President Barack Obama stumped Sunday for the Democratic candidate in Massachusetts’ knife-edge Senate election, saying that his legislative agenda depended on her winning.
The seat, which was occupied by Edward Kennedy for almost five decades before his death in August, was considered a Democratic stronghold. But candidate Martha Coakley finds herself struggling ahead of Tuesday’s vote against Republican opponent Scott Brown.
A win by Brown would strip the Democrats of their 60th Senate seat, meaning their majority was no longer big enough to easily override Republican opposition to Obama’s bitterly fought health care reforms and other major projects.
“A lot of these measures are going to rest on one vote in the United States Senate,” Obama told a noisy Coakley rally in Boston.
“That’s why the opponents of change and progress have been pouring money in,” he said. “They want to keep things as they are.”
Democratic senators say they have a tentative deal to drop a government-run insurance option from health care legislation. No further details were immediately available.
But liberals and moderates have been discussing an alternative, including a private insurance arrangement to be supervised by the federal agency that oversees the system through which lawmakers purchase coverage. Additionally, talks centered on opening up Medicare to uninsured Americans beginning at age 55, a significant expansion of the large government health care program that currently serves the over-65 population.
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa told reporters he didn’t like the agreement but would support it to the hilt in an attempt to pass health care legislation.
After months of maneuvering, the Senate stands at the brink of a historic battle over health care with President Barack Obama and his allies on one side and Republicans, outnumbered but unflinching, on the other.
“Now it’s America’s turn, and this will not be a short debate,” Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, warned after Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled long-awaited legislation Wednesday night to extend coverage to 30 million more Americans and force insurance companies to take all comers.
President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority, remaking US health care, took another step closer to becoming reality Thursday as his top House allies unveiled sweeping compromise legislation.
“Today we are about to deliver on the promise of making affordable, quality health care available for all Americans, laying the foundation for a brighter future for generations to come,” said Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
With time running short before a self-imposed year-end deadline, the House of Representatives could vote as early as next week on the measure, which includes a government-backed insurance plan to compete with private firms.
Democrats estimated the measure would cost 894 billion over 10 years and expand health insurance to 36 million Americans, helping to extend coverage to 96 percent of the population of the world’s richest nation.
Majority Leader Harry Reid says health care legislation headed to the Senate floor will include an option for government-run insurance. Reid says states will have the prerogative of opting out of the program if they choose. Reid noted that polls show widespread public support for giving the government a role in the overhauled health care system envisioned by President Barack Obama and his allies in Congress.
Senate leaders on Thursday announced a climactic Finance Committee vote next week on health care legislation, even as Democrats and Republicans kept feuding over its cost and breadth of coverage.
Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Finance Committee will vote Tuesday on a 10-year, $829-billion proposal that would expand coverage to 94 percent of eligible Americans_while reducing the federal deficit. A positive cost report on the legislation Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office marked a turning point for its main author, Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.
Immediately after announcing plans for the vote, Reid, D-Nev., tore into Republicans Thursday, saying they have no health plan of their own to offer and are only trying to obstruct.
“There are still those who consider this a zero-sum game, and will only declare victory if President Obama concedes defeat,” Reid said. “Let me be clear: Just as Democrats believe in ensuring quality, affordable care for every American citizens, we believe equally as strongly that this country has no place for those who wish for it or its leaders to fail.”
He accused Republicans of following a strategy of “distortion, distractions and deception,” and challenged them to be “productive partners rather than partisan protesters”
