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Published: November 8, 2009 3:00 a.m.

Bickering delays vote on health care bill

United GOP opposes as passage looks inevitable

Dana Milbank
Washington Post
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Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, planned to vote against the bill, saying it would “give free health care to illegals who take your jobs.”

In a brief speech on the House floor, Souder said the bill is “1,998 pages of ignoring the voices of American people.”

Souder said that instead of private companies and the competition that comes from capitalism resolving how health care is provided, the government will take over, taxing small businesses and the companies that do medical research and development.

He said the bill is too costly at a time when unemployment is too high.

“We are in economic crisis in this country,” Souder said, pointing to the 10 percent national unemployment rate, adding that half the counties in northeast Indiana have even higher jobless rates at about 15 percent.

With the bill, Souder said, “you get higher taxes, fewer jobs, an unconstitutional takeover of 17 percent of our economy and a trillion dollars of debt and free health care for the illegals who took your jobs.”

WASHINGTON – House Democrats were on the cusp of passing health-care legislation Saturday. The Republicans objected. Often.

The debate was only a few minutes old when Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., rose to speak. “I ask unanimous consent … ”

“I object!” shouted Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., the leader of House conservatives.

“ … to revise and extend … ” Capps continued.

“I object! I object!” Price hollered.

Capps tried again. “I ask unanimous consent to revise my … ”

“I object!”

“ … remarks … ”

“I object! I object! I object! I object!”

The presiding officer pointed out that Capps had not said anything that could be objected to.

Capps started over. “I ask unanimous consent to revise my remarks … ”

“I object!” cried Price, sounding like Ned Flanders on “The Simpsons.” “I object! I object! I object! I object!”

“ … care denied because of a pre-existing condition … ”

“I object! I object! I object!”

In the first 40 minutes of Saturday’s debate on the landmark bill, representatives from the minority party objected – or threatened to object – no fewer than 75 times, throwing in 35 “parliamentary inquiries” for good measure. The debate was delayed by nearly 90 minutes.

This objectionable situation captured the spirit of the day’s debate on and off the House floor. The weight of the moment proved too heavy a lift for the people writing the moment into history.

The vote had been expected to be a dramatic showdown. But on the eve of the debate, Democratic leaders forced liberals to swallow an anti-abortion amendment that brought enough moderates on board to make passage highly likely. Republican leaders, in turn, removed any suspense on their side when they pledged earlier in the week that all members of their caucus would oppose the bill. The result was a debate ranging from petty to insipid.

Democrats seemed to be taunting the minority as they began their celebration hours before the vote. President Obama visited with House Democrats at midday, and White House spokesman Bill Burton reported that members spontaneously chanted the Obama campaign slogan “Fired up! Ready to go!” This was not audible to reporters standing just outside the door.

Republicans, meanwhile, skipped out of the chamber mid-debate to join several hundred conservative activists at a protest on the Capitol lawn. “My vote is not just no – I wish there was a place for ‘Hell, no,’ ” Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, told the crowd. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, led a chant of “Hell, no!”

Demonstrators shouted out “Tyranny!” and “Down with Mao!”

Activists wheeled a giant toilet paper roll, made from a printout of the health-care bill, toward the Capitol. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., gave demonstrators passes to the House gallery – a gesture that may have been related to the disruptions there later in the day.

Then again, it was difficult to tell the disruptions in the gallery from those on the House floor.

At the speaker’s desk, octogenarian Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich, who held the gavel when Medicare was passed in 1965, pounded that same mallet for silence. “We are getting ourselves into an unnecessarily deep parliamentary morass,” he declared. “If my colleagues on the chair’s left would hold these objections, we would not be in this snarl.”

“Mr. Speaker!” one of the Republicans interrupted. “I reserve the right to object.”

– Sylvia A. Smith, Washington editor