Senator Snowe Will Vote No

When no other Republican was willing to work with Democrats on legislation to revamp the health care system, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine stuck it out.

Ms. Snowe was part of the bipartisan Group of Six on the Senate Finance Committee that worked for months to draft the health care bill. And even when the other two Republicans in the group, Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, dropped out, Ms. Snowe kept at it.

She put forward numerous amendments when the Finance Committee took up the bill – not aimed at killing the bill like so many other amendments proposed by her Republican colleagues – but to improve it, especially to make insurance more affordable for families and small businesses.

In recent weeks, Ms. Snowe has been the subject of intense efforts by the White House to win her vote. She had several one-on-one meetings personally with President Obama, including one on Saturday afternoon. But on Sunday the string finally ran out.

In a formal statement that in some ways only confirmed the obvious, Ms. Snowe said that she would vote against ending debate on the bill, and would oppose the legislation absent major changes.

“Having been fully immersed in this issue for this entire year and as the only Republican to vote for health reform in the Finance Committee, I deeply regret that I cannot support the pending Senate legislation as it currently stands, given my continued concerns with the measure and an artificial and arbitrary deadline of completing the bill before Christmas that is shortchanging the process on this monumental and trans-generational effort,” she said.

Unlike the barrage of attacks unleashed on the bill by her Republican colleagues, Ms. Snowe’s criticism is particularly devastating for the Democrats. In many ways, Ms. Snowe wants to vote for the health care bill even more than some of the reluctant centrists who will provide Democrats with the pivotal votes. Read more…