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Kucinich switches healthcare vote - latimes.com
WASHINGTON
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat who has been critical of the president's healthcare plans for not going far enough, announced today that he will vote for the House's final bill -- offering House leaders their first flip from a no-vote to yes as a close vote nears this week.
The Ohio congressman, who voted against the healthcare bill that the House passed in November, complained that it contained no "public option'' as an alternative to private health insurance coverage. He is among a handful of Democrats whom House leaders are attempting to win on the imminent second, and perhaps final, vote on healthcare.
"Some have speculated that I may be, this time, in the position of casting a deciding vote,'' he said at a Capitol Hill news conference this morning. "The vote on the final healthcare bill will be close... I take this vote with the utmost seriousness.... I know that I have to make a decision, not on the bill as I would like to see it, but as it is...
"I have doubts about the bill,'' he said. "This is not the bill I wanted to support.... However, after careful discussions with President Obama, (House) Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi'' and his family, he said, "I have decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation....''
Kucinich traveled with Obama aboard Air Force One this week to the president's appearance at a campaign-styled pitch in Ohio for the healthcare legislation which the House is near approving, if leaders can hold a razor-thin vote.
"I believe healthcare is a civil right,'' Kucinich said today. "I've spent my life struggling for the rights of working-class people and for healthcare.''
Kucinich, who lived in 21 places by the time he was 17 -- "including a couple of cars'' -- cited his own struggle with Krone's Disease and how he had learned the benefits of taking charge of his own healthcare. He also has benefitted from the best healthcare lately.
"There are those who believe that healthcare is a privilege, based on the ability of those who can pay,'' he said -- calling this "the model'' which President Barack Obama is presenting with his plan to insure 30 million more Americans. And there are those who believe, as he does, he said, that it is a basic right.
Pelosi (D-Calif.) will need 216 votes to win passage of the healthcare bill – and if all sitting members who voted yes on the first measure vote yes again this week she will have that vote.
However, among 15 Democrats who voted yes on the first vote, leaders are concerned about losing a handful on the second vote, nine of those abortion-related.
And among the 37 currently seated Democrats who voted no on the first round, there is a targeted of 16 who are publicly undecided and whom Pelosi hopes to flip to yes votes. Kucinich was among them.
mdsilva@tribune.com
Copyright © 2010, Tribune Interactive
WASHINGTON
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat who has been critical of the president's healthcare plans for not going far enough, announced today that he will vote for the House's final bill -- offering House leaders their first flip from a no-vote to yes as a close vote nears this week.
The Ohio congressman, who voted against the healthcare bill that the House passed in November, complained that it contained no "public option'' as an alternative to private health insurance coverage. He is among a handful of Democrats whom House leaders are attempting to win on the imminent second, and perhaps final, vote on healthcare.
"Some have speculated that I may be, this time, in the position of casting a deciding vote,'' he said at a Capitol Hill news conference this morning. "The vote on the final healthcare bill will be close... I take this vote with the utmost seriousness.... I know that I have to make a decision, not on the bill as I would like to see it, but as it is...
"I have doubts about the bill,'' he said. "This is not the bill I wanted to support.... However, after careful discussions with President Obama, (House) Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi'' and his family, he said, "I have decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation....''
Kucinich traveled with Obama aboard Air Force One this week to the president's appearance at a campaign-styled pitch in Ohio for the healthcare legislation which the House is near approving, if leaders can hold a razor-thin vote.
"I believe healthcare is a civil right,'' Kucinich said today. "I've spent my life struggling for the rights of working-class people and for healthcare.''
Kucinich, who lived in 21 places by the time he was 17 -- "including a couple of cars'' -- cited his own struggle with Krone's Disease and how he had learned the benefits of taking charge of his own healthcare. He also has benefitted from the best healthcare lately.
"There are those who believe that healthcare is a privilege, based on the ability of those who can pay,'' he said -- calling this "the model'' which President Barack Obama is presenting with his plan to insure 30 million more Americans. And there are those who believe, as he does, he said, that it is a basic right.
Pelosi (D-Calif.) will need 216 votes to win passage of the healthcare bill – and if all sitting members who voted yes on the first measure vote yes again this week she will have that vote.
However, among 15 Democrats who voted yes on the first vote, leaders are concerned about losing a handful on the second vote, nine of those abortion-related.
And among the 37 currently seated Democrats who voted no on the first round, there is a targeted of 16 who are publicly undecided and whom Pelosi hopes to flip to yes votes. Kucinich was among them.
mdsilva@tribune.com
Copyright © 2010, Tribune Interactive
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