A cooperative Republican

 by Sibyl West

If you are not aware of it by now, the so-called health care bill is stuffed inside the Department of Defense spending bill. This pretty much forces every member of congress to vote for it or be labeled an anti-troop cretin.

It also gives a convenient excuse to them after their vote. Today at Politico Live Pulse  we find this:

HEALTH CARE TIMELINE STILL ON TRACK:
Reid was still struggling Thursday to find abortion language acceptable to swing-vote Sen. Ben Nelson. On the spending bill, Republican Sens. Collins, Snowe and Hutchison sided with Democrats in supporting the vote to limit debate, which passed shortly after 1 a.m.

If a man is known by the company he keeps what does that say about Hutchison?  Sheeesh! Does this have anything to do with “returning Texas Taxpayers’ Money Back To The State”?

Poor Richard weighs in:

My understanding is that the budget bill with the military spending passed last night at 1:00 am when 92 year old Robert Byrd made an appearance, assuring the Dems of the 60 vote margin to approve the bill before they returned to the healthcare debate.  As far as I know, they are still seperate bills.  The Senate crammed every other piece of legislation on their agenda into it to get it out of the way and return to the debate.  It was only after they 60 vote threashold was assured that the 3 Republicans broke ranks in order to support the troops.  In other words, it didn’t matter and the vote was for show.  Kay is running for governor and Perry would have attacked her for not voting for the bill.  This ain’t her first rodeo.

Feel like calling Kay Bailey Hutchison’s office to tell her what you think? Jon says:

I would also suggest calling her campaign office where they will actually answer the phones. Below is Garrett Payne’s information, he is the KBH campaign representative for Central Texas. Also Hans Kilinger is the campaign Political Director, he would also be a good person to call.   You can reach him at the “Main” number below.

Garrett Payne

Regional Political Director

Texans for Kay Bailey Hutchison

Main: 512.236.8656

Fax: 512.236.8674

Cell: 512.705.0261

More from LivePulse:
TENTATIVE SKED FROM REID’S OFFICE:

• “We will have a cloture vote on the message from the House on the defense conference report at 1 a.m. Friday morning.
• We would then have a vote on final passage on the bill at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning.
• Following passage of the DoD bill, Senator Reid would file cloture on the manager’s amendment, substitute amendment and the underlying bill on health care. This would set up the first cloture vote on the manager’s amendment on Monday morning at 1 a.m.
• The second cloture vote on the substitute amendment would be Tuesday at 7 a.m.
• And, the cloture vote on the underlying bill would be Wednesday at around 1 p.m.
• We could get an agreement to wrap up and have a final passage vote on the 23rd, however Republicans could continue to not cooperate and force us to have a vote on final passage on Christmas Eve.
• We then need to deal with the debt limit. If we get consent with the Republicans, we could vote on that before we leave for Christmas. If not, we will have to come back the week between Christmas and New Years to vote on that.”