Political blog

Sen. Claire McCaskill said Monday a Senate move to embrace the House’s tough anti-abortion language in pending health care legislation “goes too far” and must be defeated.

Appearing on the same show, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee denied the GOP is mostly trying to obstruct the legislation. “The biggest problem, is that the Democrats are using Medicare as a piggy bank to pay for a big new program,” he said.

McCaskill said language in the bill now on the Senate floor retains long-standing policy prohibiting federal funds for abortion - and that’s sufficient. The Missouri Democrat told CBS’s “The Early Show” she believes an amendment by Sen. Ben Evans, D-Neb., “goes further. You can’t use private money in the private market.”

McCaskill, D-Mo., said that despite the difficult issues, including abortion, “I think we’re getting there. Failure is not an option. The American people are tired of having to go into their pocket every year for higher health care costs … so we’ve got to get this done and I’m confident it’s going to happen.”

Alexander charged that the plan pushed by Democrats would increase premiums for customers rather than decreasing them.

And McCaskill took issue with Alexander’s statements about Medicare being sacrificed, saying “the experts at Medicare say this bill as it stands today will lengthen the life of Medicare by at least five years.”

But she said she wants no part of the amendment that Evans, an abortion foe, plans to attach.

“I wish Republicans would quit being the party of no,” she said.