One step remains in Senate; GOP set for battle to the end

The Boston Globe reports:

As Democrats celebrated their health care achievement last night, Republicans countered with a warning: They will fiercely challenge those parts of the package that must still win approval in the Senate.

GOP leaders are preparing a last-minute battle plan designed to tie up the voting in procedural knots in the days ahead and, ideally, force yet another House vote on the reconciliation part of the package. They also hope to rally their base and weaken vulnerable Democrats in the midterm elections by hammering home forceful arguments against the legislation.

“We owe it to the American people to do the very best we can to keep this bill from passing,’’ Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate minority leader, said yesterday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.’’

Republicans’ ability to halt progress on the health care package, however, is limited to snarling up voting on a limited number of fixes still needing Senate approval — the core bill will become law as soon as the president signs it. But GOP leaders were also looking ahead and warning that Democrats would pay in the midterm elections.

The struggle against socialism.