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本帖最后由 qxn_1987 于 2009-12-22 22:46 编辑
Republicans, who have been fighting tooth-and-nail(拼命) to block passage of the bill seem to have given up the fight, and have given warning instead that this will be a wish that he comes to regret.
Shortly after 1am on Monday December 21st, the health bill cleared the first, and the most difficult, of the procedural hurdles it has to
leap
in order to secure passage through the Senate. Technically only a motion to end debate on a “manager's amendment” put together by the Senate's majority leader, Harry Reid, what the vote really represented was a crucial exercise in nose-counting(投票计数;凭票数做出的决定;清点人数). The result was a vote on precisely partisan lines, with all 40 Republicans opposed, and all 58 Democrats plus the two independents who are grouped with them voting in favour. Since 60 votes is the precise number needed to
avoid a filibuster,
there was no room for error whatsoever, the reason why the procedural motion had taken so long. But with all 60 members of the “Democratic caucus” now signed up, the final vote, on Christmas Eve, looks like a formality.
From the point of view of the Democrats, this victory has come at a high price. The health bill has been stripped of
something very dear to many of then: a “public option” of a government-backed insurance scheme that would compete with private insurers in order, supposedly, to keep costs down and guarantee access. The version of the bill already passed by the House of Representatives does contain just such a public option, one of several reasons why final passage of a reconciled bill is still a way off. Some Democrats hope, however, that a public option can be added later on, after the initial bill has gone into effect.
Republicans, however, hate the bill, mostly on the ground of cost. The advertised price-tag of the Senate bill is a bit under $900 billion over the next ten years, but Republicans contend that the numbers will be much higher than that, as the cost of subsidies has been underestimated and predicted savings will not materialise. Even at the stated number, this is a large bill at a time when America is running huge deficits that it urgently needs to tackle. The Senate bill is "paid for", but only in the sense that it provides for large charges on the most expensive private insurance policies, and because it factors in deep cuts to Medicare((美国政府办的)医疗保险制度) the health-insurance scheme for the elderly. Republicans say these will never be enacted. Past history provides them with evidence to back up
that claim.
Less politically involved observers also note that it is unprecedented for such a substantive and expensive bill to have been forced through Congress on such a narrow vote. The bill passed the House on a margin of just five votes, and in the Senate it has no safety margin. With no bipartisan support at all, Democrats will be held solely responsible if the reform turns out to be a disappointment. Some studies have suggested that private insurance premiums could rise substantially in response to the new burdens being placed on insurers.
Completion of work on the bill is by no means a formality, though it does now look more or less certain that the Senate will vote the bill out before Christmas. The next difficulty will come in producing a single “reconciled” version from the very different bills that the Senate and House have produced; that reconciled bill then has to go back for final clearance by both chambers. The public option is one big stumbling block(障碍物;绊脚石). It is clear that the Senate cannot pass any version of a bill that contains a public option, so the House will have to give ground, which is going to require a lot of presidential arm-twisting(压力或影响) in January.
Comments:
Obama became a well-known name since 2008 presidential campign. He defeated his competitor---Republican nominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States as the first black president. And most Amercians place high expectation on him. Obama has made several vital decisions since his inauguration. One among of them is America’s health-care bill which he has supported intensively and called for Congress to pass. Obviously, the sweeping reform Bill has met various of obstacles and barriers in the process. Republicans remain almost unanimously opposed, decrying its huge cost and the tax increases needed to pay for it., while Democrats support it strongly.
(现在貌似可以改过来了。。。) |
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