By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Sen. Blanche Lincoln today joined fellow Democrats in defeating a proposed amendment that would have removed Medicare cuts from the Senate health care bill, despite a robocall campaign targeting Arkansas voters that featured a recorded message from the measure’s author, Sen. John McCain.
The amendment offered by the Arizona Republican would have removed more than $400 billion in Medicare cuts from the bill and sent the legislation back to the Senate Finance Committee for revisions. Democrats say the cuts would not deprive Medicare recipients of any guaranteed benefits, though Republicans disagree.
The amendment was defeated 58-42. Two Democrats, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jim Webb of Virginia, sided with the Senate’s 40 Republicans in supporting the measure.
“With a mother who is covered by Medicare, I remain committed to protecting seniors’ access to Medicare, just as I have throughout my public service, which is exactly why I am opposed to Sen. McCain’s proposal,” Lincoln said after the vote in a statement released by her office.
In the days leading up to the vote, the National Republican Senatorial Committee placed automated calls to independent voters in Arkansas and a few other states home to centrist Senate Democrats.
“On Monday I introduced the first Republican amendment to the massive health care bill, which would send the bill back to the Senate Finance Committee and stop the Democrats from cutting vital Medicare coverage for our seniors. I need Sen. Blanche Lincoln to join me in this effort,” McCain, R-Ariz., said in the calls to Arkansans.
McCain asked voters to go to a Web site and sign a petition urging Lincoln to “join my effort to fight a Washington D.C. government takeover of your health care.”
McCain campaigned for president in Arkansas last year and won the state by a margin of 20 percentage points but lost the national election to Democrat Barack Obama.
Today, Lincoln said McCain’s purpose “is not to protect Medicare but to frighten our nation’s seniors” into opposing health care reform.
“I have noted that he has taken his scare tactics to a new level by recording his voice for an automated phone call into my state claiming to seniors that these Medicare savings are going to cut their benefits,” Lincoln said. “I believe Arkansas’ seniors know me better than that. They know that I have worked my entire career to protect Medicare.”
Seven Republicans have said they will seek the GOP nomination to challenge Lincoln next year as she seeks re-election to a third term.
Lincoln is a co-sponsor of an amendment offered by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., that passed today. The amendment reaffirms that nothing in the Senate bill would cut guaranteed Medicare benefits.
Lincoln also has joined Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Mary Landrieu, D-La., in sponsoring an amendment that would allow insurance companies to sell nationwide plans and would not allow states to opt out of the plans, as they could under the current bill.
“I have strongly supported increased choice and competition in the health insurance market for small businesses and individuals,” Lincoln said today. “In the SHOP bill I wrote along with Senator Snowe and others, we allowed private plans to be sold nationwide with a well-respected organization, the National Institute of Medicine, to determine the benefits insurance companies are mandated to cover. I will continue to support this and other policies that enhance choice and competition for consumers.”
Critics say the amendment would take away states’ rights to regulate health insurance and gut many states’ insurance regulations while benefiting no one but insurance companies.
