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Edited on Mon Jan-04-10 08:21 PM by TayTay
About how the Republicans http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=3812480">passed the Medicare Advantage bill from the Congressional Record for the US House for 12/8/2003 At 2:54 in the morning on a Friday in March, this House cut veterans benefits by three votes. At 2:30 a.m. on a Friday in April, in the middle of the night, House Republicans slashed education and health care by five votes. At 1:56 a.m. on a Friday in May, the House passed a leave-no-millionaire-behind tax cut by a couple of votes. At 2:33 a.m. on a Friday in June, House Republicans passed a Medicare privatization and prescription drug bill by one vote. At 12:57 a.m. on a Friday in July, the House Republicans eviscerated Head Start by one vote. Then after summer recess, at 12:12 a.m. on a Friday morning, in the wee hours of Thursday night in October, the House voted $87 billion for Iraq. Always in the middle of the night, always a contentious bill, always after the press had passed their deadlines, always after the American people had turned off the news and gone to bed. SNIP But let me, before finishing, let me go back to what exactly happened that Friday night, early Saturday morning when the drug bill passed. The vote started Friday at about midnight, the vote on the Medicare privatization bill. The debate started Friday at about midnight. The rollcall began at 3 a.m. Most of us took our vote cards, our little plastic cards, put them in the little box and pushed either the green or the red button. The clock runs out after 15 minutes, but it is usually kept open for another 2 to 5 minutes. Typically, a vote here is often about 20 minutes. But the Republicans were behind the entire evening; the vote was losing. At 3:30, 4 o'clock in the morning, the vote was 216 to 218. It was defeated. A majority was voting ``no,'' with only one Member, a Democrat, not yet voted. At about 4 o'clock the vote had stayed open for 1 full hour. That is when the assault began. The gentleman from Illinois (Speaker Hastert), the gentleman from Texas (Majority Leader DELAY), the gentleman from Missouri (Republican Whip BLUNT), the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin), the chairman of the Committee on Commerce; the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means all were walking the floor, surfing for stray Republicans who were most likely to cave whom they could bully or whom they could brow beat. They surrounded the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot), trying a carrot and then a stick; but he stood his ground and was defiant. They tried a retiring Republican, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith), whose son is running to succeed him. They promised support if he changed his vote to ``yes'' and threatened his son's future if he refused. He steadfastly, to his credit, showed his integrity and stood his ground. Many of the two dozen Republicans who had voted against the bill had left the floor hoping to avoid the onslaught from the gentleman from Illinois (Speaker Hastert), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DELAY), the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), and the committee chairmen. One Republican that I saw was hiding in the Democratic cloakroom.
By 4:30, the bullying and the brow beating had moved into the Republican cloakroom, out of sight of the television cameras and of the public. The Republican leaders by then had waked up President Bush, and the White House was passing a cell phone from Member to Member in the cloakroom. At 5:55, 2 hours and 55 minutes after the rollcall began, literally twice as long as a vote had ever taken in the U.S. House of Representatives, 2 obscure Western Republicans emerged from the cloakroom, they walked,
ashen and cowed down this aisle, I was sitting right there, down this aisle to the front of the Chamber, they picked up a green card to change their votes, they scrawled their names and district numbers on the cards, and they dispiritedly surrendered the cards to the Clerk. Quickly the Speaker gaveled the bill. Medicare privatization had passed.
Now, imagine an election, an election at home when the polls close at 7:30. Everyone has voted. One candidate trails by a few votes, but election officials, just not liking the outcome, decide to keep the polls open for 3 more hours. They brow beat; they bully. They threaten, they offer jobs, they promise goodies for their neighborhood or for themselves. Finally, lo and behold, the election turns out the way they want.
The new rules in this House of Representatives, Yogi Bera might put it tell us, ``It ain't over until the Republicans and the drug companies win.'' It is sort of Florida all in one night. But the American people should expect more. They should expect the House of Representatives conducted in the open. They should expect Members to honestly, straightforwardly, openly cast their ballots; they should expect a drug pricing policy and a Medicare bill that can hold up, not only in the dark of night, but also in the bright light of the morning. |
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