GOP win toughens task for Obama
Dems ponder what to do on health care
By Kathy Kiely and John Fritze USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — One year to the day after his euphoric inauguration, President Obama will spend today trying to rescue his legislative agenda after an election upset in Massachusetts that jeopardizes his top domestic priority, health care. Republican Scott Brown’s triumph over Democrat Martha Coakley in Tuesday’s special Senate race marks the third statewide loss in a row for the president’s party and one fraught with political and policy implications. Brown gives the Republicans the 41st vote they would need to block legislation in the Senate and puts an opponent of the Democratic health care legislation into the seat occupied for 47 years by Edward Kennedy, a liberal icon and leading advocate for expanding the nation’s health care coverage. The Republican’s victory comes as Democratic congressional leaders have been negotiating a compromise health care bill that would reconcile differences between bills approved in the House and Senate. It set off an immediate debate over how quickly Brown should be seated. “I am ready to go to Washington without delay,” he told supporters at a Boston victory party. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that Brown will be seated “as soon as the proper paperwork has been received.” That process could take up to 15 days, leaving the Senate seat in the hands of interim appointee Paul Kirk, a Democrat. Some Democratic supporters of the health care bill, including Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., warned against any effort to pass it before Brown is seated. Brown’s victory means Congress will have to “start over” on the legislation, Frank said. Another Massachusetts Democrat, Rep. Bill Delahunt, said his party may need to take a more “incremental” approach to health care. Brown touted his come-from-behind Senate bid as a chance to put the brakes on the Obama agenda, pleading with voters to make him the Republicans’ “41st senator.” The president, who campaigned unsuccessfully for Democratic gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia, also saw the race as a referendum on his program. In taped phone calls, he told Massachusetts voters that his efforts to pass health care legislation, regulate the financial industry and promote a green economy “will probably rest on one vote in the United States Senate.” Obama’s appeal left some supporters unmoved. Susan Semeta of Raynham, Mass., said she voted for the president last year but didn’t vote Tuesday. The president told Brown he “looks forward to working with him,” in a phone call Tuesday night, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Posted on
Wed, January 20, 2010
by Bill Sarpalius