Bush will veto Medicare bill, White House says

President Bush will stand by his longstanding threat to veto Medicare legislation passed by the Senate Wednesday, the White House confirmed.

The veto will set up override votes in the House and Senate, where the legislation passed with more than the two-thirds majority needed to overcome the president’s rejection.

{mosads}Nevertheless, White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters Bush would veto the measure. “[D]oes the president still intend to veto this bill? … The answer is yes,” he said.

Democrats crowed about their legislative victory Thursday, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) staging a press event to formally prepare the bill for delivery to the White House.

The Democratic-authored bill cleared the Senate Wednesday in dramatic fashion as the ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) returned from cancer treatment in his home state to secure the victory for his party on the measure, which stops a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare’s fees to doctors and reduces spending on private health insurance plans in Medicare Advantage.

“Taking choices away from seniors in order to pay for the reimbursement for physicians is the wrong way to pass this bill and to extend the reimbursements that we want to see physicians get,” Fratto said.

Reid mocked the president’s position on Medicare Advantage. “If you had to list car salesmen, members of Congress and insurance companies, insurance companies would be at the bottom of the list. I'm personally comfortable with the president casting his lot with insurance companies and HMOs. We're comfortable casting our lot with the American people.”

Kennedy’s crucial vote brought the number of senators supporting the measure to 60, guaranteeing it would pass. Once that fact was apparent, nine Republicans who previously opposed the bill jumped aboard to bring the tally to 69-30. The House passed the bill last month, 355-59.

The Democratic leadership in Congress is confident they can hold on to that Republican support and override the veto. “Anybody who changes their vote now does it at their political peril,” Reid said.

At least one of the Republicans who flipped, Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.), has publicly confirmed he would cast his vote against the veto.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) was noncommittal when questioned. “I haven't decided yet — I don't like to predict votes,” Alexander said. “The president will make his own decision about it, then we'll decide what we're going to do.” Alexander and his home-state colleague Sen. Bob Corker (R) were among the Republicans who switched their votes Wednesday. Following the vote, they issued a joint statement explaining they supported the bill when promised action on a Medicaid payment issue facing the Regional Medical Center at Memphis.

Manu Raju and J. Taylor Rushing contributed to this report.