Larry Kissell Opposes Health Care Bill, Voting "No"

Larry Kissell Feels Pressure Over His Health Care Vote


If anybody can appreciate the kind of pressure Democratic U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell may feel on the pending health care vote, it’s the man whose job he took to get to Washington.

In 2001, Republican House leaders pressed then-Rep. Robin Hayes to support so-called fast-track trade authority, even though displaced textile workers from home told him it would cost his district jobs.

With time ticking down, the vote was 214-214. All eyes were on Hayes. The floor manager held the gavel, poised to swing. With tears in his eyes, Hayes cast the deciding vote. The bill passed.

“There’s tremendous pressure being put on him,” Hayes said Thursday. “The pressure, particularly on Larry, gets more and more as you approach the vote.”

Kissell spokeswoman Haven Kerchner said Kissell has already made it clear he plans to vote against a health care bill supported by his party leaders. Kissell has said he opposes proposals to pay for the bill in part by cutting Medicare, which he has called his “line in the sand.”

In November Kissell was one of three N.C. Democrats who voted against the House version of the bill and the only one from a district Obama carried in 2008.

Pressure is coming from both sides.

This week the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released the results of polls in the districts of 10 key members of Congress, including Kissell’s 8th District. It showed a majority of voters oppose the current legislation.

This morning, members of the State Employees Association of North Carolina plan to hold a rally outside Kissell’s Concord office. Their message: “Stop Kissing Up to Insurance Companies.”

On Thursday, Kissell was one of two N.C. Democrats invited to the Rose Garden to watch President Obama sign a jobs bill. The other, Rep. Bob Etheridge, has said he’s undecided on health care.

Hayes said while he felt the pressure in 2001, he didn’t four years later.

In 2005, he cast the deciding vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement after earlier saying he was “flat-out, completely, horizontally opposed.”


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Google Maps