Kennedy returns to Senate for Medicare vote
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- July
- 9
Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts made a dramatic return to the Senate this afternoon to help Democrats pass legislation that would prevent a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to physicians.
It was his first visit to the Capitol since being diagnosed and treated for malignant brain cancer.
The measure, which President Bush has threatened to veto, passed by a veto-proof margin of 69 to 30. The House also has passed the bill by a veto proof margin.
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, his former rival, voted for the bill.
The only missing senator was Arizona’s John McCain, the presumptive GOP candidate.
The Medicare cuts were originally scheduled to take effect July 1, but have been delayed until July 15 in hope there would be a agreement to cancel them.
Most Senate Republicans opposed the measure because it will be paid for by siphoning money from Medicare Advantage, a private insurance program that covers about 20 percent of seniors nationally.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 4:55 pm by Brian Tumulty.
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So McCain missed yet another vote. He hasn’t voted since April ‘08. He missed voting on Iraq spending and on the new GI Bill, too. I can see not showing up for stuff like naming a Post Office, but not for stuff like the three bills I named.
the democratic candidate for president should be crushing
john mccain..but he has only a four point national lead
and he is abandoning just about every position he took
in the primary..from supporting the FISA bill..to
agreeing with scalia on guns…to modifying he
Iraq position..just another politician from the
south side of chicago…he won’t keep us safe
mccain will!