Ignoring GOP filibuster, Politico falsely claimed Medicare bill needed 60 votes for passage

Summary: The Politico falsely claimed that "[a] Democratic bill that would have blocked a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors fell just one vote short of the 60 it needed for passage Thursday." In fact, the vote in question was a cloture vote, which required a supermajority of 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster of a motion to proceed to consideration of the bill. The bill itself would have required a simple majority to pass.

In a July 1 Politico article, staff writer Ryan Grim and senior congressional reporter David Rogers falsely claimed that "[a] Democratic bill that would have blocked a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors fell just one vote short of the 60 it needed for passage Thursday." The vote Grim and Rogers referred to was actually a cloture vote, which required a supermajority of 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster of a motion to proceed to consideration of the bill. If the bill itself had come to a vote under regular procedure, it would have needed only a simple majority to pass.

Before the vote to end debate, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stated, "We have had 79 Republican filibusters, and the sad part about it is, we are still counting." Thirty-nine Republicans voted against ending debate, while nine voted to cut off debate, and 47 Democrats voted to end debate and one Democrat (Reid, who voted against the motion for procedural reasons) voted against ending debate.

From the July 1 Politico article:

The Bush administration moved Monday to assure doctors that coming cuts in Medicare reimbursements would take a few days to kick in, buying time for Senate Republicans to recover from a vote that has Sen. Arlen Specter scrambling to explain himself and GOP aides wondering why their party's leadership has risked infuriating a loyal constituency.

A Democratic bill that would have blocked a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors fell just one vote short of the 60 it needed for passage Thursday. The measure would have passed if the ailing Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) had been there to vote -- or if Specter, who had supported a similar bill earlier, hadn't voted against it after some eleventh-hour dealing with the White House.

Specter said he voted against the bill because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) refused to allow any amendments. But the Pennsylvania Republican -- who has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease -- also acknowledged that he voted no after White House representatives assured him that they would work with him on an administrative fix to increase Medicare reimbursements for oncologists.

—J.H.