Senator Jim Webb (D-Va.), the 60th and deciding vote [1] to move healthcare forward on Dec. 24, 2009, says he’s still ‘skeptical’ about the Congressional Budget Office scoring of the bill.
In a WSLS interview [2], Webb said:
“I’ve been skeptical about the numbers. I’ve said it from the beginning. It’s my biggest problem with the legislation.”
He also admitted:
“Realistically, I hope we can find efficiencies in Medicare, but I don’t think we’ll find a half trillion dollars in Medicare.”
And, he said that the Senate should not have moved forward without clear guidance from the President:
“[President Obama,] [y]ou give us a bill and we will legislate.” He went on to say, “We should have done that. We didn’t. We are here now with the end result. We have to clean it up and help the American people understand that this is not socialization of the medical program.”
I think it bears repeating: Sen. Jim Webb was the 60th and deciding vote [1] on this bill.
Nice to see that he voted his conscience.
“Born fighting”?