Posted by
Lady Logician on Friday, April 11, 2008 5:14:17 PM
Well, it was not as long of a night as it was a week ago during the "War of 1812" but it did try to come close. It was also rather eye-glazingly boring at times - especially when the proponents of 3391 got into the defense of the more murky "conceptual" themes of the bill like the "Health Care Homes". There were times when Gary and I were joking that we should request combat pay for sitting through all of that (even though he didn't live blog it). However, if you didn't allow it to bowl you over, there were some very educational moments in the debate.
First and foremost to me were the multiple times when DFL members admitted on the floor that this was a universal health care bill (as I documented in my amendments post last night) although they were mostly on point when they used the euphamism "payment reform" to try to hide the real intent of the bill.
There were, however, a couple of surprise moments last night. First and foremost was how close the vote was on Rep. Finstad's amendment. The fact that the amendment failed by only 4 votes is, to me, very significant. It also tells me just how close we are (thanks to modern technologies like ultrasounds) to finally turning the tide on abortion! That vote alone was a real ray of hope for me. Second was the diversity and the depth of knowledge in the House Republican Caucus. I heard a lot of different members get up and lay out facts and figures and data on this issue that was staggering! They came loaded for bear and there were times when the ONLY defense that the Democrats could fall back on is "where is your plan and why didn't you bring it up before?" - a question that Minority leader Seifert threw right back at them by saying "you shut us OUT of the process until tonight".
The "freedom heros" from last night were Rep. Steve Gottwalt, Rep. Laura Brod, Rep. Paul Kohls and Rep. Mark Olson. All 4 gave some of the most reasoned (and at times very impassioned) defense for a Minnesota Health Care Network that has kept us the "Healthiest State in the Nation". Honorable Mention has to go to Rep. Finstad and Rep.Larry Hosch for putting up amendments that did strike at a couple of the more glaring omissions of Universal Health Care - prenatal and elder care.
Notable surprises were Reps. Madore and Faust voted against the bill. Rep. Madore maybe not too huge of a surprise. She is representing a very conservative district - a district she narrowly won two years ago and she is facing a tough opponent this year.
Another not so surprising vote was Rep. Jim "It's only one vote" Abeler who voted AGAIN to give big government more control over your life. Even after he spoke to great length about how flawed the bill was.
All in all the debate went about the way I expected. The DFL led majority ran rough shod over the minority trying all the normal parlimentary tricks (germainness rulings etc) to keep the minority from putting up common sense amendments to protect the people of Minnesota. It's back in the Senate's hands for Conference now. We'll have to see what happens next.