Posted: 03/24/10
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 220 to 207 on Thursday night to give final approval to the reconciliation portion of the health care reform bill, sending the measure to President Obama again for his signature.
The Senate passed the bill earlier Thursday 56 to 43.
Although Obama signed the main $871 billion health care reform bill into law Tuesday, the Senate still had to pass the package of "fixes" in the reconciliation bill. The changes were demanded by House Democrats in exchange for supporting the Senate version of health reform in a vote on Sunday afternoon.
Included in the reconciliation bill are billions of dollars in additional subsidies for middle-class Americans to purchase health insurance; a delay until 2018 for implementing the 40 percent excise tax on expensive insurance plans; reducing the states' share of expanding Medicaid rolls, and a major overhaul of the federal student loan program.
Now that both chambers have approved Democrats' top domestic priority, members will be able to go home for a two-week recess.
In the Senate, all Republicans and three Democrats -- Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and both Arkansas senators, Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln -- voted against the reconciliation measure. Georgia Republican Johnny Isakson missed the vote due to illness.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accidentally voted no, caught his mistake, and then gave the clerk a thumbs up to vote yes.
Vice President Joe Biden presided over the historic decision, which came nearly 24 hours after the Senate began a marathon voting session on the reconciliation portion of health reform. the Democrats dispensed with a string of Republican amendments one by one.
But the Senate parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, ruled in favor of Republicans on two objections to portions of the student loan reform section, a decision that changed the text of the reconciliation bill and thus required the House, which initially approved the measure, to vote again.
source: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/24/senate-begins-voting-on-final-health-care-bill/
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THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!
Not one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s syndrome child.
Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example.
Each smallest act of kindness – even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile – reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away.
Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will.
All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined – those dead, those living, those generations yet to come – that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands.
Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength – the very survival – of the human tapestry.
Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days for which we, in our dissatisfaction, so often yearn are already with us; all great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!
Excerpt from Dean Koontz’s book, “From the Corner of His Eye”.
It embodies the idea of how the smallest of acts can have such a profound effect on each of our lives.
Yes, I'm proud to be a Democrat. Sen. Corker admitted today that it is unlikely that the GOP will be able to repeal health care.
Now after the fact, the GOP will try to "fix" health care. It's clear Republicans were intent of defeating Obama rather than doing what was best for the US and their efforts backfired.
It seems that the GOP has continually underestimated Obama. They never thought he would make it through the Democratic primary, but he did. He signed the economic stimulus and health care into law with minimal GOP support.
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