Main Street

Getting to the Final Final Vote

The Senate is currently working its way up to a vote on fixes to the health care reform bill. That, of course, involves working its way through a host of ridiculous amendments proposed by Republicans not so much to prevent the fixes as to just make everything difficult and time-consuming and to make the process feel as negative and horrible as possible. That is the strategy. It’s about flooding the media with their negative messages and about preventing anything else from getting done. But it can’t go on indefinitely, and mcjoan is already seeing signs that they’re “giving in to the inevitable–passage of this bill.”

In the mean time, the early responses to passage of reform are good. A Gallup poll found that people think it’s a good thing the bill was passed, 49% to 40%. A CBS poll that resurveyed people who had already been polled on health care reform found support five points higher than previously, though support still trails, 42% to 46%.

So it’s looking like a slog, and no doubt Senate Republicans and their allies on cable television will make it as painful as possible to get to the final vote for the reform bill fix. But we’re getting there.

Tags: health care reform