The Senate got a second chance yesterday, finally passing a Medicare bill that will prevent a 10.6 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients. Republicans have been dragging their feet largely to protect private insurance companies. If the vote had failed, many Kansas physicians were planning to stop treating new Medicare clients, the very people who need help the most.

Senator John McCain was the only senator absent from the vote. (Even Ted Kennedy who is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor found time for the bill.)

However, McCain made it abundantly clear where he stands when he declared that he would have voted no on the measure, standing obediently by the Bush White House who has threatened to veto the measure.

McCain, unprompted, then brought up the Medicare vote today as an example of partisan gridlock.
Q: How would you have voted on the cloture vote?
A: “I would have voted against it.”
Q: You would have voted with your party then?
A: Sure.

Our very own Senator Pat Roberts actually voted to pass the bill. I guess that’s what happens when you’re in the middle of a close election… However, over the past twelve years, Roberts has made his position on helping senior citizens very clear- he has consistently voted against negotiating lower prescription drug prices and importing cheaper medications as recently as April of last year.

John McCain and Pat Roberts are one and the same. When it counts, they vote against Kansans, and for big insurance companies and their own bank accounts.

That is...when McCain bothers to show up.