Today in Washington D. C. - Oct 14, 2009 - Harry Reid To Write Final Senate Health Bill

As reported yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee voted 14-9 to report out committee chairman Max Baucus’ (D-MT) $829 billion health reform proposal.  Well the Senate is back at it again, including Sen. Reid and the White House hunkering down in secret meetings to craft a socialized Obamacare (health care) bill.

Also yesterday, the substitute amendment to the CJS bill failed to get cloture by a vote of 56-38, due in part to a dispute over amendments to the bill.

Today, the Senate begins consideration of the conference report for the fiscal year 2010 Energy and Water appropriations bill, H.R. 3183. The bill provides $34 billion for the Energy Dept., the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Bureau of Reclamation and plan to vote the conference report.

Votes on amendments to the fiscal year 2010 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill (H.R. 2847) are possible during the rest of the day. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John McCain (R-AZ), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) are will be offering an amendment to prevent the trial of 9/11 terror suspects in civilian courts and instead have them tried by military tribunal.

Now that Democrats have moved a flawed health care reform bill through the Finance Committee (something they had initially promised would be done in July), the action now moves into a conference room in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office.  There, Reid, with the help of a select group of Democrats, will combine the Finance bill with the one passed by the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee out of public view.

As Reid explained to reporters at a press conference in September, “Once [the Finance Committee finishes], I'll need a few days to work with the chairman, as I've indicated, and the White House to come up with a bill.” Back in July, Reid said that once the Finance Committee was done, it would “leave me with the responsibilities . . . to come up with a bill.” Last week, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, “The head of that process is obviously going to be the Senate Majority Leader. . . .” And Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), the new chairman of the HELP Committee told The New York Times last month, “Our quarterback is Harry Reid … He will decide how this is done.”  Of course, Reid will have to eventually work with Speaker Pelosi and other House Democrat leaders who want a single-payer system.

Press reports have also acknowledged that Reid will be in the driver’s seat. According to today’s Washington Post, “private talks [are] set to begin Wednesday in Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid's office.” And Time notes, “Now . . . it falls to majority leader Harry Reid to cobble together something that can pass the Senate.”

Knowing this, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell put yesterday’s Finance Committee vote in perspective: “The fact is, this proposal will never come before the Senate. But what we do know is that the bill written behind closed doors here in the Capitol will be another 1,000-page, trillion-dollar Washington takeover.” Indeed, it doesn’t even appear to do what Democrats claim it will do. The New York Times writes today, “Douglas W. Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said his agency had not estimated the impact of the bill on overall national health spending, public and private, and could not say whether it would ‘bend the cost curve,’ as Mr. Obama and lawmakers want.”

Senate Democrats’ health reform bill is now in the hands of Harry Reid. He has the opportunity to improve the bills he was given, but as things stand Democrats’ proposals “will slash a half-trillion dollars from seniors’ Medicare, add new taxes and raise premiums,” as Sen. McConnell said. That’s not reform.

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