Obama's health win: 'Let's make history'

220-215, with 39 Democrats voting no, and one Republican voting yes.

220-215.

The first full vote on the health-care reform that President Barack Obama is demanding from Congress by year's end arrived late last night in the House.

"Let's keep making history,'' the president told supporters in a Democratic Party email that went out after the 11:15 pm EST vote.

"Despite countless attempts over nearly a century, no chamber of Congress has ever before passed comprehensive health reform,' Obama said. "This is history.''

Not the kind of history that House Republcan Leader John Boehner was hoping to make in Washington, however.

"I came here to renew the American Dream, so my kids and their kids have the same opportunities I had,'' Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement issued after the vote. "I came here to fight big-government monstrosities like this bill that dim the light of freedom and diminish opportunity for future generations.''

Thirty nine Democrats voted against the bill, and one Republican voted for it: First-term Rep. Joseph Cao, from an overwhelmingly Democratic district in New Orleans.

"I read the versions of the House bill.,'' Cao explained of his vote. " listened to the countless stories of Orleans and Jefferson Parish citizens whose health care costs are exploding - if they are able to obtain health care at all. Louisianans needs real options for primary care, for mental health care, and for expanded health care for seniors and children.

Obama was away at Camp David for the night.

"This is a night to celebrate -- but not to rest,'' the president's email said. "Those who voted for reform deserve our thanks, and the next phase of this fight has already begun.''

The Senate phase.

"The isurance companies are already pressing hard for a filibuster to bury it,'' the president's email to Organizing for America members warns.

The email, of course, asks for money -- if only $5 -- to help OFA keep organizing its grassroots organization calling on Congress to "finish this fight.''

"Tonight's vote brought every American closer to the secure, affordable care we need. But it was also a watershed moment in how change is made,'' the email signed by Obama said. "Even after last year's election, many insider lobbyists and partisan operatives really thought that the old formula of scare tactics, D.C. back-scratching and special-interest money would still be enough to block any idea they didn't like. Now, they're desperate.

"In the final phases of last year's election, I often reminded folks, "Don't think for a minute that power concedes without a fight," and it's especially true today,'' the president's fundraisng message concluded. "But that's okay -- we're not afraid of a fight. And as you continue to prove, when all of us work together, we have what it takes to win.''

The battle is far from finished.

"Americans want a common-sense approach to health care reform, not Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 2,032-page government takeover that increases costs, adds to our skyrocketing debt, destroys jobs with tax hikes and new mandates, and cuts seniors' Medicare benefits,'' Boehner said.

"Republicans have better solutions to lower costs and expand access to quality care - especially for those with pre-existing conditions - without adding to the crushing debt Washington has placed on our children and grandchildren,'' he said. "Our plan will lower premiums by up to 10 percent, making health care more affordable for families and small businesses. That's what the American people want, and that's what Republicans will continue to fight for."

But after months of opposition from the Republicans and division within Democratic ranks over the shape that health-care reform should take, it is the Democratic plan that is moving.

Now the eyes of history turn to the Senate.

"Rarely has the disconnect between Congress and the American people been clearer than the vote tonight,'' said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) after the House vote. "Americans want lower costs, less government intrusion, a simpler approach and less spending. Instead, the Democrat leadership has just forced through a partisan, 2,000-page bureaucratic monstrosity--a trillion-dollar government experiment that raises premiums, raises taxes and slashes Medicare to create more government programs. That's not reform.''

The Swamp by Mark Silva

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/11/obamas_health_wi...