In the dead of the night at 1:33 a.m., both Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner voted for cloture [1] for the Senate version of the health care bill.
Now the bill must receive final passage, likely Christmas Eve, in the Senate (only a simple majority is required, so some Democrats who voted for cloture could vote against final passage and the bill will still pass) and then go to conference with the House to work out the details between the one passed there and this one.
Rightfully so, Democratic Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin compared last night’s vote [2] to the 1935 Social Security vote and the 1965 Medicare vote – both entitlements which are bankrupting our country.
The U.S. currently has a $12.1 Trillion national debt and rising, where entitlement spending, even without this measure being passed, is going to be 50% of all federal outlays by 2019. And this, of course, doesn’t account for debt interest payments either.
Makes you proud to be an American.