Tag Archives: shannyn

I KNOW that Mark wants to pass this very badly. I spoke to him about that very subject several months ago and he expressed his desire to get the bill passed. He is being very careful, which is called for in the crazy political times we are living in, but he is definitely NOT going to balk if the other 49 senators are ready to do this thing. Thank you for contacting me regarding health care reform. The reconciliation process is a budgetary tool used to address spending and deficit issues with a simple majority vote. The budget reconciliation process has been used 22 times by both parties since 1980. Action to clean up the health reform bill will further reduce the deficit. Comprehensive health care reform has already passed the Senate with 60 votes. If the House passes the Senate bill, the President could sign that version of comprehensive reform into law. I believe reconciliation would only be used as a tool to take out special backroom deals and to eliminate concerns raised by many Alaskans I’ve talked with. The President has proposed narrow changes which I support, including completely closing the coverage gap for seniors’ prescription drugs, eliminating the special Nebraska funding provision, providing additional federal financing to all states to help pay for the expansion of Medicaid, and strengthening the Medicare waste, fraud, and abuse provisions. Again, thank you for contacting me. As the 111th Congress moves forward, please continue to be in touch with your thoughts and concerns. Sincerely, Mark Begich U.S. Senator You can read more by clicking the title and visiting Shannyn’s blog. And by the way speaking of Shannyn, I need to give her a lot of credit for pushing Senator Begich on this issue and repeatedly asking him, both on the radio and in private, what he is going to do. Without Shannyn’s persistence we may still have no idea how Begich was planning to vote. Thank you Shannyn.

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My very own Senator, Mark Begich, is the 50th Senator open to using reconciliation to pass Health Care Reform in this country. Can we get excited yet?