Interview With Jim Cooper About His Health Care Vote

As one of the moderate Blue Dog Democrats, much hand wringing has gone on the last few months about Tennessee Representative Jim Coopers position on Health care reform, mostly from national liberal activist. Nonetheless in the end Cooper voted for the Democrat constructed bill.

The health care reform bill is now going into reconciliation to reconcile the two versions passed by the House and the Senate, in order to have a final vote.

Last month the Washington post interviewed Cooper about his vote:

Rep. Jim Cooper: House health care bill was 'one of the best votes I ever cast

Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) knows as much about health-care policy as anyone in Congress. He teaches the subject back home in Tennessee, promoted his own plan (to the anger of many Democrats) in 1994, and has been both a vocal advocate and critic of this year's reform fight. On Saturday, he voted for the House's health-care bill. Earlier today, he told me why.

Jim Cooper

What was the weekend like for you?

This was one of the best votes I ever cast. The key is to keep the reform process alive. There are many things in the House bill I disagree with. But the Senate bill is the more likely final product due to the difficulty of getting 60 votes over there. If we had dropped the baton at this stage, it wouldn’t have given the Senate a chance to improve the bill. It would have given the House what amounted to a one-chamber veto. The Senate could have powered through, but those folks are not noted for their courage. The House had to perform here. And I am thankful that in the nick of time the leadership realized how short they were on votes.

The slim margin surprised many observers. Do you buy the argument that there were a number of congressmen who would have voted for the bill if they’d been needed?

I think the actual number was closer to 210. The leadership had to move heaven and earth to get to 220. The achievement of the leadership was to corral the votes at the last minute, and that is a great achievement that should not be diminished, and they did that by making major concessions they didn’t want to make.

The rest of the interview

Also see:

Healthcare Cost Debated In Nashville With Gov. Bredesen, Rep. Cooper and Others

How Tennessee Representatives voted on health care bill Read more: http://www.blogdoctor.me/2007/02/expandable-post-summaries.html#ixzz0fvTXmFSF