Cloture, or bringing debate to a quick closure, is an old parliamentary procedure from France via England, first used in the US regarding the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Senate leader Harry Reid (D, NV) is planning to bring a cloture motion to the Senate Saturday morning, with a vote expected Saturday night. This vote is not on the health care bill itself, but rather to quash any potential filibustering by the Republicans regarding the bill itself. Reid must have all 58 Democrats and the two Independents vote for cloture in order to proceed to debate next week.
Should the debate move forward, the Senate version of the bill still fails to fix Medicare funding to the tune of nearly $500 billion, still includes funding for abortions, and still requires every American to have insurance or face fines and other punishments. The Senate bill is even larger than the House version, at a whopping 2,074 pages, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of the program at $849 billion over 10 years. Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah is stating the true cost is $2.5 trillion, and used the CBO report for his numbers, a cost that seems far more in line with the plan's coverage because the budget cuts expected within the Senate plan are only estimated, and are not reasonable without addressing true costs of health care instead of reimbursements. The bill cuts Medicare funding by $464.6 billion, targeting the group of people in most need of health care in their later years, and a group that will continue to grow as the baby boomers age. Taxes will increase by $493.6 billion, and again, this is only an estimate. If the program as outlined is passed, the true costs will become clear, and taxes surely will rise again to cover the overages.
As in the original version of the House bill, abortions are included under women’s health care. As I have stated before, no nation founded on life and liberty can truly respect and protect her citizens when killing them as a “choice” is funded by public tax dollars.
At this time, conservative Democrats in the Senate are waffling on supporting the cloture, but Reid has been meeting with three key Senators independently this week, including Senator Landrieu from Louisiana, speaking to her about a clause in the bill which increases Medicaid subsidies to states with significant natural disasters that have occurred in the last seven years, i.e. Louisiana. This subsidy will cost $100 million dollars. Proof yet once again that it is money that makes Washington, D.C. go ‘round.
Contact your Senator today at www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm or call the switchboard at 202.224.3121.
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