Working on the Weekend: The Senate and Healthcare Bill

Kudos to Senator Harry Reid for calling the Senate into session over the weekend to work on the healthcare bill. It was encouraging to see some signs of positive legislative activity this week as Senator Barbara Mikulski offered an amendment to include women’s preventative health services without any co-pay. After the debacle regarding the recommended age to commence mammograms, this amendment improved the bill and made it more likely to pass.

Of course, this was in stark contrast to the Republican amendments where the only goal was to obstruct action and try to pass a poison pill. Thus, Senator John McCain went against the typical Republican beliefs to save money by offering an amendment to “protect” Medicare. His sudden conversion contradicted stands he took in his own campaign and was only meant to destroy the necessary funding needed for the legislation to pass.

Well, at the least the debate has begun, and I think the American people are going to continue to see the Republicans do everything possible to obfuscate and undermine the process. I hope the result is a long period in the political wilderness with the rest of the right-wing nut jobs who form the birthers movement and tea party contingents.