Health Care

Obama to Senate: Hurry Up

Lieberman renews filibuster threat.

Fourteen hours after the House passed health-care reform, President Obama was in the Rose Garden, extolling the Senate to “take up the baton and bring this effort to the finish line.” The president is hoping the Senate will pass its own version of health-care reform before the New Year. Despite the close vote in the House—it passed by two votes—the cause’s toughest hurdles are likely yet to come. Unlike the House bill, which raises taxes on people earning above $500,000, the Senate bill will tax so-called Cadillac plans. Also, states have the option to opt out of the public option in the Senate version, though even that had Sen. Joe Lieberman repeating his filibuster threat on Sunday. "If the public option plan is in there,” Lieberman said on Fox News Sunday, “as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote.”