Print
E-mail
Share
digg
Newsvine
Facebook
Stumble
Technorati
reddit
Fark
twitterHouse poised for historic vote
After six months of angry debate, one final bill ready for roll call
Friday, Nov. 6, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Archives
- Dina Titus backing House health care plan after changes (11-4-2009)
- Their stories heard on the Hill (11-4-2009)
- Harry Reid’s next health care test: Securing 60 votes (10-28-2009)
Washington — The long, national health care debate is about to come to an end, at least in one chamber of Congress. But it is not drawing to a close quietly, not without one last fight.
The House is preparing for a weekend vote that cannot come quickly enough for Nevada’s Democratic lawmakers. After six months consumed by health care, Democratic Reps. Shelley Berkley and Dina Titus are ready to cast their ayes and move on to fixing the economy and bringing jobs to the state.
But Republican opponents of the health care reform bill, including Nevada’s Rep. Dean Heller, are not about to accede to the majority vote.
Stirring the opposition is making Republicans popular in the conservative wing of their party.
Heller and fellow Republicans greeted thousands of reform foes at the Capitol on Thursday. Moments before the lawmakers bound down the West steps, the crowd chanted “Kill the Bill” and “You lie!” — a nod to the conservative congressman who interrupted President Barack Obama’s congressional address with that interjection.
If Republicans can defeat Obama’s signature domestic policy priority, or at least continue rousing opposition, they may have a route to improving their dismal ratings among voters.
Nevadans have mixed views on health care reform, and conversations in town-hall meetings and over the phone lines at tele-town halls have expressed the divide.
Polls show Nevadans are divided on whether Congress should go forward with health care reform, with a slight majority opposed. But, conversely, a slim majority of Nevadans also support a key piece of health care reform — the public option, a government-run insurance company that could compete with private insurers for some customers.
Nevadans’ health insurance premiums have more than doubled since 2000 and even though most of the state’s residents have insurance through their employers, 460,000 Nevadans are uninsured — a number that is likely rising with the climbing unemployment rate.
Perhaps no member of the House has balanced this political divide in Nevada more adeptly than Democratic Rep. Dina Titus. The freshman congresswoman represents politically split Southern Nevada, where independent voters decide elections. She won with less than 50 percent of the vote last fall, and could face a difficult reelection campaign in 2010.
Dina Titus
Titus opposed the House health care bill in committee, making a name for herself as one of a few Democrats to buck their party. It was a smart move. Her predecessor had been branded as towing the party line, and she showed early on she is not a foot soldier for the Democratic leadership.
Titus had concerns about the proposed surtax on upper-income households, those making more than $280,000 for an individual and $350,000 for families, to pay for subsidies for the uninsured. Only when the new bill lifted that threshold to $1 million for families and half as much for individuals did she announce her support this week.
Titus also leaves a valuable imprint on the bill. She passed an amendment in committee to allow more small businesses to buy policies from the new health insurance exchange. The amendment was popular and expanded in the final House bill.
“The new bill has a lot of improvements and I’m glad to have been part of it,” Titus said this week. “I’m ready to vote for it and move on to creating jobs.”
The health care debate has consumed Washington, and the Nevada delegation, since spring.
Having devoted so much time to Obama’s top legislative priority may come with a price. Voters are expressing unrest over the continued economic turmoil, particularly acute in Nevada, where the unemployment rate has doubled from last year and is nearly 14 percent in Las Vegas.
Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley has had differences with her party on several aspects of health care reform, but she is satisfied enough with the final product to support it.
Shelley Berkley
“If I had it to do myself I would have done it a little differently,” Berkley said this week in the halls of the Capitol.
Berkley has wrestled with the party over pay formulas for doctors and taxes to pay for reform. She and Titus both opposed the president’s initial suggestion that charitable giving and mortgage interest tax deductions be limited for high-income earners — a proposal the White House eventually abandoned.
