House Health Reform Passes With One Lone Republican

Representative Joseph Cao of Louisiana was the only republican to support the bill (read it here), which passed with 220 yeas. Apparently, Organizing for America helped woo Cao. Cao is a progressive republican. He voted to rebuke Joe Wilson and he defended Obama's address to school kids, while other republicans were being ridiculous.

I have new respect for Nancy Pelosi.
Next, the Senate has to pass a bill and the House and Senate bills have to be merged.
Cao read the bill:

More on Cao:

Will he cop to being Obama’s favorite Republican? “I'm looking for real solutions to America's problems and my politics has never been partisan,” Cao said. In other words, he’s not running from the label.
Cao’s willingness to play ball with the White House has a lot to do with his status as the most vulnerable incumbent of any party in 2010.
Cao won his seat in December 2008 in a majority African-American district that had not elected a Republican since 1890—thanks to a serious scandal. The incumbent he defeated, William Jefferson, had been indicted for a litany of corruption charges, leading many Democrats to either stay home or cross party lines in protest. In addition, the decisive vote was not held on the same day as the presidential election—meaning Obama wasn’t the ticket to boost turnout.
House Minority Leader John Boehner distributed a memo entitled "The Future is Cao" while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell touted Cao's election in a January speech as a sign that "a revival is already taking place" for the party.
Cao, for his part, seems to at least agree that the party is in need of a new look.TDB

Read Cao's press release on his vote here.

I have to say, that was a riveting debate today. I watched just about the whole thing on CSPAN and spent a lot of time on Twitter. It's history, you know. Obama's statement:

onight, in an historic vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality, affordable health care for the American people.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act is a piece of legislation that will provide stability and security for Americans who have insurance; quality affordable options for those who don’t; and bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses, and the government while strengthening the financial health of Medicare. And it is legislation that is fully paid for and will reduce our long-term federal deficit.

Thanks to the hard work of the House, we are just two steps away from achieving health insurance reform in America. Now the United States Senate must follow suit and pass its version of the legislation. I am absolutely confident it will, and I look forward to signing comprehensive health insurance reform into law by the end of the year.