Some of the Play-by-Play on the Healthcare Bill
November 21, 2009
Stolen from AllahP’s comments in the open thread over at Hot Air:
Granted, 97 percent of Senate bills that pass this hurdle end up being enacted (so keep calling!), but most bills aren’t remotely as politically fraught as this one. Everyone expects Lincoln to cave and give Reid the 60 he needs — read Jay Cost’s excellent easy peasy three-point analysis for why it’s easy for Blue Dogs to say yes this time — but if she’s sweating now, she’ll be melting down before the final winner-take-all cloture vote a few weeks from now. Notes Cost, “The fact that these Democratic moderates are actually spending time ‘pondering’ whether to vote against starting debate is a sign that they are very skittish about this bill.”
Long story short, tonight is low risk and potentially huge reward. If Lincoln bugs out and the vote fails, it’ll be a nuclear humiliation for the Democrats and will have a lot of people suddenly believing that ObamaCare is un-passable. [Of course, that didn't happen. — ed.]
Update (AP): Stressing that her yes vote today in no way guarantees a yes on cloture next time, Landrieu says she’s ready to proceed. All eyes on Lincoln now. The Louisiana purchase worked.
Update (AP): Lincoln caves in at 2:30, whining about Republican opposition to any type of reform and demanding at least a debate on how to improve U.S. health care. As I write this, she’s patting herself on the back for resisting both the right and “liberal special interest groups,” but emphasizes that she won’t vote for the Reid bill until the public option is dropped.
But if the public option is dropped, they lose liberal votes. I don’t see how Reid pulls this one off.
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November 21st, 2009 at 12:52 pm
[...] Some of the Play-by-Play on the Healthcare Bill | Little Miss Attila littlemissattila.com/?p=11448 – view page – cached Granted, 97 percent of Senate bills that pass this hurdle end up being enacted (so keep calling!), but most bills aren’t remotely as politically fraught as this one. Everyone expects Lincoln to… Read moreGranted, 97 percent of Senate bills that pass this hurdle end up being enacted (so keep calling!), but most bills aren’t remotely as politically fraught as this one. Everyone expects Lincoln to cave and give Reid the 60 he needs — read Jay Cost’s excellent easy peasy three-point analysis for why it’s easy for Blue Dogs to say yes this time — but if she’s sweating now, she’ll be melting down before the final winner-take-all cloture vote a few weeks from now. Notes Cost, “The fact that these Democratic moderates are actually spending time ‘pondering’ whether to vote against starting debate is a sign that they are very skittish about this bill.” Read less [...]
November 21st, 2009 at 9:09 pm
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