What Went Down On Health Care This Week

The Senate is voting now on an amendment proposed by Sen. Steve Daines, Republican of Montana, to create a single-payer health care system. Daines, like the other Republicans, does not really support a single-payer system, and said he will not vote in favor of his amendment. (Daines said he copied the text of his amendment from this House bill.) His goal, rather, is to put Democrats’ votes on the record on an issue that’s divisive within the Democratic Party. But Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats and has his own bill for implementing single-payer health care, has said he won’t participate in the Daines amendment and urged others in the Democratic caucus to vote “present.” Voting “present” relieves red-state Democrats from having to either go on the record supporting single payer or risk angering the more liberal wing of the party.