Not too many progressive bloggers gave a shit, so few of us wrote about it, but there was test-vote of sorts for the health care reforms today in the House of Representatives. Without getting too detailed, former Democrat Parker Griffith of Alabama forced a vote on whether or not the Democrats could proceed with their plan to hold a single vote on passing both the Senate bill and the reconciliation changes. The Democrats prevailed in a 222-203 tally that might be a good indicator of the final vote on health care reform itself. There were 28 Democratic ‘no’ votes:
Adler (NJ), Arcuri (NY), Boren (OK), Bright (AL), Carney (PA), Childers (MS), Cooper (TN), Costello (IL), Dahlkemper (PA), Davis (AL), Giffords (AZ), Herseth Sandlin (SD), Holden (PA), Kosmas (FL), Kratovil (MD), Lipinski (IL), McIntyre (NC), McNerney (CA), Melancon (LA), Michaud (ME), Minnick (ID), Mitchell (AZ), Nye (VA), Perriello (VA), Shuler (NC) , Stupak (MI), Taylor (MS), Teague (NM)
This isn’t a perfect reflection of the final vote, but it is pretty close. Why vote for the ‘deem and pass’ rule if you are going to vote against the bill? Well, it’s kind of dickish to vote against the leadership on procedural bullshit like this. But, really, if you voted ‘yes’ on this, you are probably voting ‘yes’ on final passage, too.
