Finance Committee to vote Tuesday

[ProSense]

Senate committee health care vote planned Tuesday

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Senate leaders on Thursday announced a climactic Finance Committee vote next week on health care legislation, even as Democrats and Republicans kept feuding over its cost and breadth of coverage.

Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Finance Committee will vote Tuesday on a 10-year, $829-billion proposal that would expand coverage to 94 percent of eligible Americans_while reducing the federal deficit. A positive cost report on the legislation Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office marked a turning point for its main author, Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.

Immediately after announcing plans for the vote, Reid, D-Nev., tore into Republicans Thursday, saying they have no health plan of their own to offer and are only trying to obstruct.

"There are still those who consider this a zero-sum game, and will only declare victory if President Obama concedes defeat," Reid said. "Let me be clear: Just as Democrats believe in ensuring quality, affordable care for every American citizens, we believe equally as strongly that this country has no place for those who wish for it or its leaders to fail."

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Senate Panel to Vote Tuesday on Health-Care Overhaul

By Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 8, 2009

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In a speech on the Senate floor, Reid (D-Nev.) blasted Republicans for opposing the Finance Committee's measure, accusing GOP leaders of aiming to be "partisan protesters" rather than "productive partners."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fired back that Democrats have yet to craft a package that can win 60 votes and, until they do, any claims that the package can dramatically shrink the ranks of the uninsured while lowering the budget deficit are "irrelevant."

Reid's announcement came less than a day after congressional budget analysts projected that the measure would achieve both of those aims. The report Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office gave an important political boost to the Finance Committee's work, indicating that it is the only one of five bills by various congressional panels that achieves every important goal Obama has set for his top domestic initiative.

White House budget director Peter Orszag applauded the analysis, saying the bill "demonstrates that we can expand coverage and improve quality while being fiscally responsible," but senior Republicans seemed only to harden in their opposition to the measure.

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