Senator Tom Coburn, R-Okl, forced the reading of a 767-page long amendment to the Senate's health care reform bill Wednesday, effectively halting debate on the amendment.
The amendment, from Senator Bernard Sanders, I-Ver., calls for the establishment of a single-payer, government-run public health system, with Medicare eligibility extended to every U.S. citizen.
"I admire Senator Sanders for his willingness to fight for publicly what many advocate only privately — a single-payer health care system funded and controlled by bureaucrats and politicians in Washington," Coburn said.
He added, "Every American should listen to the reading of this amendment and pay careful attention to its vote tally."
This isn't the first move that Coburn has made to try and disrupt the debate process and prevent the health care reform bill from passing in the Senate.
On Tuesday, Coburn had called on protestors in Washington to do everything within their power to stop the health care bill from passing the Senate. He also planned to force the entire 2,000-page reform bill to be read aloud, though fellow Republicans convinced him to back down from that.
"The American people deserve to understand the competing approaches to reform in the U.S. Senate," Coburn said.
He added, "It's unfortunate that Senator [Harry] Reid waited until the last minute to introduce his bill and now wants to rush it through the Senate. This reading will provide a dose of transparency that has been lacking in this debate."
Last month, a memo from Senator Judd Gregg, R-N.H., was discovered that reminded Republicans that using such tactics as forcing full amendments to be read could help to slow down the debate on health care reform and prevent legislation from passing before Christmas; a goal that Senate Democrats are desperate to meet.
"We, the minority party, must use the tools we have under Senate rules to insist on a full, complete and fully informed debate on the healthcare legislation — as well as all legislation — coming before the Senate," Gregg said in the memo.
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