance for those who are uninsured.
Late Tuesday night, after the Senate had closed for the day, Reid emerged with two members of the negotiating team to announce that a “broad agreement” had been reached.
Talks between the group of 10’s conservative and liberal senators focused on creating a new health care exchange modeled on the federal employees health benefits plan, which would offer the uninsured a menu of private insurance options.
To stoke competition and ensure quality health care by private insurers, such a proposal could be bolstered by a requirement that insurance companies reinvest would-be profits into providing care. Book-ending that would be another requirement to allow adults who are 55 years old and older to buy in to Medicare, rather than waiting until they are 65, giving hard-to-insure older Americans more options.
Reid would not disclose details of the agreement reached, but he insisted that “insurance companies will certainly have more competition. The American people will certainly have more choices.”
Such a proposal could accomplish Reid’s delicate task of appeasing the four moderate senators who have opposed the public option while holding onto progressives who have fought intensely for an alternative to insurance companies.
“Tonight we’ve overcome a real problem that we’ve had,” Reid said. The proposal will be sent for a budget analysis Wednesday, a process that could take up to one week at the Congressional Budget Office.
The late-night deal shows the fragility of the talks and sometimes haphazard process in which legislation comes to life.
Meanwhile, the floor action continued Tuesday on whether to toughen the bill’s language on restricting abortion.
Such an amendment was unlikely to reach a 60-vote threshold needed for passage, but Reid allowed abortion rights supporters to call a procedural vote to table the amendment, and joined them in killing it swiftly on a 54-45 vote.
Reid’s mission was twofold: He cut short a potentially drawn-out debate on an issue that is not helpful for his party while protecting his senators who want to be seen as having tried to restrict abortion.
Just before the vote, Reid, who is a Mormon and longtime opponent of abortion, delivered an emotional 20-minute speech recounting his past record of voting against abortion rights, insisting the underlying bill maintains the status quo on the issue.
“Our health care bill now before this body respects life,” Reid said, adding that this was not the time to debate the divisive issue.
“This is a health care bill. It is not an abortion bill,” Reid said. “We cannot afford to miss the big picture ... Neither this amendment, nor any other, should overshadow the entire bill or overwhelm the entire process.”
Reid’s record on abortion issues has often infuriated abortion opponents, who believe he should do more with his position as majority leader to advance their cause.
They were not surprised by Reid’s maneuver, saying he essentially doomed the abortion issue early on by not including it in the Senate bill he crafted. His omission put the onus on anti-abortion senators to find enough votes to insert it.
“It was a trademark Harry Reid performance,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee.
The Senate vote creates yet another difference to be negotiated with the House-passed bill, which last month approved stricter abortion language in its bill.
Both the House and Senate bills ban the use of proposed government insurance subsidies for the uninsured to pay for abortion coverage. But anti-abortion groups and the nation’s Catholic bishops insisted no abortion coverage should be offered in the public option plan, even if policyholders use their own money to pay for it.
The House approved the more restrictive language in an eleventh-hour deal to appease conservative and moderate Democrats who were withholding their support of the full bill. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, among the most conservative Democrats in the caucus, sought similar restrictions with his amendment in the Senate.
Nelson is among those Reid has been courting as he seeks 60 votes to pass the Senate bill, and the defeat of Nelson’s amendment leaves his vote in question. “I am disappointed,” Nelson said in a statement after the vote.
Reid’s vote appeared an abrupt reversal from his track record on abortion, but it actually had been forming for weeks, an aide said.
He decided early on that the House language was too restrictive, believing it went beyond current law that prohibits federal funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or possible death of the mother.
Once he made the decision to oppose the amendment, he sought the bully pulpit of the Senate floor to explain himself to voters back home — where his vote will surely become campaign fodder in his difficult reelection campaign.
Leading Republican opponents in Nevada also oppose abortion, and national abortion opponents will likely criticize Reid for his vote.
Yet Nevada’s libertarian streak has suggested that candidates must tread carefully on the abortion issue, lest they be seen as involving government too heavily in individual rights, particularly after voters approved a measure nearly 20 years ago making Nevada an abortion rights state.
Lisa Mascaro can be reached at (202) 662-7436 or at lisa.mascaro@lasvegassun.com.
there always goin to be compromise in politic
Bye-bye public option! Told ya so, Dems.
We all knew they had to pass "something" or else Dear Leader's presidency would be over already (and there's no guarantee even this weakened bill will pass!). But this is not what he campaigned on, and the left is angry.
"Obama gonna pay my health care!"
Uh, no he's not. You are. Too bad, leeches.
