Thursday - December 24, 2009

Well, it passed

WASHINGTON—The Senate passed a health insurance overhaul on Thursday morning, 60-39, as both Democrats and Republicans held unified in their positions on the massive bill that mandates coverage for about 9 percent of the U.S. population now without insurance.

All 58 Democrats and two independents supported the $871 billion, 10-year package that aims to cover about 30 million Americans. Thirty-nine of 40 Republicans rejected the bill. Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, did not vote.

President Obama congratulated the Senate for its early morning action.

“With passage of reform bills in both the House and Senate, we are now finally poised to deliver on the promise of real, meaningful, health insurance reform that will bring additional security and stability to the American people,” Obama said at the White House before leaving with his family for a 10-day Hawaii vacation.

“As I’ve said before, these are not small reforms, these are big reforms. If passed, this will be the most important piece of social legislation since the Social Security Act passed in the 1930s, and the most important reform of our healthcare system since Medicare passed in the 1960s,” Obama continued.

Senate lawmakers moved quickly after the vote to pass one more bill—a $290 billion hike in the debt ceiling needed to prevent a U.S. default on loans—passing it on a 60-39 vote before scattering across the nation ahead of their Christmas break.

This is a disaster. There isn’t much more to be said. I hope your great-grandchildren find a gold mine in their backyards, because they’ll need one to pay for this. Meh, by that point they won’t be allowed to even own an unregistered shovel, for fear of harming Mother Gaia.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/24/2009 at 10:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine •  
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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