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Two Florida Dems among the 39 who rejected Health care bill

November 9, 2009 at 9:16 am by Mitch Perry

images Blue Dog North Florida Representative Allen Boyd and Orlando area Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas were the two Democrats who joined all of the Republicans in the Florida Congressional Caucus in voting against the $1.1 trillion health care reform bill. The bill barely squeaked by in the House Saturday night on a 220-215 vote.

In a lengthy press release his office distributed before his vote, Boyd, who represents the Panhandle area, concluded:

“My vote against H.R. 3962, the House’s first attempt at a healthcare bill, is not a vote against responsible reform. Rather, it is a signal that our work in Congress is not yet complete. Reducing the cost of healthcare services must be the focus of any reform package, and I will continue working, as I’ve always done, to fix what’s wrong with our healthcare system, to continue what’s right, and to ensure Americans have access to affordable, quality coverage they need.”

Boyd is a Blue Dog conservative Democrat, Kosmas a centrist concerned about keeping her seat in 2010; a cursory look at the other Democrats who voted against the bill are all in that category, with one notable exception: Ohio’s Dennis Kucinich.

The progressive representative described the legislation as a ‘bailout under a blue cross.”

Kucinich is a major backer of a singer-payer form of health care, of which there are a considerable amount in the House. Some supporters of that system, as well as just plain political analysts, feel it was a poor negotiating move for the Obama Administration to take that position off the table immediately. They said it has now allowed the “public option” to become the be-all, end-all for liberals in terms of achieving true competition in the marketplace, an option that has been easy for Republicans to oppose.

Major props must be given to the oft-criticized Nancy Pelosi, for doing what she had to do to corral the 218 votes plus secure passage of the legislation. It meant swallowing hard and accepting an amendment by Michigan’s Bart Stupak banning abortion votes; that got her the number of votes she needed, but at the same time alienated pro-choice Democrats who are not happy with the inclusion of that amendment.

As Politico reports this morning:

But the speaker’s decision — like so many others she made during the drafting of this bill — showed Pelosi, a Roman Catholic and committed supporter of reproductive rights, to be more ruthlessly practical than her frequent caricature as an activist, upper-crust liberal from San Francisco would suggest.

It wasn’t just that she was disappointing some members over a last-minute change they disagreed with. She had to take on her closest and senior-most lieutenants on an issue that for many of them is like an article of faith, a defining tenet of what makes them a Democrat. And when she needed the votes, that’s what she did.

Now of course, all of the attention turns to the Senate and Majority Leader Harry Reid’s quest to get 60 votes. A public option is in the House bill — whether some form of it will be in the Senate’s is one of the central questions that will dominate Washington domestic politics up until and perhaps past the holidays.

South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham called the House bill “dead on arrival in the Senate,” and Connecticut’s Joe Lieberman said if the bill in the Senate contains the public option, he will not allow the bill to come to the floor.

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Two Florida Dems among the 39 who rejected Health care bill

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