In a direct challenge to Democratic leadership, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced an amendment on Thursday night that would prohibit Congress from using reconciliation to make changes to Medicare.
Framed as an effort to protect the sanctity of entitlement programs, McCain's measure would deprive Democrats of a stream of revenue for their health care bill. The party has targeted hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts and savings to the Medicare program that it would turn around and use to pay for other reforms.
But for McCain to be the Republican face behind this effort is to distract, a bit, from its seriousness. The Senator has a fairly lengthy history of voting for reconciliation bills that do exactly what his current amendment prohibits: change Medicare.
As pointed out by a Democratic source on the Hill, the Arizona Republican has voted for nine out of 13 reconciliation bills that have been offered during his time in the Senate. Of those nine, four included cuts to Medicare.
Michael Haltman on 25 Nov 09Healthcare: At The Best 50% Approval, Now 38% Nothing means more to politicians than the polls. Polls are the lifeblood that let them know what they should be for, what they should be against and what they should stay away from. If some action is in the best interest of national security, but the polls say that public opinion is against it, most, not all, politicians will be swayed. This, despite the fact that popular opinion is not a reliable gauge of right and wrong, particularly when it comes down to facts that only politicians may be privy to...
