Sunday March 21st 2010
Mychiller news- The House voted 224-206 Sunday to approve the rules for debate of a massive health insurance overhaul that evidently satisfies few but is viewed by House Democrats as better than no reform.
House Republicans were doing all they could to slow the increasingly inevitable march toward the overhaul and were joined by 28 Democrats who voted with Republicans against the rule, which laid out plans to limit debate.
Two more showdown votes were left -- passage of the Senate bill and then the package of changes to the Senate-passed bill, including deletion of special Medicaid benefits for Nebraska known as the " cornhusker kickback" and other deals made to win Senate support.
President Obama will have to sign the Senate bill into law before any "fixes" bill goes to the Senate under fast-track rules that would enable Democrats to pass it without facing a Republican filibuster. Democrats control 59 of the Senate's 100 seats, one vote shy of the number needed to overcome bill-killing filibusters from a united GOP.
But senators have given no guarantees they will pass the fixes, which are strictly the wishes of House Democrats.
Dismissing calls for months to scrap the plan and start over, House Democrats grew increasingly confident throughout the day that they would have the 216 votes needed to pass the legislation approved in the Senate on Christmas Eve.
