U.S. SENATE GOP stalls voting, foiling Kerry's plan

The veterans' health benefits bill didn't make it to the floor.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Kerry, who has missed 118 of the Senate's 134 votes this year while campaigning for the presidency, canceled a speech Tuesday, skipped a half-million-dollar fund-raiser and flew back from Denver to vote on veterans' health benefits.
But Republicans foiled him. They postponed the vote.
The vote would have put Kerry, D-Mass., on record on one of his signature issues -- expanding health care for military veterans. It also would have allowed him to end a Senate voting drought that's prompted some Republicans to call for his resignation.
Foiled opportunity
Republican leaders didn't let the proposal come to the Senate floor -- a maneuver that Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota attributed to Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee. "Sen. Frist noted to me as he was standing here that he didn't want to accord Sen. Kerry the opportunity to vote today," Daschle said.
The veterans' health measure, which Daschle sponsored, would have been an amendment to a broad defense bill that the Senate has been debating for 12 days. It would have increased spending for veterans' health care by 30 percent next year and mandate continued increases indexed to the number of veterans and to the costs of health care.
President Bush's campaign criticized the proposal, saying that spending on veterans' health care had increased by 40 percent under Bush and that the list of veterans waiting for health benefits has declined.
"Mandatory spending increases are the wrong approach for America's veterans," said Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt.
Republicans denied any conspiracy to stymie Kerry; instead, they said that Kerry's detour to the Capitol gave them leverage to seek concessions from Democrats on other aspects of the defense bill. Frist made it clear that while Kerry may be the de facto Democratic presidential nominee, in the Senate he wields no more clout than any other of the 100 senators.
"Sen. Kerry, who hadn't been here all year, who's missed 80 percent of all votes this year, parachutes in for a day, and then he'll be taking off once again," Frist said. "That amendment will be considered in due course."
Kerry had to settle for a brief address on the health care proposal from the Senate floor. He also managed to join in the biennial Senate class photograph -- an event he doubtless hopes will be his last. Then he left town to resume his campaign in California, abandoning his quest to cast the high-profile vote.
Meanwhile, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., the favorite of many Democrats to join Kerry's ticket, laughed when asked whether he had scheduled a meeting with Kerry. Pointing his finger in a reporter's face, he said: "You think I'd tell you if I did?"