Reid Seeks Momentum in Health Debate

By: Michelle Levi
Topics: Washington Unplugged

On Saturday, the Senate will vote on whether to begin debate on the health care reform bill introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) earlier this week.

Reid "wants to get that wind under his belt before all these senators leave for Thanksgiving recess and don't see each other for another week or so," CBS News' Capitol Hill Correspondent Nancy Cordes said on "Washington Unplugged" Friday.

She said members of the Senate leadership are increasingly confident that they will get the sixty votes needed to start debate on the health care bill. Right now, Cordes said, Reid has the solid support of fifty-eight senators.

"We are getting smoke signals from just about everybody at this point that in fact they will vote yes to actually start this debate in motion," Cordes told Bob Schieffer. "They are not saying how they will vote in the end but the consensus seems to be, 'why not start debating it then you can bring up amendments to try to change the parts of the bill that you don't like, and then in the end you can always vote no again?'"

The interview took place at the Senate's Russell Rotunda, where a concert was taking place below. As the health care debrief came to an end, a loud crescendo could be heard.

"It's a very dramatic issue," Cordes joked.

To watch the full interview click on the video above.

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CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care

"Washington Unplugged" appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.

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by hhchau November 24, 2009 11:09 AM EST: The Health Care system in our country is currently controlled by those Insurance Company. Obviously they will not want to loose those huge sum of money and the power they enjoy right now. To not to loose that they will have to fight to the end of their strength no matter what. Republican Party is just a tool for them to manipulate. As an average American who is tired of the increased cost of Health Insurance, I surely support the Bill 100%. I am also very confident that most of average American will be behind the Health Care Reform as well, except those do not understand the Health Care Reform and were influenced by sophisticated trick from Republican Party.; Reply to this comment

by markj2 November 20, 2009 3:52 PM EST

Harry maybe smiling now, but he's going to be crying like a baby when it gets shot down in the Senate and he can't go to his Lord & Master Obama and say I did what you asked.But thats only the beginning,he will never get re-elected in his home state and will be put out to pasture like the rest of the old goats still living off the tax-payers dime that are in Congress. But 2010 is right around the corner and people will remember what they tried to ram down our throats. May God have mercy on them for what they tried to do,and have done already.

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by velma179 November 20, 2009 4:27 PM EST: by markj2 November 20, 2009 3:52 PM EST

Wrong. (though, I do hope God has mercy on those that have cared more for money than people...)

********

by bobbyduck1 November 20, 2009 4:15 PM EST

Right on!


by bc-1948 November 20, 2009 4:38 PM EST: You obviously don't have a clue about health insurance costs in the real world. Do you pay for your own or have company provided insurance? If you are a small business owner like I am, providing group health insurance for my employees, you would be on board for this plan. Of course, if you are a small business that doesn't provide health benefits and don't want to provide health benefits, this perhaps I understand your selfish motive for being against it. If you are small business that doesn't provide health benefits, but believe you shoud, then again you should be for this bill.

They aren't "raming" anything down your throat - just setting minimum standards that all insurance policies must contain - which is a good thing if you would ever lose your job, couldn't afford COBRA, had pre-exisiting conditions, developed serious illness and could no longer work, etc. Wouldn't you want to be able to obtain insurance coverage without having it bankrupt you?

by mmvale November 20, 2009 3:02 PM EST

I want to help other get health insurance. Can we do it in 10 pages or less? Speak up, Americans!

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by bc-1948 November 20, 2009 4:24 PM EST: The short answer is NO - if you think so, you don't understand the legal process - have you ever been to court or seen trial transcripts? The health care bill is a legal document - as such, it is in legal form - as all previous bills are. If you look at the bill, you will find it is double spaced, in large print, wide margins, 25 lines per page with an average of about 150 words per page. That is why it is 2,000 pages long.

A lot of the pages are redundant - because there are entire sections covering different groups of people now covered under a variety of other government plans, Medicaid, Medicare, Native Americans, VA, etc.

Read the meat of the bill - don't get distracted by all the required legal structure.


by velma179 November 20, 2009 4:32 PM EST: The way legislation is written is not like your average reading material.

The margins are wide, it is double spaced with Headings, Sections and References (lots of references... new law has to reference the old law it replaces). It is very "wordy" as it is written in the very preciise language of law/law making.

If you condensed a 2000 page piece of legislation to the "normal" parameters of say, a novel... you would have approximately 600 pages.

I can assure you, we WANT law making to be detailed. So, no -- we can't do it in 10 pages or less. That would be a terrible idea.


by us_1776 November 20, 2009 2:48 PM EST: Let's get this healthcare reform passed before the entire system collapses!

Finally we are doing something with taxpayers money that actually benefits taxpayers instead of the "corporate" barons!

Far better than all the reckless trillions that were totally wasted on war spending that drained our treasury and didn't help the average American one bit just the "corporate" war machine companies like Halliburton.; Reply to this comment

by mmvale November 20, 2009 2:47 PM EST

Reid is smiling because he knows he won't have to get his healthcare from this bill. Nor will anyone is congress. Just the average American taxpayer.

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by bc-1948 November 20, 2009 4:31 PM EST: Again, you are just repeating the Rush line. This bill does not require the "average American taxpayer" to take this insurance. But, it does require that if you have private insurance, it must be at least equal to the mininum coverage required under this bill. That's a good thing and something you should be happy about. If you lose your job and can't afford to keep your current insurance under COBRA, here is a backup plan that can't turn you down if you have a medical condition - can't make you pay more if you are female or age 60 vs 40. I own a small business - have group health insurance - but the premiums are staggering! - Just for myself and my spouse - $21,000 this year. It isn't a "cadillac" plan - a 70/30 split.

I don't care if you like what you have and don't want to switch. You won't have to as long as what you now have is equal to the mininum coverage required. But, give me and others like me a chance to consider wanting to switch to something like the public option or the Health Exchange so we can become part of a large pool - sharing risk across millions instead of being individually rated as a small group.


by velma179 November 20, 2009 4:37 PM EST: Thank you bc-1948...

I repeated your correct assessment of the language of law above, so I'll just say "agreed" here.

Thank you for posting. It is always good to see your "handle".