Super Saturday vote scheduled on health care
Tomorrow, the Senate will spend 10 hours debating the health care bill before taking its first vote….maybe.
As currently set, the Senate is expected to vote on whether to allow the bill to come to floor on Saturday, at 8pm eastern time. Keep in mind that should Majority Leader Reid succeed in lining up 60 votes in support of allowing the debate to go forward, this is not the end of the road for those who would like to block the bill nor is it a successful conclusion for supporters. It is only the first procedural hurdle.
Senators like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson have agreed to vote ‘yes’ in tomorrow’s vote to allow debate to go forward through the month of December, while each has made clear that unless the bill changes dramatically, neither will vote to allow the bill to come to a final vote. Without Liberman and Nelson voting for support a final vote on the reform bill, the GOP would be able to successfully filibuster the bill and kill health care reform in the end.
As of this afternoon, Democratic Senators Landrieu and Lincoln had not revealed how they plan to vote. Also, Democratic Sen. Baucus is in Montana taking care of his mother who is very ill and nobody is sure if Sen. Byrd is in good enough health to make it to the Senate to vote.
Should any of these four either decide to vote ‘no’ in tomorrow night’s vote, or be unable to attend, Reid will not go forward with the scheduled vote. Things will simply be placed on hold. If the delay is the result of Baucus or Byrd being unable to make it to the Senate floor, the vote will wait until they are available. However, if things are put on hold because of Lincoln or Landrieu expressing their intention to vote against the bill going to the floor for debate, then all bets are off and what promises to be some long and serious negotiations will begin.
Stay tuned… the fun is just getting started.
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Hey, Rick!
Your old HS friend here, Tom Luten, from Rayen,loves your comments!!
Keep it up, guy!
Hey! Always nice to hear from the ‘homies’.
In response to another comment. See in context »I hope you’re well. I’m guessing, based on your ‘ytownman1′ that you are still in Ytown? Do you ever see Bob Lackey???
If this report is accurate – http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann#34073149
-Nelson is a YES vote because he got Reid to cave on the antitrust exemption.
-Landreu is a YES due to 100 million in aid to LA.
-Lincoln is a YES for 50 million a year for abstinence education.
Weren’t they worried about the costs?
More importantly, what do you think progressives would get if they held out like these hypocrites? They’d get threats and the withholding of campaign support – that’s what! This whole thing is fucked – and the real debating hasn’t even begun. Do you think this bill gets better or worse as it moves along?
Same old same old……
I think you’re right- although this is the first I’ve heard about what Lincoln is getting. I figured she was holding out for something. Tomorrow is a no brainer. They get goodies for pretending they may not play ball but take no risks as they can still all vote against it when the ‘real’ vote comes.
In response to another comment. See in context »It is a pretty messed up system, isn’t it?
It’s messed up alright!
And the Lincoln case is a perfect illustration of just how messed up it is. Not only does she get money for her vote, she gets money for programs which have proven to be inneffective and/or counterproductive. WTF!
In response to another comment. See in context »Yes, the system seems pretty messed up to me. But then I want the bill to pass. If I didn’t, I’d probably like it just fine. Even so I wonder how anything ever gets passed into law …
Things do get passed because it usually isn’t quite as insane as this.
In response to another comment. See in context »RE:Stay tuned… the fun is just getting started.
You call this fun….when the enemy is at the gates?