WASHINGTON (November 8, 2009)—Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, and Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, both voted against the sweeping health care reform bill that the U.S. House passed in a 220-215 vote Saturday night.

Carter’s opposition was expected, but Edwards had remained silent about his position on the measure until Saturday.

“While the Congressional Budget Office predicts this bill is paid for over 10 years, there is no mechanism in the bill to force spending cuts if those complicated projections turn out to be wrong,” Edwards said.

“I also have concerns about a government-run “public option” insurance company and question whether this bill goes far enough in actually reducing health care costs for working families and businesses,” he said.

Carter said House Democrats and the Obama administration “declared war on the American middle class” Saturday.

“This is a day of healthcare infamy,” Carter said.

“This House voted to take away the healthcare freedom of their fellow Americans, slash Medicare benefits to give free healthcare to illegal aliens, ration healthcare and promote euthanasia to the elderly, raise health care premiums, and throw working Americans into federal prison if they can’t afford to pay those jacked up insurance rates,” he said.

Republicans were nearly unanimous in rejecting the measure, which Michigan Rep. Candice Miller derided as a "jobs-killing, tax-hiking, deficit-exploding" bill.

The only Republican to vote in favor of the bill represents a predominantly Democratic district in New Orleans.

The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance while providing subsidies to those who can't afford it.

Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees and insurance companies would no longer be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions or charge higher premiums based on gender or medical history.

President Barack Obama praised the $1.2 trillion bill's passage, and said he expects the Senate to follow suit and looks forward to "signing it into law by the end of the year."

Senate approval is the first of three hurdles the bill still faces.

Once the Senate has voted, negotiators from both chambers will have to hammer out a compromise version, which then will need to win approval from both the House and Senate.

An amendment prohibiting coverage of abortions in a new government-run health care plan that Democrats want to compete with private insurers was key in securing passage.

Anti-abortion Democrats insisted on the ban and 64 Democrats joined 176 Republicans in favor of the prohibition.