Too many people are making too much money off of Americans being unhealthy and stupid to ever let something like a public option happen.
It's a shame. I actually want us to be a healthy country that cares for our own and sees that as a positive development rather than a burden.
But alas, the media outlets have convinced many Americans that helping others and caring for our fellow countrymen is shameful and somehow enabling parasitical behavior on those of us who rationalize privilege and luck as hard work and entitlement.
The insurance companies were never going to let us have this, and now they have convinced enough of us why.
"Reid also became central to the abortion debate as he voted against a pivotal amendment to restrict" taxpayer paid abortions.
Reid has no backbone to support the same rule to prevent taxpayers from paying for abortions
LOL there is no competition here because Reid is using private insurance company
The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program provides Federal employees, retirees and their survivors the widest selection of health plans in the country.
You can choose from among Consumer-Driven and High Deductible plans that offer catastrophic risk protection with higher deductibles, health savings/reimbursable accounts and lower premiums, or Fee-for-Service (FFS) plans, and their Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO), or Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) if you live (or sometimes if you work) within the area serviced by the plan.
http://www.opm.gov/INSURE/HEALTH/
Carriers include only "private insurance companies" such Blue Cross and Blue Shield Service Benefit Plan, APWU Health Plan, GEHA High Deductible Health Plan, NALC, SAMBA, Aetna HealthFund (CDHP/HDHP), Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, Inc. (CDHP/HDHP),
Hey!!!!! Harry!!!!! there is no Healthcare Bill without you and your DC bunch being included and also included a Tort Reform Clause. Time to return to Searchlight and fade and take Pelosi with you.
Please ALL AMRICANS stop these corupt people in Washington. We have a lot of work to do to get these "lifers" out of office, GET NEW BLOOD IN AND WORK TO GET TERM LIMITS!!!!!Harry owes sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many favors he has no concern for US
Hear that giant sucking sound, Harry? No, not the corks popping from the lobbyist's shindig, the other sound. Listen. That's your base, buddy, abandoning you in droves. They wanted a leader who represented the people, Harry, not the corporations. They wanted someone who clearly knew the difference. I guess being just a little bit better than the (R)s wasn't enough, Harry. Oh well, majority, minority, who really cares about the wonky stuff when the results are always the same?
Reid is "against" abortion.
Large majority of Americans and Nevadans are against federal funding of abortion.
So, exactly, who does Reid represent on this issue.
I guess he bows down to the libs on this one. He rather do their bidding over his own "beliefs" (obviously he does not believe anything on abortion) and what the large majority of Nevada believes.
Perhaps he should go represent the lib nation.
He should just announce that he is not running for re-election.
He does not represent Nevada.
judgemales You sound as if you are an insurance lobbyist. You obviously do not know the issues and the harm done by crooked insurance companies maybe in the furture it will affect you or someone you care about. What a nit wit.Now I told you so, go sit down.
Sgt RocK How wrong you are. Most people with any brains realize women work and pay taxes and yet are told what they can not do with their bodies even when a doctor recommends a procedure.
It is time for the neo cons,evangelists,Catholic Church and other exremest groups to quit interjecting their opinion into every piece of legislation that comes up.
You spend a lot of time insulting people when you really don't know the facts.Harry knows how important health care reform is and not everyone can be made happy while you offer up your ignorant insults. I will take the word of Jim Murren of MGM Mirage on Harry Reids qualifications and not some sgt nit wit. Do some research before you quote what most Nevadans want.Maybe in the furture someone you care about can suffer at the hands of some crooked insurance company. But as long as it is not you why would you care? Just because you may have militay health care try to think of others who don't. Of course that would require non selfish thought on your part and from reading your other ridiculous rants that is impossible.
Health care reform is not reform without a public option. Let this rat sellout know about it. He's a traitor to the people in the party that voted him in. The only reason Harry Reid supported Obama and the health care reform act in the first place is so he could leverage some campaign contributions from the insurance and health industries. Look at this list from Nosecrets.org of Reid's contributors. Who are the lawyers who contributed and WHO are "health care partners"?
1 MGM Mirage $153,400
2 Weitz & Luxenberg $88,800
3 Harrah's Entertainment $78,700
4 Girardi & Keese $71,600
5 Station Casinos $71,200
6 Law Offices of Peter G Angelos
7 JPMorgan Chase & Co $61,100
8 Boyd Gaming $59,600
9 Simmons Cooper LLC $57,200
10 Blackstone Group $50,800
11 FMR Corp $43,200
12 Health Care Partners $43,100
13 AT&T Inc $39,550
14 Akin, Gump et al $38,500
14 Sierra Nevada Corp $38,500
16 Apollo Group $34,750
17 Van Wagner Communications $34,200
18 Waters & Kraus $33,800
19 Cooney & Conway $33,600
20 Comcast Corp $32,400
If you're like me and you're upset about this bait and switch faux democracy and being lied to about what issues the democrats are going to support, let them know.
