WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats are poised to pass a landmark health care bill that could define President Barack Obama's legacy and usher in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in U.S. history.
Ahead lie complex talks with the House to reach final legislation in the new year.
"We stand on the doorstep of history," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat. "We recognize that, but much more importantly, we stand so close to making so many individual lives better."
The vote Thursday on the bill extending health care coverage to some 31 million uninsured Americans brings Obama closer to achieving his top domestic priority. The White House and Congress have now come farther toward the goal of a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. health care system than any of their predecessors.
But the final step may be the hardest: reconciling the Senate bill with a significantly different version already approved in November by the House of Representatives.
We have crossed the rubicon into stupid.
I so hope the House refuses to go along with the senates stupid, and insists on their own stupid instead