Senate Passes Health Care Reform
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on December 24th, 2009 5:39 am by HL
Senate Passes Health Care Reform
The health care reform bill passed the Senate in a historic 60 to 39 vote this morning. Even though only a simple majority was needed, every Democratic senator ultimately voted for the bill.
The Washington Post notes that with the vote “the hardest work of all will begin: reckoning with long-standing differences with the House version and uniting behind a single bill that can be sent to the president.”
New York Times: “If the two chambers can strike a deal, as seems likely, the resulting product would vastly expand the role and responsibilities of the federal government. It would, as lawmakers said repeatedly in the debate, touch the lives of nearly all Americans… If the bill becomes law, it would be a milestone in social policy, comparable to the creation of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare in 1965.”
President Obama will make a statement at 8:45 am ET.