Sweeping health care legislation has cleared its first hurdle in the Senate on a party-line vote.
The 60-39 vote clears the way for a historic debate after Thanksgiving on the legislation. The measure is designed to extend coverage to an estimated 31 million Americans who lack it and crack down on insurance industry practices that deny benefits.
The vote came in a rare Saturday session in the Senate.
Democrats posted 60 votes in a Senate showdown, precisely the number needed to overcome Republican delaying tactics.
The vote was a major victory for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the White House in a year-end drive to enact the most sweeping changes to the nation's health care system in a half-century or more.
FOX16 Talks to Lincoln
FOX16's Kelly Dudzik talked to Senator Lincoln about her decision Saturday afternoon.
Kelly Dudzik: "Ultimately why did you decide to vote yes?"
Sen. Blanche Lincoln: "Because I know this is not the last opportunity I'll have to vote. There are some good things in the bill, and I certainly have made it clear that I won't be casting any more votes to support a bill until it's been changed. I made it quite clear that I could not support the underlying bill that the majority leader would lay down."
Kelly Dudzik: "So what are some of those changes because this thing is more than two-thousand pages long, you know, there are a lot of things in there that I'm sure we haven't even heard about yet."
Sen. Blanche Lincoln: "I do not believe that we need a public option. I've expressed my concern and my opposition to a government-run government-funded plan. I do not want to see that risk levied on the backs of taxpayers or the treasury, particularly in these economic times, but certainly that we don't need that, and I think our finance committee bill proved that. Proved that we could really make good insurance reforms, that we could create greater options and greater choices for people in the market place and that we could do a good job in protecting Medicare beneficiaries. We want to do more of that, but to do so without the public option."
Kelly Dudzik: "So you think that that can happen? That this can come through without the public option in it, and you're saying just go with Medicare and Medicaid instead of a new public option?"
Sen. Blanche Lincoln: "Well, there's a lot of government run programs right now. You mention medicare and Medicaid, SCHIP, or in Arkansas we know it as ARKids. We've got TriCare and the VA and others. We need to make sure that we reinforce those. We need to make sure that they work. We also need to make sure that those people that are eligible for those programs are enrolled in them, because a lot of those that are uninsured are actually people that are eligible for programs that exist. Why in the world would we create a new public-run piece when we've got people that are eligible for an existing program who don't take advantage of it."
Kelly Dudzik: "You're up for reelection next year, and health care is going to continue being a big issue into next year, and so how does that weigh into your final decision on the ultimate bill that comes through?"
Sen. Blanche Lincoln: "Well, my reelection doesn't weigh into this decision. I'm ultimately accountable for all the votes that I take to the people of Arkansas, and I work hard every day to make people proud and to make sure that legislation that comes out of Washington is done so in a way that is respectful to Arkansans, that it's good for them. You know, there's a lot of people from both sides, I know the Republican National Committee on the right are throwing punches at me. Those from the left are also throwing punches at me. But the fact is that I'm going to do what's right for Arkansas, and that's what guides my decision making.
And certainly my research and analysis on these bills is to make sure that whatever we're doing is gonna be something that's good for Arkansans. So the political side of it, to be honest, doesn't weigh in. And if it did, the bruises I have from all the punches that are coming from the left and the right, most of which are people from outside our state, they're not the in-state folks that are really throwing those."
