Getting from “yes” to maybe not

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore), who voted for Obamacare last year, says he’s not going to vote for the latest incarnation unless it is changed. He stated:

I voted for the original bill for three principal reasons: it had a public option which would get people out from under the thumb of the insurance industry; it had national exchanges which would give people lower rates and better coverage; and, after decades of trying, we finally fixed the Medicare geographic disparities formula which discriminates against Oregon and 16 other states. The most current version of the health care bill includes none of these provisions and unless we fix the geographic disparities, I cannot vote for this bill. We negotiated this change for months and we finally got an agreement included in the House bill and expected it to be in the final bill, but it has been removed.

I imagine that the Democrats will “fix the geographic disparities” if they need DeFazio’s vote. Then, we can call it the Oregon arrangement.
SCOTT adds: FDL News Desk “whip counter” David Dayen has been tracking DeFazio’s comments. In his whip count this afternoon, incidentally, Dayen has it 200 firm yes, 209 firm no (207 yes, 212 no with leaners). Two hundred sixteen is a majority.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses