US President Barack Obama on Sunday urged Senate Democrats to work out their differences on healthcare reform and pass what will be the most significant social legislation in decades.
Obama met with party members during a Senate session as Democratic leaders push to pass major healthcare reform this month, a top domestic priority for Obama.
Senate Democratic leaders are struggling to resolve differences over a proposed new government-run public insurance plan and abortion language in an effort to gather the votes needed to overcome Republican opposition.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who played a major role in writing the healthcare overhaul, predicted the legislation would pass. Obama told senators the public would reward Democrats for decades to come if they pass what will be the most significant social legislation since Congress enacted Social Security in 1935, Baucus said.
Vice President Joe Biden joined the closed-door session.
“It’s very easy to get wrapped around the axle and forget what this is all about,” said Democratic Senator Kent Conrad, who played a significant role in developing the bill that aims to rein in soaring healthcare costs and expand coverage to more than 30 million people who now have no insurance.
Republicans uniformly oppose the bill, saying it would bring too much government intrusion into the US$2.5 trillion healthcare system. They are urging far more modest measures that aim to reduce premiums by limiting medical malpractice law suits and allowing insurance companies to sell policies across state lines. States now regulate health insurance markets.
Meanwhile, the Senate continued to work through the amendments to the legislation. It failed to pass an amendment by Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln that would have put new limits on tax deductions healthcare insurance companies could take for executive pay. The amendment would have put the limit at US$400,000. The legislation as it now stands limits the deduction at US$500,000.
A majority of senators, 56, voted for the amendment, but it needed 60 votes to pass.
The Senate may have tackled the controversial abortion issue yesterday. Some anti-abortion senators want to make sure that government subsidies are not used to purchase policies that provide abortion services.
Abortion rights supporters are worried that language being considered would bar all policies, even those purchased without subsidies, from covering legal abortion services.
The House of Representatives passed healthcare reform early last month and Senate Democrats are racing to finish their version of the bill before the end of this month. The two chambers would have to work out their differences before a final bill can be sent to Obama to be signed into law.
Democrats have little room for error. They control exactly 60 votes in the 100-member Senate, the number needed to overcome Republican opposition.
A group of moderate and liberal Democrats met on Sunday in hopes of reaching a compromise on the proposed public option. Some senators have said they will vote against the bill if it includes a public option.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese