Health care reform faces challenge in Senate

Posted at: 11/08/2009 4:34 PM | Updated at: 11/08/2009 5:20 PM
By: Eyewitness News 4; The Associated Press

Harry Teague is sworn in as a congressman earlier this year by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Two of three New Mexico congressmen voted Saturday to pass a landmark health care bill through the US House of Representatives. But the legislation faces a tougher hurdle in the Senate, politicos and observers predict.

The glow from a health care triumph is fading quickly for President Barack Obama as Democrats realize the bill they'd fought so hard to pass in the House will have a tough time in the Senate.

Local political blogger Joe Monahan says he isn't surprised by how our representatives voted.

The health care reform bill passed the House by only five votes, which included those of Reps. Martin Heinrich and Ben Lujan.

Harry Teague, another New Mexico Democrat, was one of 39 in his party to oppose the bill.

Monahan says a vote for the bill could have been used against Teague in the 2010 elections.

"If Congressman Teague had voted for this bill, the Republicans were poised to jump on him like an alley cat," he said. "They were ready on this bill to say that Teague was too liberal for that district, so he was boxed in politically. But he can always argue that 'I voted the way my constituents wanted me to,'" Monahan said.

The government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the Senate. They don't like the idea of the government competing with private insurers.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent whose vote Democrats need to overcome GOP filibusters, tells "Fox News Sunday" that if a so-called "public option" is part of the bill, he will not allow it to come to a final vote.

Republican Lindsey Graham said on CBS' "Face the Nation": "The House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate." Democrats are not lining up to challenge him.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has yet to schedule floor debate and hinted last week that senators may not be able to finish health care this year.

New Mexico senators Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman will now get a chance to vote on health care reform. Both have expressed support for the president's plan.

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