Health Care Passes

As the fateful hour loomed, emotions ran high.  Both sides characterized the bill in strong terms:

"The G.O.P. used to stand for the Grand Old Party. Now it stands for grandstand, oppose and postpone," said Edward Markey (D-MA)

“This bill will destroy freedom and do damage to the very fabric of our society,” said John Shadegg (R-AZ)
Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) reduced the bill to four words: “You’ve got health care.” 

Tom Price (R-GA) said that if the bill becomes law: “We lose our morality. We lose our freedom.”
 "Some said we're making history, I believe we're breaking history" said Mike Pence (R-IN)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi concluded the debate, saying “We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us.”

At 10:41pm Eastern, the House voted to adopt the Senate's version of the health care bill (breakdown of final vote).  Less than an hour later, a reconciliation bill composed of changes and amendments to the original bill also passed.  President Obama is expected to sign the former into law in the next day or two -- the Senate will take the the latter up for debate in the near future as well.  During debate on the reconciliation bill, Bart Stupak took the floor to explain why his peers should vote for the current language rather than sending it back to committee and adding stronger anti-abortion provisions and was interrupted by an as yet unidentified Republican shouting "baby killer!" -- the race is now on for the first media outlet to identify the shouter.

Following the votes, President Obama added a few concluding remarks, saying that today represents “another stone firmly laid in the foundation of the American dream,” and that “tonight, we answered the call of history as so many generations of Americans have before us."

The Democrats clearly ended the night feeling triumphant.  Time will tell if Republicans' predictions of doom for those voting for the bill will come true.  If so, the triumph could be somewhat short-lived.