Iowa’s congressional delegation will likely vote along party lines this weekend as the U.S. House is expected to vote on a health care reform plan, perhaps later today.
Congressman Tom Latham, a Republican from Ames, plans to vote no. “I want to have this vote. I mean, I want to have people on record (about) the government take-over of health care, whether they support it or not,” Latham said this morning during an interview with Radio Iowa. “I’m obviously not in favor of having the bureaucracy running everything.”
Iowa’s other Republican congressman, Steve King of Kiron, is a sure “no” vote as well. King is among those who’ve organized a “House Call” rally against the bill on the lawn near the capitol building.
The other three congressmen from Iowa are Democrats and each has signaled they are a “yes” on the bill. Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, voted for the health care reform plan which emerged from the House Energy and Commerce Committee this summer. Braley spoke with Radio Iowa moments after he and other House Democrats met with President Obama.
“It was like a revival meeting in that people were ready and willing to listen to the president make the final call to action before a historic vote on health care today and I think it’s something that many of us have been waiting for ever since we were elected to congress,” Braley said. “And for me this day is particularly significant because three years ago today is the day I was elected to congress.”
Congressman Dave Loebsack, a Democrat from Mount Vernon, described the meeting with the president as “very upbeat.”
“The president was very inspiring. He called upon us, essentially, to do what we came here to do,” Loebsack said. “and that is to make the kind of change that we can make today when we vote on this bill.”
Congressman Leonard Boswell of Des Moines is considered to be among the conservative Democrats in congress and Boswell has indicated he intends to vote for the health care reform bill.