![\"Massachusetts\"](\"http:\/\/s.wsj.net\/media\/massachusetts_C_20090624090540.jpg\")
The morning papers are full of speculation about what the Democrats will do with their health-care bill if Scott Brown, a Republican, wins the senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy. Massachusetts is holding a special election for the seat today; if Brown defeats Martha Coakley, a Democrat, the Dems will lose their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. <\/p>\n
One option would be for the House to pass the bill<\/a> already approved by the Senate. That possibility gets top billing in stories from the WSJ<\/a> the New York Times<\/a> and the Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n But many House Dems object to some provisions in the Senate bill, including language on abortion and the tax on high-end health plans. Those elements of the bill that pertain to the budget could be tweaked through a process known as reconciliation, which requires only 51 votes in the Senate.<\/p>\n Another option — passing a final version of the health-care bill before Brown is seated (if he wins) — has been ruled out, the WSJ says.<\/p>\n Coakley backs the health-care overhaul, and Brown opposes it. In Massachusetts, more than 90% of those who back the overhaul support Coakley, and more than 90% of those who oppose the overhaul back Brown.<\/p>\n So the broader issue implied by the election in Massachusetts — a solidly blue state — is that the health-care bill has become unpopular with many Americans. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll<\/a> found that 51% of people oppose the health-care changes being debated in Congress, while 44% support them. And whatever happens with the bill in the next few weeks, you’ll be hearing about it for months to come — as a central theme in this year’s midterm elections.<\/p>\n Image: Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n The morning papers are full of speculation about what the Democrats will do with their health-care bill if Scott Brown, a Republican, wins the senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy. Massachusetts is holding a special election for the seat today; if Brown defeats Martha Coakley, a Democrat, the Dems will lose their filibuster-proof majority […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
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