Washington, March 22: With the clock showing 2:25 p.m. local time on Sunday and formal proceedings for a House vote on healthcare reform underway as this report goes to press, the numbers game appears to be tipping towards a historic victory for Democrats and President Obama.
Earlier, House Democrat John Larson of Connecticut said on CNN’s State of the Union telecast that his party had garnered the votes necessary to get the bill passed.
Speaking on a panel alongside House Republican Mike Spence, Mr. Larson said House Democrats had reached the crucial 216-vote mark to see the bill through. However Mr. Spence said that House Republicans would do everything in their power to stop the bill from passing; yet he refused to reveal any details about specific plans.
Late reports said Democratic Representative Bart Stupak, one of the principal voices of opposition to the bill’s abortion language was in discussions with the White House to get that language “tightened up” in particular by using a Presidential Executive Order for that purpose. Additionally Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords as having switched her vote to “yes.”
The debate on the floor of the House began with one of the rising stars of the Republican party, Representative Paul Ryan denouncing the reform bill as the “mother of all unfunded mandates,” which would push the deficit of the U.S. up dramatically.
With 178 Republicans set to vote lock-step against the bill on the floor of the House, they would require at least 38 Democrats to join them in order to kill the bill off. According to reports 33 Democrats had confirmed they would vote against the bill.
In terms of the procedure to be followed, the overall vote will comprise three sub-votes: first, the House will vote on the rules of the vote itself, second, it will vote on the Senate version of the bill, and third, it will vote on changes to the Senate bill.
—-Agencies