By Anna Edney and Dan Friedman
The Senate voted 60-39 along party lines Saturday night to take up sweeping healthcare overhaul legislation, a victory that belies the tough haul ahead to assuage lingering Democratic concerns that threaten final passage.
Four moderate Democrats – Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut – have made clear they will help Republicans thwart final passage if Majority Leader Reid does not change the opt-out public plan in his $848 billion bill. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, did not vote.
“I’ve already alerted the leader, and I’m promising my colleagues, that I’m prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration as long as a government-run public option is included,” Lincoln said Saturday afternoon.
Lincoln, preceded by Landrieu by about two hours, was the last Democratic holdout to reveal she would vote for cloture on the motion to proceed, giving Reid the 60th vote he needed to move forward on the bill.
Senators will now scatter to their home states for Thanksgiving break and return Monday, Nov. 30, to begin debate on amendments. President Obama wants the Senate to pass the bill before Christmas. Saturday night’s cloture vote, which doubled as a motion to proceed to the bill, allowed Reid to bring up his proposal as a substitute amendment.
Immediately after the vote, Reid suggested the version of a public option in his bill could be altered.
Asked in a post-vote press conference how he can line up 60 votes for his bill in the face of the moderates’ opposition to its proposed national public option with a state opt-out, Reid appeared to open the door to a less-robust alternative being developed by Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., Landrieu and others.
Reid said the group, which also includes Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., hopes “to find a public option that is acceptable to all the Democrats.” Asked if he had requested the alternative, Reid said, “No, it is my understanding that Senator Landrieu said today that she is working with Senator Schumer and Carper.”
Carper’s alternative would require a public option be established the same day exchanges created in the plan take effect, but only in states that do not meet a yet-to-be determined affordability standard for coverage. It would begin under HHS direction but eventually have a nonprofit, presidentially appointed board, Carper has said.
But such an option would face opposition from liberals who could defect, public option backers said. “Four members of the Senate aren’t gonna tell the other 55 what to do on these issues,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. “I expect this bill to pass with a public option.” Brown said he would not draw “lines in the sand” but said other liberals might. “We’ve compromised four times already,” he said.
Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., another backer of a public option, downplayed Reid’s statement, saying, “Harry has always said that. And he has always meant it.”
Landrieu insisted that any public option resemble a trigger approach championed by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. Landrieu wants the version to be a “free-standing, premium-support, competitive community option,” rather than the national, government-run plan in the bill.
Lincoln said private insurers can be held accountable without the public option.
“We can still force private insurance plans that participate in the exchanges to provide standard benefit packages that are easy to compare and more fairly priced,” she said. “We will be bringing millions of new customers to the exchanges so insurers would be motivated to lower their prices and be competitive.”
Lieberman previously said he would not support final passage of the bill if it includes a public option, and Nelson has expressed similar concerns.
Nelson also has said he has concerns the legislation permits federal funding of abortions. The Senate overhaul proposal does not allow federal funds to be used for abortion except in extreme cases and tasks HHS with deciding if and how the public option might cover abortions.
Senate Republicans presented a unified front in what aides described as a coordinated attack on Reid’s bill in the past two days of floor debate and in media appearances, blasting the bill’s size, cost and outcomes. In an effort directed by Senate Minority Leader McConnell and assisted by Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, leadership aides arranged for about 15 GOP senators to appear on their local television and radio stations, while all but seven GOP senators spoke on the floor Friday and today, GOP aides said.
“There has really been a team effort on making that happen,” said a Republican leadership aide. “That doesn’t always happen.”
McConnell said a vote in favor of this bill “is a vote in favor of tax burden of the American people in the middle of double-digit unemployment” raising “health insurance premiums on people who were told they should expect their health insurance costs to go down” and of continuing “the out-of-control spending binge Congress has been on all year.”
Reid said the vote was only a vote to debate the overhaul, not in support of anything.
“Let us negotiate. Let us deliberate. Let us debate,” Reid said. “Our country needs this debate.”
Republicans also lamented the party-line vote. The vote represents “the first time in half a century that a historic piece of legislation … was enacted on party lines,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, whose vote Democrats still hope to win. “That would be a sad commentary on the political process.”
Snowe said it is one thing to debate these public option alternatives and “another thing whether or not they’re prepared to incorporate bipartisan proposals.”
The vote came before a packed gallery, with senators sitting quietly in their seats, even though the outcome was effectively determined. Breaking the somber mood during the vote, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., laughing, in a voice audible in the press gallery, joked “What’s going to happen?”
TonyfromOz adds …..
Watch as the Pork starts to get loaded onto this to win key votes. This is going to be the biggest bacon bonanza in history.
Read more timely articles at Congress Daily and the National Journal
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