While numerous strategies are being discussed as a way for Democrats to bring the health care bill up for a vote — Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley says he won’t decide on how he will vote until he sees the bill itself.
Braley says all the speculation about how the bill will be passed is premature until it goes through the rules committee and comes out in it’s final form, and he says he’ll wait to see that until he decides on his vote. Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, says a key is how the House and Senate bills come together.
Braley says he knows what’s in the senate bill and has strong reservations about things like the “Cornhusker kickback” provision, which he says they’ve been assured would be taken out in the final version. He says there’s still many questions about what would be included in the reconciliation bill, or the bill the combines the House and Senate bills. The Senate has talked about bringing forward it’s bill in a way that would allow them to bypass the need for 60 votes to stop a filibuster. Braley says he wants an up or down vote on the bill, but knows his constituents would understand if the senate used such a procedure.
He says any vote in the house that leads to the passage of the senate bill is a vote on that bill, regardless of the procedure used to bring it to a vote, and he says that is the reality for anyone who would vote for that bill. Braley takes issue with the premise that polls show the public doesn’t support the health care bill, as he says he’s seen polls that show people want health care reform. Braley also doesn’t buy the argument that no one knows what’s in the bill.
“This is the single most analyzed, reviewed, dissected, commented upon piece of legislation in the history or our country, bar none,” Braley says, “and for people to claim they don’t have an opportunity to read and understand what is going on, just doesn’t square with the facts.” Braley says as soon as the bill is approved he will put it on his website along with the senate bill. He says his constituents can read the bill and then comment on him before he makes up his mind on a vote.