This Saturday November 21, 2009 the United States Senate has mustered up the 60 votes needed to allow the debate on the health care bill. This vote comes 2 weeks after the House of Representatives passed their historic legislation. The vote to allow debate gained exactly the 60 votes necessary to bring it to the floor for open debate. The Republican party has stood by their word not to allow 1 vote in favor of this legislation even reaching debate. The final tally was 60-39 for this procedural passage.

After months of back and forth criticism and lobbying from both sides of the aisle, it looks as though for the first time this 848 billion dollar health care and health insurance reform bill, that is set to cover 31 million uninsured Americans and according to the Congressional Budget Office saves $127 billion over the next ten years and actually decreases the U.S. deficit over a twenty year span will be on track to make history.

Several of the "blue dog Democrats" who voted to allow this bill to be debated on the floor have made it clear that this in no way seals a favored vote for the final legislation to pass. Now that the procedural motion has passed, the Senate is expected to start a debate on the bill after the Thanksgiving break.

The lone missing vote was Republican Senator George Voinivich of Ohio who was absent from this historic vote.