Reconciliation bill passes Congress, heads to Obama for signature

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Following up on Creature's post from earlier, both the Senate and House passed the reconciliation bill yesterday, a bill that includes both health-care and student-loan reform.

-- The vote in the Senate was 56-43. Three Democrats -- Blanche Lincoln (AR), Ben Nelson (NE), and Mark Pryor (AR) -- joined the Republicans (minus Johnny Isakson (GA), who was sick and didn't vote) in opposing the bill. Yes, even Joe Lieberman voted for it.

-- The vote in the House was 220-207.

Republicans opposed the bill unanimously in both houses. More specifically, Republicans unanimously opposed what is largely a moderate Republican bill unanimously in both houses. That tells you pretty much all you need to know about the current state of the Republican Party.

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Meanwhile, even Politico seemed to move past the Republican spin in reporting on this historic accomplishment:

Congress completed its work Thursday night on the broadest social legislation in almost a half-century, as the House capped the year-long legislative saga over health reform by signing off on a package of fixes to the newly minted law.

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The votes deliver twin victories to President Barack Obama, the health-care overhaul on which he staked the first year of his presidency and a lesser-noticed provision that would carry out a major restructuring of the student loan industry.

"The benefits for Americans start right now," said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, who also cited changes to the student loan system that Democrats included in the health reform clean-up bill. "That's the road to prosperity. That's the road to freedom for America's families."

No, this likely won't be the Beltway media narrative going forward, not with the media happy to regurgitate Republican talking points, but this is just the sort of positive story, with positive consequences for Americans, that Democrats need to stress, use as momentum for further reform efforts this year, and run on in November.