The Las Vegas congresswoman has met with dozens of groups including doctors, hospital representatives, nurses and families whose loved ones have debilitating illnesses. She has spoken to thousands of residents.
With 460,000 Nevadans without health insurance, Berkley said, it is time for Congress to act.
“I’ve got too many other things that need attention,” she said Thursday, including “a seriously eroded economy.”
But Heller is not quite done with the debate.
Rep. Dean Heller
The congressman has made it clear he opposes the Democratic health care bill. His dozens of tweets via the social networking Web site Twitter on Monday noted what he sees as problems with the massive piece of legislation.
“Page 131 creates new federal bureaucracy — a ‘Health Choices Administration’ and a ‘Health Choices Commissioner,’ ” he wrote in one representative post.
Heller is among the Republicans who see the proposed health care legislation as what he calls a “massive government expansion.”
But the congressman’s battle now is over the issue that has given him the most notoriety in this debate — his pursuit of restrictions on illegal immigrants receiving health benefits.
The bill prohibits illegal immigrants from accessing government-subsidized care, and Heller’s claims were once labeled by Newsweek as among the top lies in the health care debate.
Yet the second-term congressman has had success in this arena, getting cheers from fellow conservative Republicans and even a nod from the White House. His earlier push to amend the bill to include a citizenship verification system was dismissed by a committee. But after the White House suggested as much, House Democrats added a similar provision to the new bill.
Heller is now pushing for further restrictions on illegal immigrants. Today, Heller is scheduled to stand beside Rep. Joe Wilson — the South Carolina Republican who interrupted Obama with “You lie!” — in a call for further amendments to bar immigrants.
Heller has also joined Wilson to push for a requirement that members of Congress use the public option.
Conservative politicking has been a tactical shift for Heller since coming to Washington.
Once considered a moderate by his Nevada colleagues, Heller moved to the right after almost losing the primary to a conservative during his first bid for Congress in 2006. Whether Heller’s new alliance with the Joe Wilson wing of the Republican Party will prove smart politics in his mostly rural Nevada district remains to be seen. He appears headed for an easier run in 2010 as no formidable candidate has emerged.
As the House prepares for the possible weekend vote, the health care debate is far from over. The Senate has yet to bring a bill to the floor, and the debate could extend into next year as the two chambers would need to reconcile their legislation into one bill that could go to the White House for Obama’s signature.
With the 2010 elections just around the corner, prolonging the debate is no help to the party in power, which needs to mark accomplishments.
“I hope that doesn’t happen,” Titus said. “I think people really have health care fatigue. We’ve got to start talking about jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Discussion: 41 comments so far…
Post a comment
- Most Read
- Discussed
- Most E-mailed
- Police: 3 arrested in officer’s death have gang ties
- Las Vegas condo hotels remain a tough sell — just ask Trump
- $60 million to stabilize neighborhoods buys five homes
- Hotels rein in risque advertising campaigns
- LV companies in denial about problem gambling
- Funny Face: Carrot Top’s stage act a mask of contradictions
- Reserve Rebels didn’t have time to panic
- Hospital privacy leak could harm patients
- System fails to catch contractor’s family tie with county
- Where to watch UFC 106
Blogs
The Kats Report
For props, Lewis Black needs only his manic delivery and torrid material (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Sands China raises $2.5 billion in Hong Kong IPO (1 Comment)
Marquardt v. Sonnen scheduled for UFC 109
Bloggity, Bloggity, Bloggity
Will a fourth consecutive title by Jimmie Johnson be good or bad for NASCAR? (3 Comments)
Top Chef: Las Vegas
The Jet Stream: And then there were four
Top Chef Episode 12: On keeping it simple
Miech Again
Chilly start for Chace, but Stanback says he'll warm up (2 Comments)
- Live chat
- Tuesday, noon PST
- Chat with Krista Creelman
- Problem Gambling Center executive director Krista Creelman will answer questions about gambling addiction from Las Vegas Sun readers from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. ... Submit question
Calendar »
- 22 Sun
- 23 Mon
- 24 Tue
- 25 Wed
- 26 Thu
-
UFC 106 at Mandalay Bay Events Center
Mandalay Bay Events Center | 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
-
Julio Iglesias at the Las Vegas Hilton
Las Vegas Hilton
-
Natasha Wicks hosts at Hawaiian Tropic Zone
Hawaiian Tropic Zone | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Tito Ortiz hosts at Tao
Tao | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Hiroshima at Santa Fe Station
Santa Fe Station
-
Frank Mir hosts at LAX
LAX Nightclub | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
The Four Tops at The Orleans Showroom
Orleans Hotel-Casino
-
Amir Sadollah hosts at Prive
Prive | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
it really is very simple...
