Senate debate on healthcare reform stalled
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The Senate debate on healthcare overhaul turned from a shriek to a drone today when Republicans insisted that a doomed amendment be read in full.
The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), would allow Medicare be opened to all Americans, creating a single-payer system. The proposal has no chance of passing the Senate, where Democrats are in a search of the 60 votes needed to get a healthcare bill passed by Christmas.
The Senate bill doesn’t even have a public option, let alone a robust one run by the government, as Sanders has proposed in his amendment, which is hundreds of pages long.
But the battle isn’t over the policy; rather, it is the politics. The Senate debate, now in its third week, has broken down along partisan lines.
It began when Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) sought approval to require that any amendment considered by the Senate must be offered 72 hours in advance and with a report of its cost.
When his move was blocked by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), one of the floor managers, Coburn, a conservative, asked that the clerk read the entire amendment out loud, a procedure allowed under Senate rules.
The reading, which began at noon EST, could take a dozen hours. In effect, it is the equivalent of watching a videotape of Yule log burning on Christmas Eve.
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-- Michael Muskal
