By Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The atmosphere of urgency that Democrats have propped up around the health care overhaul is growing ever sourer as embattled senators stare down a Christmas Eve deadline – a timetable that is increasingly attracting outraged criticism, and widening a rift of hostile mistrust between the two halves of the Senate floor that some are calling unprecedented in recent memory.
Democrats were holding fast to the 9 p.m. Christmas Eve deadline for the health bill passage through the tense weekend, maintaining that American lives were at risk if they were to wait any longer.
“This isn't about partisanship or procedure. It's not about politics, and it's not about polling,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just before a crucial cloture vote at 1 a.m. Monday morning, which the bill squeezed past 60-40. “It is about people. It's about life and death in America. It's about human suffering. And given the chance to relieve this suffering, we must.”
Yet Republican senators were far from convinced about their colleagues' pure motives in pummelling through the massive bill – one that the pro-life community has strongly decried as placing America on the brink of massive federal funding of abortion, in addition to other grave concerns such as health care rationing and inadequate conscience protection.
“Make no mistake: if the people who wrote this bill were proud of it, they wouldn't be forcing this vote in the dead of night,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in a statement Monday.
“'Change you can believe in,' after this health care bill debacle, is now becoming an empty slogan,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on CNN's “State of the Union” Sunday morning.
“And it's really been replaced by seedy Chicago politics, when you think about it – backroom deals that amount to bribes.”
As unguarded accusations of lying and manipulation piled up on both sides of the aisle this weekend, a Politico report detailed the bitter tension rising among cooped-up Senators thanks to the tight timeline as well as the thick layer of snow blanketing Capitol Hill. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) told Politico that the health care push has created a “very high” level of distrust between the two parties.
“It's been brutal,” he said.
After one incident Friday in which Democrats abruptly shut down Sen. Lieberman, who had requested extra time to speak on the Senate floor, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) remarked: “That's how the comity in this body has deteriorated.”
“We got to stop – we got to stop this kind of behavior. I've never seen anything like it. And I hope that I don't see it again,” said McCain, who has won a reputation for reaching across the aisle.
Sen Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) agreed that the atmosphere in Senate “is about as polarized as I can remember.” Wyden began serving in 1996, when Clinton-era partisanship was in full force.
Republicans met with criticism Sunday after Sen. Coburn suggested that Americans pray that “somebody can't make the vote tonight” to avoid cloture, with some construing the remarks as wishing ill on the 92-year-old Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd of Virginia.
On the other side, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) lambasted Republicans in a bitter tirade, saying the party has been overcome by “the irrational right” and comparing its members to Nazis on Kristallnacht, Southern lynch mobs, and murderous French Revolutionaries in their opposition to the bill.
A series of payoffs included in the manager's amendment to secure yes-votes, most notably to Senators Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), and Carl Levin (D-Mich.), didn't help the situation.
“It's a shame the only way we can come to a consensus in this country is to buy votes.” said Sen. Coburn (R., Okla.), on the Senate floor Sunday.
Both parties are blaming each other for holding the Christmas Eve deadline – Republicans blame Democrats for not slowing down the process and allowing debate, while Democrats complain that the GOP stall tactics are keeping the vote from being over with.
Despite the hardship and angry feedback, Republicans say they remain dedicated to doing everything in their power to stall the bill.
“This is a political kamikaze mission toward a historic mistake,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, on ABC's “Top Line.” “We're ready to stay till Valentine's Day if we need to.”
“I said to the president, and I said to the Senate majority leader and others, 'Please give us the time,'” Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine said on CBS's “Face the Nation. “This is a generational issue. … We're treating it as if it's legislative appropriations at the end of the year. It's like the last train leaving the station – we're going to dump everything in there.” Snowe, as the most left-leaning of her GOP colleagues, has held firm against the bill despite repeated personal lobbying by President Obama.
The White House itself has kept up a steady campaign pace in the weeks nearing a final vote. In a mass email, Nancy-Ann DeParle, the director of the White House Office of Health Reform, advised: “It is important to look past the bickering and cable chatter and remember that we are on the verge of providing real benefits to Americans who can't wait any longer.” President Obama hailed the advance of the legislation Monday as a “big victory for American people.”
While Democrat leaders such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi kept up cheerful tones for the bill as a “Christmas present” for Americans, polls indicate that little enthusiasm awaits the bill should it show up under the Christmas tree. A Rasmussen survey Monday continued the trend of steady opposition to the bill among American voters: 41% favor the bill, and 55% are opposed. More dramatically, only 19% said they “strongly favor” the plan, while 45% are “strongly opposed.”
A Wall Street Journal opinion piece summed up the frustration of conservatives over the Democrats' handling of a massive bill that will have barely seen the light of day before its scheduled Christmas Eve vote.
“Mr. Obama promised a new era of transparent good government, yet on Saturday morning Mr. Reid threw out the 2,100-page bill that the world's greatest deliberative body spent just 17 days debating and replaced it with a new 'manager's amendment' that was stapled together in covert partisan negotiations,” write the editors. “Democrats are barely even bothering to pretend to care what's in it, not that any Senator had the chance to digest it in the 38 hours before the first cloture vote at 1 a.m. this morning. After procedural motions that allow for no amendments, the final vote could come at 9 p.m. on December 24.
“Even in World War I there was a Christmas truce.”
Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin said the Christmas timing made “an even greater joke of transparency.”
Wrote Malkin: “Reid will unveil his massive manager's amendment and the CBO scoring of this legislative mystery meat on Saturday morning after the 7:30am Eastern defense authorization bill vote.
“Yep. Around 7:30am Eastern on the Saturday before Christmas. When normal people are making breakfast for the kids, wrapping last-minute presents, cleaning their houses for out-of-town guests, or still sleeping. Who conducts business this way?
“Only people with something to hide.”
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Minority Leader Fumes: No One Has Been Allowed to See Health Care Bill