you either support the public option...
or...
you support the greedy pig insurance companies and their very real death panels and the money grubbing whore doctors...
Numbers USA is stating that this bill is allowing illegal aliens to be covered. Call or e-mail your congressman/woman and let them know you want only citizens approved by e-verify to recieve government subsidized health care.
Lets put the bill to the litmus test - if a congress person votes to support and pass this legislation, they must enroll in the public option and give up their current government coverage. Then lets see how many get in line and play follow the leader behind Nancy. If its good for us, it should be good for them and I bet not one of them is willing to do that. That being the case, the bill is garbage and taking us down the path of socialism.
We must put Doctors, Not insurance companies in charge of health care! Employer based health insurance is in critical condition and has to change. A public option is the lesser of 2 evils.
and health care for illegal aliens should include a bus or boat ride home!
Anyone who votes for this insanity has to be insane. Please get out and take action to get these people out of office!!
Does the system need some help...sure it does, but what they are trying to do IS NOT the answer!
I wonder how many hate-talk radio inspired dittoheads and Issannitized knukledraggers will go ballistic or commit Harri-Kari after this bill passes?
The politicians already get the public option. Haven't you heard of DICK Chenny, Bush or Senator John MCInsane go to Walter Reed or Bethesda? Congress has an on-site clinic and pharmacy.
The reason health care is so expensive is because people like Rush Limpbought abuse the system and doctor shop for thousands of pain pills and then goes on a yo-yo diets.
If the political world is a chess board, then the Dean Heller's of the U.S. Congress are well positioning themselves for an embarrassing checkmate.
Let's see now all public polls oppose health care run by the incompetent government. This last election gave an indication of the leaning in this country with Independents leaning towered conservative values. Passage of this bill would put the Democrats on a Kamikaze Mission and we know the result of that!!!!! If they pass this bill they will now end their positions in Congress and that's a good thing.
Unemployment rises again and the Congress dithers about everything except the economy. Just spend more and raise taxes. Dump Reid and Titus.
Hey all. Tune in to Face to Face with Jon Ralston on Tuesday, November 10. We are talking with U.S. Rep. Dean Heller about this and many other issues. That's at 5:30pm, 6:30pm and 8:00pm on Las Vegas ONE, Cox Cable Channel 19.
This health care bill needs to pass the House this weekend and encourage the Senate to get moving. The American people have waited FAR too long for reform! Good on Berkley and Titus for improving the bill and standing for the public option, and shame on Heller for caring more about being some right-wing radio darling than working for his own constituents.
Oh, the WAILING that will ensue if it passes!
Will there be "crying parties?"
Fox must be in Lock-Down Mode. MAN YOUR STATIONS!
Rush must be sweating; PROFUSELY.
tick... tick... tick...
A government for the social parasite, of the social parasite, by the social parasite. If you can't pay for your own healthcare, you don't deserve healthcare.
Pelosi's bill is simply a disaster. It clearly isn't free market oriented, with regulatrory safeguards, nor is it a competent attempt at an efficient single payer system. It's simply TARP on steroids (great if your one of their buddies), that few if any of the clowns in Congress will take the time to read let alone deliberate on. Anyone who votes for this monstrosity needs to be voted out of office at the earliest opportunity.
