Herseth Sandlin Votes Against Health Care Mini-Repeal

Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin appears to be keeping her word on health care. She dodged a primary challenge by promising almost-candidate Dr. Kevin Weiland that she would not support efforts to repeal the health insurance reform passed in March.

Sho' 'nuff, Tuesday night she dropped the pointless Blue Dog triangulation and voted with the Democratic majority against a GOP effort to co-opt a small business tax bill to repeal the insurance mandate included in the health reform law.

Bob Mercer suggests SHS's Tuesday vote has something to do with nails being hammered. If Mercer had visions of pine boards dancing in his head, I'd suggest Tuesday's vote is more likely to turn those boards into signs saying "Vote for Steph!" It's a small vote, but it's a signal that she meant what she said about taking health insurance reform as a done deal and moving on to add some serious cost-control measures to make the existing law better. There's more work to be done, but repeal is not a beneficial part of that agenda.

And when four million seniors start getting their $250 Medicare donut-hole checks, SHS is going to face less heat for flipping on Tuesday and more heat from folks saying, "Holy cow! Why didn't you vote for this law in the first place?!"