[Apologetics] Sen. Lieberman: I don't think anybody thinks Obamacare will pass the Senate as written

[Art Kelly]

The vote to allow Obamacare to be considered on the Senate floor is
ominous for the supporters of this legislation.  Several moderate
Democrats voted to allow it to be debated but have indicated that they
will not vote for it on final passage unless significant changes are
made in the bill.
 
Still needing 60 votes to overcome a filibuster against the bill itself,
there is almost no chance that will happen unless the liberals make
substantial concessions on public funding of abortions and the so-called
public option.
 
If the bill does pass the Senate, it will go to a difficult conference
committee with the House.  No one has any idea how those different bills
can be combined.
 
If the conference committee reaches a compromise, the House and Senate
will have to vote again and 60 votes would be needed to overcome a
filibuster on the work produce of the conference committee.
 
A bill which satisfies pro-lifers and jettisons the public option will
almost certainly be enacted into law--unless liberals make good on their
threat to vote against the conference committee report if it contains
the Stupak-Pitts language.  In the end, I think liberals will realize
that part of a loaf is better than none.
 
As noted in this article, debate on this bill will likely continue well
into January.
 
Art
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091123/pl_nm/us_usa_healthcare

Healthcare reform faces challenges in Senate

By Kevin Drawbaugh 1 hr 13 mins ago 
 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's U.S. healthcare overhaul
plan has cleared an important Senate hurdle but lawmakers warned on
Sunday of challenges ahead in winning support for passage, even among
Obama's own Democrats.

On Saturday, Senate Democrats gathered the 60 votes needed to open floor
debate on the plan, which would make the biggest changes in the $2.5
trillion healthcare system in 40 years. It is the Obama administration's
top domestic policy initiative.

No Republicans backed the procedural motion and a handful of
conservative Democrats, whose votes were crucial, supported the floor
debate but remained uncommitted to the bill itself.

One of those was Democratic Senator Ben Nelson, who said on Sunday that
he could not support the plan without big changes.

"If there are a whole host of other items that are the same as they are
right now, I wouldn't vote to get it off the floor," Nelson said on the
ABC's "This Week" news program.

Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman, usually an ally of the majority
Democrats, said he could not support the bill either if the "public
option" -- for a government-run health insurance plan to compete with
private firms -- stays in the bill.

"I don't think anybody feels this bill ... will pass" as written,
Lieberman said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program.

Debate will begin on November 30 and is expected to last at least three
weeks.

The "public option" component of the bill is negotiable, Senator Richard
Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, said on NBC on Sunday, adding the
Senate bill "must" get passed by the end of 2009.

If it goes into 2010, with other issues such as financial regulation
reform and mid-term elections vying for attention, "it gets more
complex," he said. "We're anxious to get it done."

The House of Representatives has passed its own version. Differences
between Senate and House versions would have to be reconciled in January
before Obama could sign a final measure.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said it was wrong to link healthcare
legislation and Monday's controversial recommendation by an independent
task force against routine mammograms for women in their 40s.

"Republicans who deliberately conflate or confuse the two only confirm
just how desperate they are to distract the American people from the
real debate -- and from the fact that they have no vision for fixing our
broken health care system.

"There will be nothing in our bill to discourage or prohibit preventive
treatments -- quite the opposite, in fact. And as a result, our historic
reforms, like mammograms, will save lives," he said.

The Senate bill would expand coverage to millions of the uninsured and
it would bar insurers from denying coverage over preexisting conditions.
It also would require virtually all Americans to buy insurance and set
up exchanges to shop for healthcare coverage.

'CADILLAC PLAN' TAX

While offering subsidies to help low-income workers afford coverage, the
plan also would raise the payroll tax on high-income workers that
finances the Medicare system that provides for the elderly. It also
would impose a tax on high-cost "Cadillac" insurance plans.

Republicans have vowed to delay or block the bill, which they say is a
costly government intrusion in the private sector that would raise
premiums, reduce choices and increase taxes. 

"The bill is fundamentally flawed ... It puts big costs onto states,"
said Republican Senator Lamar Alexander on the "Fox News Sunday"
program. "If the American people know that, the bill will collapse of
its own weight." 

Pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer Inc and Merck & Co Inc and
insurers such as UnitedHealth Group Inc and WellPoint Inc> are spending
hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying to influence lawmakers'
views on reshaping an industry that fuels one-sixth of the economy. 

"The insurance industry is about the most highly concentrated industry
in the country," said Democratic Senator Charles Schumer on CBS's "Face
the Nation." "So you need to inject some competition into the insurance
industry. 

"The best way to do that is a public option. And the program that we've
put together is set up by the government but then it's on its own. There
is no intent for it to compete unfairly against private insurance," he
said. 

Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown said he would seek amendments that
would allow the government to negotiate prices for Medicare prescription
drugs for the elderly, would permit reimportation of drugs from low-cost
countries, and would seek to cut brand-name biotechnology drug prices.
(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh and Nancy Waitz, editing by Bill Trott and
Jackie Frank)




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