Progress made on Health Care legislation

As the legislative session comes closer and closer to taking it's annual summer recess next month, the White House finally has begun to take larger steps in forging the health care debate as well as more forcefully challenge its critics.

Yesterday the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee -- chaired by the ailing Ted Kennedy (with Christopher Dodd pinch-hitting) approved it's version of the Health Care Bill in a strictly partisan vote of 13 to 10, with all Democrats on the panel voting for and all Republicans voting against. The "deal breaker," as Republicans called it, was the provision in the bill to create a government run health insurance option for those currently without insurance. Democrats assured that this measure guaranteed wider coverage for Americans while Republicans argued that the costs would be unpredictable, care would be rationed, and quality would be low.

The House also has moved forward with various versions of it's own legislation, in particular, a new bill approved by the Ways And Means committee will cover the costs of new government investments in health care by creating a new surtax on wealthy Americans that was met with general outrage by Republicans who say raising taxes on small businesses would cripple an already struggling economy, and that wealthy Americans should not be "punished" to foot the bill of enormous federal spending increases.

Still, the White House, eager to show progress on it's signature legislation, gave wide praise to the movement made in both houses and Obama said he was "eager" to see the legislation pass the full congress by the end of the summer legislating session. An ability to not get it passed before then would lead to diminished momentum and political realities that would make the chances of it ever passing much less. Obama would then have to admit the same defeat that so many of his forbears have in the past, from Truman to Clinton, and health care in the country would say in the same shape that it has and may forever will be.