Boxer: Healthcare reform will ‘happen one way or the other’

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said on Tuesday that she believes Congress will pass healthcare reform legislation “one way or the other” by the end of 2009.

“I believe its going to happen and I believe it’s going to happen one way or the other we’re going to try very hard to get our Republican friends to help us,” Boxer said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

The junior senator reiterated that Democrats would try hard to secure bipartisan support on the health bill in the Senate.

But she also said that with the myriad problems facing America’s healthcare system “we have to act, otherwise I don’t belong in the Senate.”

The Senate broke for recess without finalizing a floor version of the healthcare reform bill. A bipartisan “gang of six” senators has engaged in lengthy negotiations over the bill’s funding in the Senate Finance Committee. Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) set a September 15 deadline for the committee to bring a bill to a vote.

Senators return to work on September 8.

Video of Boxer’s comments: