Posted on 09/16/2009 10:10:20 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Democrats in the Senate had hoped to get a fig leaf of bipartisanship from Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins (R-ME) once Max Baucus rolled out his supposedly moderate bill for overhauling the American health-care system. Yesterday, Snowe rejected the bill, leaving Democrats isolated and divided on the bill, just days after Obama demanded action on the effort:
Senate Democrats are going to have to move forward on healthcare without a single Republican supporter after Sen. Olympia Snowe said Tuesday she could not back the Finance Committee’s bill.
Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) failed to win any Republican backer despite weeks of intense negotiations behind closed doors to strike a deal.
Snowe (Maine), who was one of three Republicans who backed the $787 billion economic stimulus package, was being lobbied heavily by the White House, and some centrists view her refusal to strike a deal with Baucus as troubling. But concerns about how the plan would be paid for prompted her to back away in the hours before its release.
“I do have concerns and I’m not sure they can be addressed before he issues [legislation] tomorrow,” Snowe said.
This means that the Democrats will have to try reconciliation to get the bill through the Senate. Snowe’s rejection, however, hides another unpleasant fact that would have been apparent, which is that Democrats don’t have all of the other 59 votes needed, either. Other Democrats have already expressed unhappiness with individual mandates, IRS involvement, and the costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
The last time I checked it 93% had voted against.
Just FYI
Euthanize 0bamacare ASAP and put it out of our misery.
Her concern should as well as others that this bill be DOA.
Baucus needs to go back to doing whatever the hell it was he was doing before he tried to steal 20% of the American economy for the knuckledraggers down at SEIU.
It’s still immpossible to trust Olympia Snowe. One phone call from a Democrat offering candy will change her mind.
That gives you an idea of just how radical these proposals are. If you can’t get McCain, Snowe or Collins on board with a few token concessions, it’s very radical.
Orrin Hatch said he really doubted she’d support it last week, I was skeptical, but he was right.
Orrin Hatch has been fantastic on this health care debate, seen him on a lot of news interviews on the subject.
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