Voting on a Saturday? Why do they want to hide the vote? Shows that the Dem's are really ashamed of this bill.
The House votes on Saturdays regularly. It will be broadcast on CSPAN.
Democrats are delivering on their campaign promises while the Republicans continue to stall, whine and throw tantrums.
The Democrats bill will cost us an additional $2 billion by 2020 and still leave 14 million people uninsured while taxing almost half of America's families for having good insurance policies. This is a bad idea.
1) Promote Health Savings Accounts
2) Eliminate the tax advantage from having health insurance provided via the employer
3) Stop taxing health insurance
4) Eliminate mandates on health insurance
5) Eliminate restrictions on health insurance competition between states.
We need less government interference in the health care market not more.
No,no,no,sir.Dont need it!Dont want it!And couldnt afford it if I did!
Cannot believe how many ignorant wingnuts there is out there.
If you can't pay for it you don't deserve it?
Idiot, I can afford it and can't get it!
"and the money grubbing whore doctors..."
Tweetie bird?
Who are you going to visit for your health problems if the public option passes and you finally get your health ins.?
Which Dr.?
Witch Dr.?
The Republicans bill will cost us an additional $8 billion by 2020 and still leave 52 million nonelderly residents uninsured while merely lowering the premiums of 80% of privately insured individuals by 0 to 3%. 80% of insured Americans could see no reduction in their health care premiums. This is a bad idea.
Many individuals and families would experience changes in premiums that differed from the changes in average premiums in their insurance market. Some provisions in the Republican bill would tend to increase the premiums paid by less healthy enrollees or would tend to increase the premiums paid by enrollees in some states relative to enrollees in other states. As a result, some people would see increases.
The Republican bill does not have a ban on discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.
The Republican plan is not reform, it is a gift to the insurance companies and their lobbyists.
Ah, the free speech haters have joined up with the free press haters and are out on the attack today.
mred is leading the pack like a rabid hyena. These guys remind me of a pack of hyenas surrounding their prey and taking turns in attacking and biting.
So much for compassion from our friends on the left...
Tax the wealthy at 80%. They should be able to live on 20% of their income. Give that 80% to all the people who think they are ENTITLED to everything the government has to offer. It should be enough to give them housing, new car, cell phone, health and dental insurance, clothing,food, a grade school, high school, college and maybe even grad school education. And don't forget all of this is at no charge to them. Continue to tax the wealthy because they didn't work harder or smarter than anyone else. No,they were just lucky!! Yes, we are fast becoming the country of entitlement. The notion that one does well in school, so they can get a good job and by working hard and saving they can achieve homeownership etc... No always an excuse that someone did me wrong! Grow up and take responsibility for your own personal actions instead of blaming it on someone else. Most of us in this country have the opportunity to do well in school and become a productive person in society. It is all done by ones choice's they make. And if any of you would do more reading regarding the exact number of uninsured, you would be surprised to find the number is at 4% of the population. I believe the Kaiser study gives the complete breakdown. It is sad that the media and politicians (both sides) only pull parts of the information. What we need is to get rid of the CORRUPTION that plagues our GOVERNMENT run programs!! I say no to a public option and healthcare reform until the GOVERNMENT can get rid of the problems that plague the Medicare and Medicaid!
The Democrats health care plan could cost as much as $2.5 trillion, in part because they aren't counting the fact they they are forcing people to buy insurance (or fining them if they don't). http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_...
Edge, talking about a gift to insurance companies but threatening Americans with fines or imprisonment if they don't buy a health insurance policy...well that sounds like music to the insurance industries ears.
In three hours, Patrick's cost estimate went from 2 billion to 2.5 trillion.
Is there a joke to be made about NPRI's bean counters?
As for a "gift to insurance companies," I'd tend to believe you, Patrick, if the insurance companies weren't fighting the Democrats' plan tooth and nail.
There will be no Health Care Reform bill passed.
It is not needed. Nobody in the United States is denied health care now.
House poised for historic vote---and dems poised for historic embarrassment....can't wait to hear the spin on why it is defeated!
