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Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Building ” Characteristic Monument” to Form Self-Identity PAGE 8
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
President Barack Obama, with Vice Preisdent Joseph Biden at his side, makes a statement to the nation Sunday night following the final vote in the House of Representatives for comprehensive health care legislation, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, March 21, 2010.
‘Alice’ still reigns at box office with $34.5M PAGE 12
House sends health care overhaul bill to Obama Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – A transformative health care bill is headed to President Barack Obama for his signature as Congress takes the final steps in Democrats’ improbable and history-making push for near-universal medical coverage.
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On the cusp of succeeding where numerous past congresses and administrations have failed, jubilant House Democrats voted 219-212 late Sunday to send legislation to Obama that would extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, reduce deficits and ban insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions. “This is what change looks like,” Obama said later in televised remarks that stirred memories of his 2008 campaign promise of “change we can believe in.” “We proved that this government — a government of the people and by the people — still works for the people.” Obama will travel outside Washington on Thursday as he
now turns to seeing a companion bill through the Senate and selling the health care overhaul’s benefits on behalf of House lawmakers who cast risky votes. It is most likely that he will sign the bill on Tuesday, but the plans are not yet final, said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss as-yet unannounced strategy. Obama’s young presidency received a much needed boost from passage of the legislation, which would touch the lives of nearly every American. The battle for the future of the health insurance system — affecting one-sixth of the economy — galvanized Republicans and conservative activists looking ahead to November’s midterm elections. A companion package making a
series of changes sought by House Democrats to the larger bill, which already passed the Senate, was approved 220-211. The fix-it bill will now go to the Senate, where debate is expected to begin as early as Tuesday. Senate Democrats hope to approve it unchanged and send it directly to Obama, though Republicans intend to attempt parliamentary objections that could change the bill and require it to go back to the House. Sen. John McCain said Monday morning that Democrats have not heard the last of the health care debate, and said he was repulsed by “all this euphoria going on.” Appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” McCain, who was Obama’s GOP rival in the 2008 presidential campaign, said that “outside the Beltway, the American people are very angry. They don’t like it, and we’re going to repeal this.” McCain, who is in a tough Republican primary fight in his home state, said the GOP “will challenge it every place we can,” and said
there will be reprisals at the polls, in Congress and in the courts. The complicated two-step approval process was made necessary because Senate Democrats lost their filibuster-proof supermajority in a special election in January, a setback that caused even some Democratic lawmakers to pronounce the yearlong health care effort dead. Under the relentless prodding of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in particular, it was gradually revived, and the fix-it bill will be considered under fast-track Senate rules that don’t allow minority party filibusters. “We will be joining those who established Social Security, Medicare and now, tonight, health care for all Americans,” said Pelosi, DCalif., partner to Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the grueling campaign to pass the legislation. “This is the civil rights act of the 21st century,” added Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the topranking black member of the House. Continued on page 6