The U.S. House of Representatives passed two bills relating to health care reform Sunday night – the Senate’s sweeping reform package that President Obama signed into law Tuesday morning, and a budget reconcilliation bill that increases health care affordability that is expected to pass in the Senate this coming weekend.
Feel free to express your feelings in the comments. I’m largely going to stay out of it – let’s just say that this fence-sitting Kucinich Democrat is a little puzzled why (1) Republicans are so vehemently opposed to, and (2) Democrats are so proud of, what is essentially a RomneyCare health care plan. (I’m especially puzzled by Mitt Romney’s opposition to it.)
What I find more interesting at the moment is how Brooklyn put this thing over the top. Needing 216 votes to pass, the Senate bill was approved by only four votes. Which means the six Representatives with Brooklyn constituents could make it or break it. Five of the six voted in favor, led by Jerry Nadler (Sunset Park, Borough Park, Bensonhurst, Brighton Beach, Coney Island, and Manhattan) and Anthony Weiner (Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach, Marine Park, Mill Basin, Bergen Beach, and Queens).
Weiner’s stock rose considerably over the course of the debate (which has been going on for about three ages of Middle Earth). He was once considered a candidate for the 2009 Mayor’s race, but he opted to stay in Congress in the wake of term limit extensions that allowed Bloomberg to run again. That political calculation will pay off quite nicely for him – his early cheerleading for Medicare-style universal coverage, his insistence on public option insurance as a bare-minimum alternative, and his visibility on TV and on the House floor won over liberal progressives nationwide. (And I don’t think the fact that he, along with the rest of the Democratic left, got rolled by the Corporate Welfare wing of the party will hurt him with voters down the road.)
Michael McMahon, whose district covers Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Gravesend, and Staten Island, was the lone Democrat in the New York City delegation to vote against the bill. And the White House is reported to be pressuring donors to cut him off. Labor and progressive groups are promising a primary or third-party challenge from the left. I guess I feel like they’re wasting their time. McMahon’s district – dominated by Staten Island – has a registration edge for Democrats, but it leans Republican in actual elections. It’s why Bush men like Vito Fossella held the seat in the past. In Michael McMahon, district voters have found a politician who is their perfect representative – a Democrat who leans Republican. So I don’t think McMahon will be facing any serious fallout, either with Democratic primary voters or his district at large.
(Photo: U.S. House of Representatives)
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