Edge, the count went up from Cato's estimates using the CBO's old methods when Clinton was in office. That is, if the government requires people to pay for health insurance you calculate the cost of those individuals buying health insurance into the cost of the program.
Currently government excludes those costs, while it does other gimmicks to artificially reduce the cost (like not starting the program until 2013 and sweeping funds from Medicaid.
Democrats are claiming the cost is $800 billion. The CBO calculates it at $1.3 trillion and other estimates have gone as high as $2 to now $2.5 trillion.
Read the article yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZum_o-GA...
Eline van den Broek from the Indpendent Institute in the Neatherlands says don't copy European style health care. In fact, she notes that Europeans are trying to get more markets, not more government in their health care programs.
see also, http://reason.tv/roughcut/show/dont-copy...
I wonder if Acorn is going to count the votes? or if the nay buttons will be disabled accidentally? :-)
Want to save American lives?
Lobby congress to get rid of bans for compensations for organ and bone morrow transplant donors. http://reason.tv/picks/show/saving-lives...
or donate to the Institute for Justice to help them win their case.
To jlb101: You just proved my hypothesis: The conservative healthcare policy is "Don't get sick and if you do DIE QUICKLY"
Actually thinker, if you listen to Obama's own words you'll realize what's in store for you. According to the POTUS, you'll get pain pills instead of the cure. What you people are really saying is that it's ok to tax knee replacements and wheelchairs for veterans in order to give obstetrical care to illegal immigrants and government-funded abortions. The net effect of both being that there will be no money left for you (assuming you didn't get hit with the penalty fee for not buying the government crap insurance) and if you don't pay the IRS will just take it out of any returns you are due. And on top of that we'll have an entire new government bureacracy to support (with their pensions and good government healthcare plans that we can't get) upon the backs of the shrinking tax base. But getting your facts from Keith Olberman (note his pedigree as an ESPN anchor) then you probably wouldn't know any of that.
Just because Olberman was an ESPN anchor doesn't make him wrong and it doesn't reduce his credibility. What he says and does accomplishes that goal.
Olberman's tongue is growing toes
jb101:
The reason people can't afford Health care insurance is that they need that money for tattoos, beer, whiskey, slot machines, hairy wooley boogers and everything else. Besides no one in this country is denied health care now. Don't believe me? take a walk through the emergency rooms of any hospital anywhere. The indigent population uses the ER as its doctors. They go there for every thing from gunshot wounds to stuck pharts. Most people don't even have a family doctor anymore. They just go to the ER. It works! Nobody ever pays.
Good thing I live part time in France, I get real health care for free.
I feel sorry for my country though, it's too darn expensive and people get lied at. It's funny though.
Any Congressman/woman who votes for this bill is voting to let illegals to get health care. We have got to see this bill fail and send a harsh message to our elected officials not to allow illegals to have access to the health plan. Just to let you concerned Americans know how much Shelly Berkley is worried about Americans, She is sponsering the Dream Act bill in congress as Dirty Harry is sponsoring the Dream Act bill in the Senate. Two elected officials who could care less what happens to American citizens.
Does anyone know that in Pelosi/Reid bill h.r. 3962 that in section 7201, that it states that anyone that does not buy healthcare can be sent to jail for five years? Also, if you don't have health care insurance the Obama government will fine you 2.5% of your yearly income!
How do you like Obama's "change" now?
Has anyone asked why the Kenyan Marxist, Barry Obama, chose the healthcare industry to reform it into a socialized industry from what it is has been from the beginning?
The answer is easy enough. Socialize an industry considered to be the beacon of free enterprise and American capitalism and then he can socialize lesser industries without much effort. Arch socialists like Barry hussein, Pelosi and Reid will destroy the Republic from within. It reminds me of the phrase Billy Graham wrote in one of his books many years ago: "the Reds will take us over from within, without any shots being fired or any bombs being set off".
Folks, it's almost over for American Capitalism in America.