If you suffer in silence now, you may guarantee you'll suffer while dying for some curable disease you can't afford to get treatment for:
Obama
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Your representative:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welc...
Your Senator:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_in...
Medicare is already projected to be insolvent by 2017.
This will do nothing but cut that time by half.
Never again will I vote D.
Harry Reid is a BUM and should be thrown out of congress immediately!!!! He said on the house floor Monday that those who oppose this health care bill are equal to those who opposed the freedom of slavery, are you frikkin kidding me? Typical liberal tactic always play the race card when you are failing. Democrats and liberals are the biggest racists this country has ever seen. Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Homer you have no clue at all that why you are a liberal!!! Do your own research liberal and you will see that the percentage of those women who need to have a baby aborted during birth to save their life doesn't even makes a blip on the radar compared to those who willingly get knocked up and choose to murder that child because they don't want that child to cramp their lifestyle. Who the hell says that I want to pay for 30 million illegal border crossers who have broken the law by crossing our borders illegally? Who says I want to pay for some queers aids treatment when that is an issue of behavior and choice, when they could stop that lifestyle at any time but they choose not to? Who says that I want Soviet Style Obammunism shoved down my throat at every turn of my life? Who says I want corrupt hand picked Socialist Czars to control my family's lives from the cradle to the grave? Who says I want my guns seized through federal legislation so that Obama can control those who don't agree with him? Who says that real Americans (the majority) want Obama's communist govt. to decide what we drive, how we live, where we go, what we say, and what we do with our lives? Real liberals hate America, they love bondage, slavery, and death and everything that thinking people stand for.
Too bad Homer. No public option for you. You'll have to pay for your own health care (and if you don't, the Democrats will be sure you are thrown in jail.)
Say NO to leeches!
Yep, career politicians never work. I believe they start with good intentions but somewhere down the line the "new power" changes them. Harry Reid(D)is one of the most crooked politicians out there. He has no clue hat the people of Nevada wants. He consistently ignores us and peruses his own agendas with the hopes that we will forget at re-election time. NOPE! Just as we will hold Representatives Shelly Berkley (D) and Dina Titus (D)accountable for their reckless votes on Government Run Health Care. Nevada's poor representation in Washington is about to change by "we the people".
A step in the right direction but why not open up the entire nation and every insurance policy to the national market?
What most voters don't know is that they're paying for uninsured people NOW. If you don't believe that, then ask yourself: How do hospitals pay emergency room costs for people without insurance?
They charge YOU, the person who DOES have insurance. That exposes republican lie #1.
The health care bill is designed to make everyone pay for their own healthcare.
Now... to make sure that the insurance companies don't jack the cost way up where we can't afford it, we need a public option and price/cost limits; or it will keep climbing.
got that?
it's your life. I hope you're paying attention.
RyMan - great post!! I am glad to see there is intellectual thought in Las Vegas.
ryman:
big government running anything=incompetency and bankruptcy...
just give them time and they will prove that theory...
@All Liberls,
By refusing to treat the multiplied millions upon millions of illegal aliens who fill our emergency rooms daily with sore throats, headaches, and sniffles we will save hundreds of billions of dollars. No citizenship, no treatment!! Go back across the border for your wonderful healthcare. Nobody is complaining about paying for Medicare or Medicaid those are necessary, the real issue is we cannot keep paying for people who do not belong in this nation and are here illegally. Try getting into an emergency room or a UMC Quickcare in under 10 hours. They are filled with non-english speaking aliens and all their anchor babies. It's even worse in California where I moved from, they have bankrupted that wonderful state. The state of California spends $48 billion $$ a year just to teach illegal aliens english in the public school system. While in California with insurance I had to take my wife in the middle of the night for her Gall Bladder and we were shoved to the back of the line at got in 9 hours later. Every Mexican that walked in off the street with a sniffle, headache, or chills walked right in for care without a wait. I was furious and almost went to jail that night.
Say what you will about the health care industry in America it is still the best in the entire world. It is being overrun and destroyed by the liberals, and illegal aliens.
there extending medicare to 50 year olds, that is public, that is government, so what do you mean no public option???
Anecdotes never tell the big picture, but here is another good one on why universal health care is bad
http://reason.tv/video/show/a-true-tale-...
Those studies take into account several things which Americans love- fast food, beer, and cigarettes. Essentially, we are penalized for being free to get the things we love in life.
