Talk About Your Symbolism...

The Republicans have been blocking a bill to rescind a devastating 11% cut in Medicare payments to doctors. The Democrats in the House managed to bring the issue to a vote, where it passed overwhelmingly, but they were stymied by Republican obstructionism in the Senate. Two weeks ago, the Democrats managed to get 59 votes, just one vote shy of the 60 needed to break the Republican filibuster. Two Senators were absent that day, however: Sen. John McCain and Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Today, amid astonished applause, Sen. Kennedy returned to the Senate for the first time since his brain surgery to cast the deciding vote to break the filibuster. Seeing that it was a done deal, nine Republican Senators broke ranks and voted to pass the bill as well. (By previous agreement, the vote to break the filibuster was simultaneously a vote to pass the actual bill.) Bush has threatened to veto the Medicare bill--the Republicans are still trying to use this crisis to force changes to Medicare favored by the insurance industry--but it is now clear that veto-proof majorities in both the House and the Senate will act to preserve the Medicare program.

Kennedy hazarded his own fragile health to travel to Washington to vote for this measure, after which he immediately returned to his home in Massachusetts to resume chemotherapy. Sen. Obama interrupted his campaign to fly to Washington and vote for this measure. Meanwhile, McCain was the only Senator who did not even bother to show up. That just says it all, really.