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Health care bill vote update
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
11/06/09 11:16 PM EST
As the House gets ready to take up the $1.2 trillion sweeping health-care proposal, Democratic leaders are struggling to round up the 218 needed for passage, with the party's most vulnerable Democrats most likely to vote against it and two other factions protesting language in the bill that addresses abortion and immigration.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said a final vote on the bill may not even happen on Saturday if the GOP, which is unified in opposition to the bill, employs time-consuming parliamentary tactics.
But it may not be Republicans who hold up the bill if the leadership can't round up enough votes.
Democrats began announcing their official opposition on Friday.
Reps. Harry Teague, D-N.M, Collin Peterson, D-Minn., John Tanner, D-Tenn., Bobby Bright, D-Ala., Walter Minnick, D-Idaho, Suzanne Kosmas, D-Fl., Travis Childers, D-Miss., Parker Griffith, D-Ala., and Frank Kratovil, will all vote no.
Kratovil said the bill "does not do enough to bend the long-term cost curve and that it lacks adequate provisions to reduce the deficit and protect small businesses."
Bright said he is not backing the bill because it includes a government-run insurance option.
"People and small businesses across the country are struggling to make ends meet and this is no time to place additional burdens on them," Bright said.
Pelosi's office late Friday circulated a memo debunking the myths she believes opponents are using to try to kill support for the measure, such as the claim that small businesses would be hurt.
"Under this legislation, many small businesses will be eligible for a new tax credit to help them provide coverage for their workers and their families," the memo said. "And they or their workers will get access to a new comparison shopping marketplace with low rates and good benefits like large groups get."
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