Amendment to strengthen Medicare passes; Michael Bennet claims credit, votes for Medicare cuts

Senator Michael Bennet (CO-D) claims he authored a unanimously approved Medicare amendment to the health tax and spend bill (HR 3590) that is being debated in the Senate. Everyone knows,  however, that the amendment to protect Medicare against budget cuts was written by the Senate’s leaders who allowed Bennet to introduce it so that he would look good in Colorado.

More important, the Democrats defeated by a 42-58 vote Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) amendment that would have taken out of the bill $500 billion in Medicare cuts that Democrats have written into it. Bennet voted against the McCain amendment and supports the Democrats’ $500 billion in Medicare budget cuts. That’s the way the game is played in Washington. So far, the Democrats don’t have enough votes to enact the bill, but it’s given a fairly good chance of passing, assuming that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) folds at the last moment and that all Republicans oppose the bill. Bennet is considered one of the Senate’s most vulnerable Democrats in next year’s elections.

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