Medicare Bill A Split Decision For Arkansas` Senators

Senator Blanche Lincoln is helping out Republicans by backing the Medicare prescription drug bill in a split with fellow Democratic Senator Mark Pryor. The Senate is expected to vote no later than tomorrow. Lincoln and ten other Democrats helped give Republicans one more than the sixty votes needed to overcome a procedural challenge today by Senators Ted Kennedy, and Tom Daschle. Lincoln, who faces re-election next year, planned to vote for the bill while first-year Senator Mark Pryor was waiting to vote against it. The two Arkansas Democrats said they saw flaws in the bill, which calls for spending four-hundred (B) billion over ten years on the most sweeping changes to Medicare since it was created in 1965. But Lincoln and Pryor said they came to different conclusions about whether Arkansans would come out ahead in the long run. Posted by Mike Hellgren