WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Health Care Hits the Senate Floor

Health Care Hits the Senate Floor

Washington, D.C. - November 21, 2009

Sweeping health care overhaul legislation has cleared its first hurdle. Saturday night's 60-39 Senate vote moves the measure to full-scale floor debate after Thanksgiving. Vermont's two senators were among the sixty that voted yes, but they did so in spite of reservations on a few major points.

Senator Bernie Sanders talked to reporters Saturday morning before flying back to the nation's capital for the decisive vote to cut off a Republican filibuster and move health care toward final passage. Sanders admits he doesn't have nearly enough support to pass his favored single payer system. "On the other hand, I am fighting hard to make sure that states are given the authority, are given the waivers, to be able to go forward with a Medicare for all single payer system. And obviously I would be very proud and delighted if Vermont were one of those states that led the country in that direction," Sanders said.

Senator Patrick Leahy, on the floor of the Senate, admitted that the bill pushed by majority leader Harry Reid deprives Vermont of financial favors granted some other states -- a problem the Vermont Democrat expects to be fixed. "I was heartened in my conversation this morning with the majority leader. He tells me that we'll try to correct that problem," Leahy said.

Health care reform has support, but also vocal opposition in Vermont, as Sanders found at one of his town hall meetings in Rutland last summer.

"Do you really think that in the United States of America we would have a president who would say that we're going to kill off old people?"

"Yeah! " One woman shouted, "He said it, he said it himself!"

John McClaughry with the Ethan Allen Institute is a critic of the bill. He says the financial numbers don't add up. "This is really a fiscal fraud that will cripple health care, especially for senior citizens. And there's also all kinds of new taxes in the bill that I haven't got time to go into. All in all, this bill is, as the Wall Street Journal observed last week, the worst bill ever created."

"Let's not duck the debate. Let the debate begin. Let's not hide from voters. Let's have the courage to vote. Stand up and vote on the amendments and let the American people know where you stand and not say well, it never came up because of the filibuster," Leahy urged lawmakers prior to the vote.

Andy Potter - WCAX News