Webb: I'll Vote For Cloture On Health Care Bill

CNN:

Democratic Sen. Jim Webb gave the Obama administration a mixed report card Sunday on CNN's State of the Union: questioning the administration's approach to health care reform but praising its approach to the war in Afghanistan. On health care reform, Webb suggested that President Obama had pursued the wrong strategy to gain passage of Obama's key domestic agenda item during the first year of his presidency. [...]

Notwithstanding his differences with the process the White House chose to pursue, Webb told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King that he has given his commitment to support Democratic efforts to break any filibuster of the health care reform bill.

Read the whole story: CNN

Comments

[vippy]

All those senators who are against PUBLIC OPTION should automatically lose their coverage!
Obama promised us the same as they have. What happened?

[taddles]

I can understand a no vote on the final bill, but voting for cloture on a health care bill filibuster should be a given if you are a Dem. Sometimes it seems the Dems get better support from non-Dems (Bernie Sanders - Ind) than they do from their own party.

[PIN News]

uhm...folk­s...Clotur­e was defeated LAST WEEK on a vote of 47 to 53.

http://politicalintegritynow.com/2009/10/sen-byrd-d-helps-block-cloture-may-be-key-to-stopping-obamacare/

[Matt Osborne - Huffpost Blogger]

Uhm...PIN News...that was a vote on a separate bill, not the public option.

Might want to try *reading* the link before popping off with a half-baked opinion.

[Whinger]

Spineless folk who sit on the fence and do nothing, better watch out for splinters!

[PiscesPrincess]

really ! you Have to vote as a caucus on any procedural up down vote on the Senate floor. there are no options in that regard. the person who asked him that question (John King) knows that as well. tsk.

[sbvpav]

if there is any democrat who sides with the republicans and not vote for cloture, they should leave the party, become republicans and the dnc and democratic caucus and its leader should take whatever privileges and monies away from them = point, match, game over.

[marecek]

Any Democrat who does not vote for cloture should have his/her sorry ass voted out of the Senate post haste. I am all for having a party that allows for dissent, and I respect politicians voting their conscience (even if their conscience happens to coincide with the interests of big money that has donated bundles to their campaign coffers), but that is quite different from assisting the Republicans in filibustering the bill upon which Obama has staked his presidency. Try that and you will face the voters' wrath and suffer the consequences.

[PiscesPrincess]

you know very well that on procedural up-down votes the caucus dictates how you vote. sheesh.

[bbbbmer]

Jim Webb is a GREAT American!

[blaharumph]

webb looks thin in that photo.
hopefully, it's just the photo and/or he gets some rest soon.

[jennylynn]

Rest won't help his appearance.

[Grunty1]

I have a feeling Jenny speaks from experience.

[GranE]

I have hopes that this bill comes out even half-way decent for Americans. So many people do not have health insurance, or have limited coverage, and just hold on until they get to Medicare. If doctors and health professionals take preventive health services seriously, the people going into Medicare will do so in much better health. With so many baby boomers reaching Medicare at the same time, they will need to come into it in much better shape than their predecessors. In the meantime, health needs will be met and our workforce in much better health, as well as their families. My hope is that it will be a WIN for all Americans.

[JohnSawyer]

As Viper pointed out earlier (further down this page), 60 votes aren't required to pass a bill in the Senate--bills are passed by simple majority vote (51). 60 votes are required only for cloture, to break a filibuster if someone in the Senate calls for one to block voting on a bill (which will happen with any bill that contains a decent public option). Viper points out that the Democrats may not have 60 votes to break a filibuster, unless every Democrat (thanks for switching to Democratic, Senator Specter) and both Independents (Sanders and Lieberman) votes to break it, which even those who might vote against the bill itself, might vote to do, simply to get the bill put to a vote (sounds crazy, but there you go).

And even if there weren't 60 votes to end a filibuster, the Democrats could invoke reconciliation. It's worked before, for both parties. For example, in 1993, the Democrats used it to pass Clinton's fiscal year 1994 budget. Interestingly, also in 1993, Senator Byrd, citing his own "Byrd Rule" adopted by the Senate in 1985, prevented Clinton from using reconciliation to pass his health care reform bill, saying that health care reform wasn't a proper subject for the reconciliation process, especially since it may have increased the deficit. But in 1996, the Senate Republican majority refashioned reconciliation so that the Senate could invoke it for just about any bill affecting the budget, even if the bill would increase the deficit.

[Witchitalineman]

Being an independent means exactly that thinking for yourself. I can speak for myself when I say it doesn't move me at all towards republicans but it does mean I will work for a third choice!!

[janeycat]

what would we do without Jim Webb ....... owww now that was not fair of me
Webb said he will commit and support Dem efforts to break any filibuster on the health care reform
bill. He is a good Democrat and is with the people on this PO . He better be with the people on this
or he may be looking for a new job..

I sure hope Lamar Alexander and Joe Corker vote the right way for the people or i will be personally
campaign for the Democrat that runs against them...
Their Tennessee's elected officials .... wows with them if they vote the wrong way .... They could just as well be looking for a new job too....

[xlntcat]

Good luck on campaigning for a Democrat in Tennessee one of only 4 states that trended red in the 2008 election. Alexander and Corker will vote NO just like the rest of the GOP.

[Countdown09]

Baloney! Don't tell us Mr. Webb what Pres. Obama should have done, he's made it clear what he wants so you're either for health care reform with a public option OR YOU'RE NOT! I'm so sick and tried of you spineless democrats trying to hide behind Pres. Obama's coat tails. You know as well as we know that Pres. Obama CANNOT pass a dam thing unless you spineless self interest serving people in Congress vote to pass a bill. Why don't you try for a change to do you friggin jobs!

[vernonbc]

Well said Countdown. Obama doesn't write the legislation, he signs the bills. If Congress is unclear on what he wants, they haven't been listening to him.

[yankee222]

Better president create a working draft as a starting point for Congress - as JFK did with the civil rights act that was signed into law a few months after his murder.

Cowards sit on the sideline and do nothing.

[johnnynyc]

This is not news.