Prescription Drug Bill Hangs on Roll Call

[nadinbrzezinski]

Prescription Drug Bill Hangs on Roll Call
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By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON - Medicare prescription drug legislation hung on the outcome of a long, pre-dawn roll call early Saturday as House Republican leaders struggled to overcome defections by rebellious GOP conservatives and a near-solid wall of Democratic opposition.


AP Photo

House GOP Seeks Victory on Medicare Bill
(AP Video)


Related Links
• Medicare - official site



With the customary 15-minute vote long expired, Speaker Dennis Hastert and other key GOP leaders cajoled and coaxed fellow Republicans to swing behind the measure and avert a crushing defeat for the party and President Bush (news - web sites).


Democrats worked just as intensely, hoping to hold their own defections to a minimum and triumph on an issue that their leader, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, had made a matter of party principle.


At 4:20 a.m. EST, more than an hour after the roll call began, the vote stood at 216 to 218. As the majority party, Republicans control the gavel, and there was no indication they were ready to concede defeat.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&e=1&u=/ap/20031122/ap_on_go_co/medicare

[aquart]

1. So Delay will harangue them in their sleeplessness until they crack.

It's called torture, not democracy.

[girl gone mad]

2. How much longer can this go on?

The vote hasn't changed in over an hour.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Good question

sleep deprivation, the country is not up, only us the crazy ones


We know the score, but how many will realize this?

[whirlygigspin]

7. somebody run over there and tease them with doughnuts

bang the gavel, I'll give you a jelly filled!

[jbfam4]

3. I have been watching this on c span

it is really sad how the GOP has left the vote open for two hours to try and twist arms. One PUB came out of the no vote to the yes vote.......hummmmm WONDER what they are offering them!

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. I know I posted this story

because WE have seen this live, and as it happens,
but many other DUers, the morning crew has not.

Lord Delay is going to miss his coffin

And to use somebody else's words, the name DELAY is ironic, he
is donig all to delay this

[JailBush]

6. I read that three Democratic senators missed the energy bill vote -

including John Kerry. I believe Dick Gephardt missed a crucial Headstart vote, and I recall that Senator Ted Kennedy was attending a fashion show in Paris when Congress voted on something important; I think it was going to war with Iraq.

These people had better have damn good reasons for missing these votes; campaigning for election doesn't cut it.

[girl gone mad]

9. Is Gephardt the 1 Dem in the NV column?

Just wondering who that is.

edited for spelling.

[bain_sidhe]

8. Is that article slanted or what

Made it sound like the only thing the Dem's objected to was the "pilot" programs... what about letting insurance companies and HMOs bargin for lower drug prices, but not Medicare - a fact which virtually guarantees that private plans will cost less (at first), forcing people to pay more to stay in medicare? What about huge "subsidies" to hmos and insurance companies to help ease the pain of taking seniors money (to purchase their plans). What about "capping" the percent of medicare that can be paid from general revenue (income tax revenue) but not from regressive payroll taxes?

Sheesh. You'd think they might have noticed those little details. They certainly noted all the deceptive "details" the pubs have been spewing.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Yeah but to write a good

account of this while turning and watching the screen every so often
would kill me, and I also lost quite a bit of the debate, today

Never mind I have been following this mess from word go

[baby_bear]

12. Very good points, bain_sidhe

I have been watching CSPAN2, in particular, listening to Bernie Sanders (I-VT) making many of the same points.

What a great guy he is. Now Santorum is displaying his lack of intellect and independence. What a contrast.

s_m

on edit:
Even Santorum said he doesn't understand why the conferees added the prohibition against the Medicare program attempting to negotiate for lower drug prices, in response to McCain's point that DOD and VA do exactly that.
"I don't represent the pharmaceutical industry, contrary to popular opinion," Santorum said.

Hah! I am not making this up!

[onebigbadwulf]

11. They better not crack

This bill is devastating.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Sheer torture!

I'm piling on, too. The Republican attack on Medicare is monstrous.
May they all stay the course.

Has anyone posted a list of the Democrats who defected?

[bain_sidhe]

14. Won't know until the vote is closed

Has anyone posted a list of the Democrats who defected?

It's not official - and so they can't put the tally up - until the gavel goes down on the vote.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Will see when the boy fnally gives up

realize this is a huge defeat for the party in power

HUGE I TELL YOU...
They will try to paint this as them damn demos, 25 GOPes crossed

WE SAW IT

[0rganism]

16. Now voting on a motion to table the motion to reconsider tabling the bill

Sheer insanity. At least I think that's what they're voting on.

[bluestateguy]

17. English please

Now voting on a motion to table the motion to reconsider tabling the bill

And what does that mean?

[0rganism]

19. And well might you ask....

It's parliamentarese for "We didn't like the way that vote was turning out, so we're having another vote on whether to continue voting."

For this, they are paid, and paid well. Only on C-Span can you hear such sentences broadcast in all seriousness.

Looks like some of the R defectors are going back to DeLay's warm bosom on this one.

[baby_bear]

21. Did they ever gavel the first vote?

I switched over to CSPAN2 and missed it.

The first vote was 218-216 last I saw. That was going in favor of reconsidering?

Yikes. I need to revisit Civics 101.

s_m

[0rganism]

22. Sort of. No. Not really.

Rather than close voting, the repukes forced a vote on whether to keep voting on it. Which they appear to have won.

Now they've switched over to some kind of e-mail spam ban. It appears to have bipartisan support.

[baby_bear]

18. Maybe AARP's endorsement has backfired

Wouldn't that be something? I have convinced at least two people myself, to quit their membership. I know thousands have done likewise. I have learned so much more about AARP in the past three days than I ever knew before.
I didn't even know they were in the insurance business. Maybe all this should have come out long ago.

I received an e-mail from Public Citizen last night that includes the following:

Public Citizen's analysis demonstrates that while AARP might be
considered primarily a membership organization, it has in many ways
become a business - one that derives approximately 60 percent of its
revenues from a variety of insurance-related ventures, and only 29
percent of its revenues from membership dues.

The analysis shows that the majority of AARP's annual revenue comes
from selling such products as Medigap supplemental drug insurance
policies and offering prescription drug discount cards. It also sells
its membership list to corporations, such as health insurers, and sells
advertising space in its magazine to customers that include
pharmaceutical and insurance companies. Plus, it earns income by
temporarily investing insurance premiums paid by its members before they
are due to the insurer. The analysis can be found at
www.citizen.org/congress/reform/rx_benefits/drug_benefit/index.cfm.

"Taking its business activities into account, AARP would stand to gain
tens of millions of dollars each year in new income under the Republican
Medicare bill, a finding that presents a significant conflict of
interest for an organization trying to represent the best interests of
its members," said Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch.

I really had no idea.

s_m

[remfan]

20. Holding that vote open for almost 3 hours is going to make for

some great debate on the death of the democratic process.

Any idea how many seniors are up at this hour? Lots.

The news isn't whether this passes or not - the news is how the process has been perverted.

Democrats WON this vote, don't EVER forget that.

[sandnsea]

23. This has happened alot this year

I can't remember all the votes at this hour, but I've seen a few that they've held open for nearly an hour while they browbeat one or two voters to switch. This is a pure disgrace.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. And one of the demos even said this

this is going to be noticed by Seniors, very much so