Health Coverage to All and To All a Good Night!

Unless you have been living in a hole for the last few days, you have heard by now that the Senate has voted to approve their version of the Health Care Reform Bill without any help from the Republicans (Passing the Senate with 60-39... Jim Bunning (R-Kentucky) apparently doesn't care about Health Care Reform).  I'm sure all of the Senators were doing their best insuring that the best interests of all Americans were being accounted for.  Especially Senators like Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) that only voted for the health care bill after an earmark was added to fund his state's Medicare obligation (each state must fund its own Medicare program).  The House of Representatives has a rule in place that prevents trading earmarks for votes, but a rule like that does not exist in the Senate.  There was actually a vote in the senate in 2007 to pass a similar vote trading rule that passed an unanimous 98-0 that would have forbade this type of actions, but it was never actually adopted.  So is the Senate actually acting in accordance with what is best for the common citizen?  According to RealClearPolitics.com, the congressional approval rating is a blistering high of 27.4%.  It seems to be quite clear that whatever they are doing - they aren't doing a very good job.


The NYTimes actually has a good article describing the differences between the two bills passed by the House and the Senate, located here.  There are quite a few differences that will not be easy to overcome.  For those of you in Massachusetts, your vote will mean have an even greater meaning in the January 19th special elections because the vote of one senator can pass or fail this entire bill.  With something this important, you'd think that a compromise could be reached that would satisfy more people.



If the senate was really doing such an awesome job, wouldn't their approval ratings be hire?  If this version of health care reform was really the best thing for the country, wouldn't more people be enthusiastic about it?  Drop an e-mail to your representatives and senators and let them know what you think about the job they are doing.  If you are one of the 27.4% of people that think they are doing great, tell them... they will need a few words of encouragement after the 65.8% of angry people get their word in.