Senate Passes Health Care Legislation, 60-39

There are few reasons I will set my clock for 6 a.m. on a day when I could sleep until I wake naturally. Watching the vote by the U.S. Senate to pass legislation of this magnitude is one of those reasons. It isn't what I had hoped it would be (yet), but it remains the largest domestic legislation passed in my lifetime. Now, President Obama will become involved in helping shape it, hopefully, into his vision.

Senator Edward Kennedy's family was in the chamber for the vote. Robert Byrd, the ill 92-year-old senator from West Virginia, cast his vote by saying, "this is for my friend, Ted Kennedy. Aye.". (Did anyone else see him being rolled into the Senate Chamber at 2 a.m. to cast a vote this week?)

The circus that passed for debate would have been, and in many cases was, comical had it not been such a serious subject. Between today and the State of the Union address in January, the tentative deadline for a bill to arrive on President Obama's desk for signature, havoc will be taken to a new level by our friends across the aisle. How does one top death panels, paying for forced abortions, killing grandma, and socialism? Stay tuned. We're about to find out. It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. I feel fine. (REM)

A Consumer's Guide to Health Reform