President will veto HR6331

The Hill is reporting that President Bush will veto HR6331:

White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters Bush would veto the measure. “[D]oes the president still intend to veto this bill? … The answer is yes,” he said.

The question is why did the nine Republican Senators who switched from voting against cloture on June 26th to vote for cloture on July 9th? Watching events unfold the nine switchers were last to vote, they clearly voted as a group - how should we interpret their actions? What were they waiting for? Were they waiting to see if there were sixty votes without one of them? Or was it senatorial courtesy to put an exclamation mark on Senator Kennedy's return?

If they were waiting to see if there would be 60 without counting their votes then I think they made a statement that they did not want to revisit the legislation. Politically they would face a major storm if the July 15th deadline comes and goes; if a Presidential veto was sustained I don't know how the House and the Senate could get legislation through by Monday so there would be disruption of people's healthcare.

Any disruption in the provision of Medicare services would be seen as the fault of which ever Senators switched back. It is difficult to see the political logic of any one of the nine - Hutchison (TX), Isakson (GA), Chambliss (GA), Martinez (FL), Warner (VA), Corker (TN), Specter (PA), Cornyn (TX), Alexander (TN) - changing their vote. What would be the upside? But in any case the story isn't over yet.

If your Senator is one of the sixty nine who voted Aye yesterday now would be a good time to thank them; if your Senator is one of the thirty who voted Nay then they should hear that sustaining the Presidents veto would be very damaging to those who rely on Medicare to pay for the provision of their healthcare. It's time to move on.

Comments

[Norm Erwin]

Your article indicates Harry Reid, D-NV as voting Yea on HR.3661.
The AARP web site claims he voted no (as of June 26th, 2008)....

"Harry Reid (D-NV), in his position as Senate Majority Leader, voted "No" for procedural reasons, in order to keep open the possibility of bringing this issue back to the Senate floor."

(http://capwiz.com/aarp/vote.xc/?votenum=160&
chamber=S&congress=1102&voteid=11553051&state
=US#summary)

Which article is accurate ?

[Bill Peckham]

I see by your later comment that you've answered your question. I think the Senators know that while the official vote on HR6331 on June 26th was 58 to 40, the true vote was 59 to 39. Senator Reid changed his vote in order to preserve his ability to reintroduce the legislation.

So really both statements are correct. And as you saw the strategy worked Senator Reid reintroduced the legislation on July 9th and won the day. You have to give Senator Reid a great deal of credit for the political strategy that created a veto proof vote.