Senate Democrats unite for landmark healthcare vote – TheHill.com

Victoria Reggie Kennedy, widow of the late Senator Ted Kennedy greets Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, with Senator Chuck Schumer, centre, after the 60-40 vote, the first step on passing a healthcare bill on Capitol Hill. Photograph: Harry Hamburg/AP

Senate Democrats unite for landmark healthcare vote

By Jeffrey Young – 12/21/09 01:18 AM ET

Healthcare reform entered the inevitability stage in the Senate during the wee hours of Monday morning as Democrats came together on a party-line vote to all but lock in passage of the legislation on Christmas Eve.

Though only a procedural vote, the 60-40 tally represents the first opportunity for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to demonstrate the he united his entire caucus of 58 Democrats and two independents in advancing President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy initiative.

Once senators, seated at their desks on the Senate floor as is customary for major matters, had finished casting their votes, Reid was ebullient.

The Senate actually voted Monday on Reid’s sweeping amendment to the healthcare reform bill that contains the final elements of compromise he needed to bring his divided caucus together. The Senate must stage two more votes that require 60 senators to support them before finally voting to pass the legislation, which likely will happen on Christmas Eve.

The legislation would spend $871 billion over 10 years to extend health insurance coverage to 31 million people while cutting Medicare and other program spending by $483 billion, raising $614 billion in new tax revenue and cut the federal budget deficit by $132 billion. The measure would create health insurance exchanges with subsidies for low- and middle-income people, expand Medicaid eligibility, enact strict new regulations on health insurers and put in place measures to reform the way healthcare services are delivered.

via Senate Democrats unite for landmark healthcare vote – TheHill.com.