McCain AWOL as Senate Overrides Bush Medicare Veto
President Bush this week played a game of chicken on Medicare - and lost. Congress easily overrode Bush's veto of legislation designed to prevent an 11% cut in physicians' compensation under the health care program for elderly Americans. And speaking of chicken, John McCain was nowhere to be found.
On June 26, Congressional Republicans led by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell blocked action by Democrats to avert the looming July cut in fees to doctors serving Medicare patients. While Barack Obama cast his vote in favor, John McCain was AWOL, as the June measure failed by a single vote. For his part, McConnell gloated:
"The path the majority leader just recommended we go down leads to a presidential veto and an expiration of this law at the end of the week. In other ways, the doctors' cut is going to go into effect at the end of this month because of this recalcitrant view, this excessively partisan approach."
As it turned out, McConnell's celebration was premature -and ill-advised. The American Medical Association (AMA) and the AARP mobilized immediately, targeting Republicans including McConnell who opposed the bill. As the Hill noted:
Four of the top 20 recipients of campaign cash from physicians and other health professionals are Republicans who voted against the Medicare bill, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Other than three senators with presidential campaigns, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) got the most, $308,033, including $2,500 from the AMA. The Texas Medical Association rescinded its support of Cornyn on June 28 after he voted against the measure.
The impact was quick and dramatic. On July 9, the bill passed both houses of Congress overwhelmingly, as terrified Republicans turned tail in the face of their public relations fiasco. (Among those who voted "no" on cloture in June only to switch sides two weeks later was John Cornyn of Texas.) In the Senate, the measure reached the veto-proof threshold of 69-30, thanks to Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. Kennedy, though battling cancer, journeyed to Washington to cast his veto-busting ballot.
Barack Obama joined Kennedy in putting the Medicare package over the top (though he was absent for the subsequent override). Again, John McCain was a no-show, choosing the cover of the campaign trail over taking a stand on a critical issue.
Which brings us to Tuesday's veto override. The House easily rejected President Bush's rejection by a 383-41 margin. In the Senate, the vote was 70-26. As for John McCain, who has missed a staggering 63% of votes during this session of Congress, he apparently had more pressing business elsewhere. As for what he might have done, The Hill noted:
Although McCain missed all four votes on the Medicare legislation, he has said he opposes it.
Opposed it perhaps, just not on the record.
Bush's reason for the veto was scary: The Medicare Advantage Plan. What's really going on is that the Republican Leadership is looking out for its Insurance friends. I guess Prince George doesn't realize that everybody who knows anything about public policy already knows that Medicare Advantage Managed Care is a code word for Insurance Company Gravy Train. Republicans are about to find out what constituents really know----this changed my vote to Obama.
Bush's reason for the veto was scary: The Medicare Advantage Plan. What's really going on is that the Republican Leadership is looking out for its Insurance friends. I guess Prince George doesn't realize that everybody who knows anything about public policy already knows that Medicare Advantage Managed Care is a code word for Insurance Company Gravy Train. Just review his reasoning for the veto and insert the words "Insurance Company Gravy Train" for "Medicare Advantage Plan," and you'll get the picture. Republicans are about to find out what constituents really know----this changed my vote to Obama.
This is typical of party politics. I am a senior who looked forward to an HMO for my medicare years. The Medicare Advantage Plan is the only program that has been successful for seniors. It costs the government less to pay an insurance $800 and let the insurance company pay my medical bills than what it costs to manage the billing and red tape from government bureacracy and policing the fraud in the medicare system. And it helps us seniors who can't afford the high price of supplementary insurance to cover the many difficient coverages in standard medicare. When you have to live on social security, you don't have enough income to cover unknowns in health care. The main reason the democrats want to eliminate the Medicare Advantage Plan is because the republicans passed it. It would be better for seniors if they eliminated the mandatory prescription plan, which was already included in the Medicare Advantage Plan. When it passed, the insurance companies were forced to cut back on the coverages they were already providing on prescriptions to make them match the government prescription plans. It would also serve their political purposes to eliminate this instead since it was also a republican plan.