The Republican-controlled House of Representatives today voted to repeal the comprehensive health care reform bill that passed less than one year ago by the then Democratically-controlled Congress. This was entirely a symbolic move because the Democrat-controlled Senate will not take up the bill, and President Obama would never sign it.
Another indicator of its symbolism is the bill’s name. Wait for it. It’s called the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act”. Did Christine O’Donnell come up with this title? Really. It sounds like something an angry blogger with a short vocabulary would come up with. This name is ridiculous. Maybe I just don’t read enough bill names. Maybe they’re all like this*. Somehow I doubt it
*I hear the first version of The Civil Rights Act was actually called the “Getting Black People a Seat at the Table So White People Can Sleep at Night and the College Kids Will Shut up Act”. LBJ came up with that I think, but with some more colorful wording.
I will not post the entire roll call because the House is too big. Instead, here is the breakdown by party and further breakdown of Democratic “no” votes by member and the interesting Democratic “yes” votes by member.
| Party | Yay | Nay | Did Not Vote |
| Republican | 242 | 0 | 0 |
| Democrat | 3 | 189 | 1 |
| Totals | 245 | 189 | 1 |
The only person who did not vote on this was Gabrielle Giffords, for obvious reasons. Otherwise, the vote was almost entirely along party lines. If your representative is a Republican, then your rep voted against healthcare for all. Only three Democrats broke from the party line to vote for repeal. They also voted against the bill last year. Those people were:
Dan Boren (D-Okla.)
Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.)
Mike Ross (D-Ark.)
If you’re a Democrat in their district, you have to wonder if they’re going to support any legislation of importance from here on out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see any one of them switch parties.
There were 20 Dems who voted against the original bill but are no longer in office today. Of those, 16 had been voted out in the mid-term this past fall. The other four did not seek re-election.
What I’m interested in is which Democrats voted against the healthcare bill back in March of 2010 but then voted against repealing it now. What does this tell us? One could argue the eleven who won re-election in the fall actually helped their chances by voting against the original bill*. Of course there were many factors, and you can’t point to one. Personally, I don’t buy it. But it couldn’t hurt. The other conclusion you could reach is that it had no real effect, and those who lost anyway still lost.
It seems like the Dems who got re-elected anyway might feel safe. More importantly, we’re right at the beginning on their term. Maybe they’re hoping for long-term memory loss or a change in the national tone of the next two years. Maybe not.
*Dan Lipinski was my rep at the time, and I attended one of his town hall meetings. From the tone of that meeting, I wouldn’t be surprised if he voted against it the first time out of fear for his well-being. Catherina Wojtowicz is a loud, rude, hideous human being.
Democrats who voted against the original Healthcare Bill who are no longer in office:
Rep. John Adler (N.J.) – Voted Out
Rep. Zack Space (Ohio) – Voted Out
Rep. Ike Skelton (Mo.) – Voted Out
Rep. Mike McMahon (N.Y.) – Voted Out
Rep. Artur Davis (Ala.) – Succeeded by Democrat Terri Sewell after running for Governor.
Rep. Charlie Melancon (La.) – Succeeded by Republican Jeff Landry after running for Senate.
Rep. Rick Boucher (Va.) – Voted Out
Rep. Michael Arcuri (N.Y.) – Voted Out
Rep. Lincoln Davis (Tenn.) – Voted Out
Rep. John Tanner (Tenn.) – Succeeded by Republican Stephen Fincher. Did not seek re-election
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (S.D.) – Voted Out
Rep. Marion Berry (Ark.) – Succeeded by Republican Rick Crawford. Did not seek re-election
Rep. Harry Teague (N.M.) – Voted Out
Rep. Glenn Nye (Va.) – Voted Out
Rep. Jim Marshall (Ga.) – Voted Out
Rep. Travis Childers (Miss.) – Voted Out
Rep. Frank Kratovil (Md.) – Voted Out
Rep. Walt Minnick (Idaho) – Voted Out
Rep. Gene Taylor (Miss.) – Voted Out
Rep. Bobby Bright (Ala.) – Voted Out
Democrats who are still in office who voted against the original Healthcare Bill but voted against repeal:
Rep. Daniel Lipinski (Ill.)
Rep. Stephen Lynch (Mass.)
Rep. Ben Chandler (Ky.)
Rep. Jason Altmire (Pa.)
Rep. Chet Edwards (Texas)
Rep. Larry Kissell (N.C.)
Rep. Tim Holden (Pa.)
Rep. Heath Shuler (N.C.)
Rep. John Barrow (Ga.)
Rep. Collin Peterson (Minn.)
Rep. Jim Matheson (Utah)
Peanut Shells 
Generally I don’t learn post on blogs, but I would like
to say that this write-up very compelled me to try and do it!
Your writing taste has been surprised me. Thanks, very nice post.