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Whatever your thoughts, the Baucus Bill, the current answer for health care reform, has gotten further than any recent health care reform legislation and it has done so on the back of a 14-9 vote from the Senate Finance Committee. The lone Republican to vote in favor of the bill was Maine senator Olympia Snowe. From ABC News [12]:
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, voted for the bill, becoming the first and only Republican to support the Democratic legislation.
The Senate Finance Committee kicked off the debate today on the health care bill deeply divided across party lines. But Snowe, whose vote is crucial to Democrats, tilted the playing field by saying she will vote on the Democrats' side.
"When history calls, history calls," Snowe said at the committee hearing, but she reiterated her opposition to a government-run insurance option and cautioned that she does not want the bill to get any more expensive as the process moves forward.
"My vote today is my vote today. It doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow," Snowe said.
President Obama praised Snowe and the Senate Finance Committee for their work on health care.
"In particular, Senator Snowe has been extraordinarily diligent in working together so that we can reduce costs of health care, make sure that people who don't have it are covered, to make sure that people who do have insurance have more security and stability and therefore over the long term we're saving families, businesses and our government money," the president told reporters today.
But referring to the final vote, Obama added, "I never count... chickens before they are hatched."
This has gone farther than many thought--and hoped--it would. Do you think the Baucus Bill has enough steam to lead to reform?
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