Bipartisanship a victim of healthcare debate

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When President Obama laid out his goals for healthcare reform, he said he hoped that the end product would have bipartisan support. Only one Republican voted for the House version, but that appears one more than will vote for the Senate version.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who voted for the healthcare overhaul bill that was moved through the Finance Committee, announced today that she could not support the current version -- despite a full-court press including pleas and arguments from Obama himself.

“Having been fully immersed in this issue for this entire year and as the only Republican to vote for health reform in the Finance Committee, I deeply regret that I cannot support the pending Senate legislation as it currently stands,” Snowe said in a statement.

She criticized the process including the stampede to pass a bill before Christmas as top Democrats have pledged.

“A little over 24 hours ago, the Senate received a final, nearly 400-page manager’s amendment that cannot be changed or altered, with more than 500 cross-references including to other statutes, and will be voted on at 1 a.m. Monday morning. It defies logic that we are now expected to vote on the overall, final package before Christmas with no opportunity to amend it so we can adjourn for a three-week recess even as the legislation will not fully go into effect until 2014, four years from now,” she stated.

Snowe and her Maine colleague, Sen. Susan Collins, were considered the most likely GOP votes to back the healthcare overhaul, which Democrats say they can pass with the 60 votes in their caucus.

For a deeper look at what Obama outlined as his criteria for what should be included, see here.

--Michael Muskal
twitter.com/LATimesmuskal