BobbyG,
Those are bogus numbers and you know it, probably created by Obamas minions to push their agenda forward. We still have the best doctors, surgeons & etc., the best hospitals, the best universities, and best nation to ever exist. Why does the rest of the world come here for their health care then? Fidel Castro fly's into Miami everytime he is sick, the Arab Shiekks come here as well along with the rest of the world leaders from crappy countries. The last time I checked I didn't see people escaping out of America to go to Mexico, India, Cuba, the UK, Afcrapistan, Europe, or Canada for healthcare.
Americans are more likely to be overweight - personal choice - and die more often in alcohol related accidents. We also have higher murder rates, on average -- (though there are some countries which have higher murder rates AND ban guns, so don't go attack the guns now). Each of those, plus our highly diverse gene pool contributes to our "lower" life expectancy (an average of what 2 years less than Europeans). Not a bad deal considering we are 30% wealthier on average.
Even though we spend more on healthcare, we still have more to spend on other things that make our lives even better.
And, btw, 40% of our health care costs are paid for by our government already. More government control won't reduce spending - without severely rationing services - because the problem is a third party payer system.
We need more markets, not more government.
I understand that this is a nation of fat people, smokers, drinkers, and drug addicted perverts but the main issue behind this bill isn't to drive down medical or insurance costs, it is a politcal agenda taken right out of Das Kapital. The fastest way to fix the health care problem in this country is to get rid of those who do not belong here and are raping the system by refusing them service. Unless it is life threatening you should not be seen and every benefit should be taken away from those who are here illegally. If everything they have leeched off of is taken away from them they will go home and our costs will go dowm significantly. You could turn this around in 90 days. The reason why medical costs and insurance premiums are so high is because we (U.S. citizens) are paying for illegals across this nation who contribute nothing to this country.
The fastest way to reduce medical costs is to make this a first person payer system contained and regulated by market forces.
Given the fact that US health care costs have been rising and a rapid rate before illegal immigration became a big problem, I don't think immigration is the main cause of the strain. The strain is us having a mixed, uncompetitive and highly regulated and restricted government/employer health care system.
Name of the country should be changed to the United States of Wellpoint.
I think it should be called the United States of Welfare. It's a little more fitting considering the current cabal controlling Washington.
From Homey:
"You spend a lot of time insulting people" Homey insults me in the posting. I think he is talking about himself in this post.
"when you really don't know the facts."
Again he is talking about himself. He claims that most Nevadans are for Federal funding of abortion. I doubt if he can find ONE SINGLE poll to support his claim.
There are many polls that say over 60% of Americans are against Federal funds for abortion.
"other ridiculous rants that is impossible." See...again Homey is being hard on himself. Not all you write are rants but most of them are. Like one you posted....it is rant.
When something is free or nearly free it will get used a lot. Want to cut spending then charge the people more. Want to terminally clog the system provide free health care for illegals. Oh yeah, that's what we are dong now.
When you abort 20% of the new babies and count that in with the other stats, add to that the mothers that do not receive or seek prenatal care we do fairly well.
If you want to lower costs, then get the government out of heathcare all together. Stop treating illegals with unfunded mandates at ERs. Cut Medicaid and medicare to those that really need it.
When people have to pay out their own money then they respect the product they purchase, health care is no different.
Want to care for people then let, them make their own choices and BUTT out of their lives.
Why can't the government provide the same health coverage as insurance companies without making the profits. That would reduce premiums to people who struggle to meet medical coverage and give the choice to Dem haters to continue to pay extra to the private insurance companies and make them even richer. I assume reading these posts most people have not experienced continuing medical coverage on cobra when you have either moved or changed or lost jobs.I just hope you never have to.
Harry Reid, the hypocrite baby killer
Angryreader,
Who said kill all the Mexicans? I don't see that anywhere. I'm all for people coming to America as long as they do it legally, become citizens, and contribute back to society. Stop acting like illegal immigration isn't the biggest financial problem in this country, it is ruining our school systems, hosptials, job wages, and financial structure. Wikipedia are you kidding me? Wikipedia is so inaccurate and it has been found out so time and time again. Do your own research moron!!
Longun45 gets it all the libs are still duuuuhhhh.
Harry Reid, "The Undertaker" who will bury America! Vote the Dems out!
I find in troubling that via a backroom deal a cap on annual benefits was inserted into the health care bill. Even more troubling is that while Reid's office says that the cap cannot be "unreasonable," Reid acknowledges that the bill does not define what is reasonable. When asked about that, Reid's office said that the federal government would "define" it - why does this not me feel all warm and fuzzy. RoadtoNovember. com