President Barack Obama is hoping for a health care bill by Christmas. Will he get his gift? That question was posed Tuesday to former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson. “Well, they’re on the ten yard line, they’re in the red zone, and whether or not they’re going to be able to get it across the finish line is anybody’s guess,” Thompson told WIBA. “I think they will.”
Thompson believes a compromise will be needed by senate Democrats, if they want to get something passed by Christmas. “They’re going to have to give up on the government plan. They will pass that before Christmas with 60 votes,” Thompson predicted. “Then it will go over to the House, and the House will reject that. Then it will go a conference committee and they will go far left, hard left with the conferees, and they will pass that. Not very easily, but they will pass it.”
Thompson said the final product which comes out of the conference committee will be “much more liberal, much more regulated, much more government involved and more of a government program.” And he predicts final passage in the Senate will come done to a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Joe Biden.
Tommy Thompson (:48) AUDIO: Tommy Thompson on WIBA (:48 MP3)
Chandra Lynn, WIBA