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Health care bill with public option guaranteed to pass
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TPM.com
The cable networks and other news organizations like to pretend there is some doubt, some suspense, as to the outcome of the health care bill including the public option. There isnt. But they act like there is some doubt for only one reason: they want to keep viewers watching. So they try and create phony suspense.
It was reported here four days before the last senate vote that the Democrats had the 60 votes to move it forward. But you'd never know it watching the cable or network news. They insisted, right to the end, that there was some suspense involved. Will they or wont they?
The problem is Tom Harkin said publicly on the Tuesday before the vote that the Democrats had the 60 votes.But it was ignored.
They are now playing the same game with the bill as a whole. What is getting little air time is that the Democrats have a mechanism called reconciliation to push the bill through and they only need 51 votes to do it.
It's fiibuster proof since budget reconciliation allows for only 20 hours of debate, making an endless filibuster impossible. With 54-56 senate Democrats on the record as supporting the bill with the public option, it cant be stopped if budget reconciliation is used. And if Republicans or conservatives want to moan about this, let them be reminded that the three Bush tax cuts that resulted in the exploding deficit and other economic disasters, were passed by the Republican majority using budget reconciliation to prevent a Democratic filibuster.
This means that all the posturing by Lieberman or Blanche Lincoln and the Republicans, means nothing if Reid decides to invoke reconciliation which he most assuredly will if he has to.
In fact Dick Durbin has already said it will be used if it becomes neccessary. If its suspense you're looking for skip the health care debate and try Hitchcock. This bill is going to pass. One way or the other. The only question is how. And it will be signed into law before the State of the Union speech as many Democratic senators have already guaranteed. And they wouldnt say it and risk embarrassment if they weren't sure they could do it.
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