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Health Care Overhaul Passes First Senate Test WASHINGTON, DC (Associated Press) - Memories of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a long-time proponent of health care, figured prominently as Democrats united to push the overhaul bill over a key hurdle in the Senate Saturday.

The 60-39 vote cleared the way for a full-scale debate beginning after Thanksgiving.

All 58 Senate Democrats and two independents voted to advance the bill. All 39 votes in opposition were cast by Republicans.

Sen. Paul Kirk of Massachusetts, appointed to office this fall after Kennedy's death, said he spoke for those "who for so many years revered and loved and elected and re-elected" him.

Sen. Chris Dodd referred to Kennedy's "lifelong quest" for national health care and said "we will pay him the highest compliment by fulfilling that" goal.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he had talked with Kennedy's widow, Vicki, about the vote and they both agreed "Ted would be happy."

Republican leader Mitch McConnell says the health care overhaul will create a "massive and unsustainable debt" after a vote to advance the legislation in the Senate.


The vote clears the way for debate beginning after Thanksgiving on the legislation.

McConnell cast the vote as a referendum on a bill he says will raise taxes, cut Medicare and create a "massive and unsustainable debt."

In hours of debate before last night's vote, a few Republicans piled copies of the more than 2,000-page bill on their desks. Others criticized it as a government takeover of health care and worse.

GOP Sen. Kit Bond likened the bill's supporters to Wall Street's disgraced financier, saying "Move over, Bernie Madoff. Tip your hat to a trillion-dollar scam."
© Copyright 2012, Associated Press