Congress
From NBC's Ken Strickland
Senate Democratic aides say that Majority Leader Harry Reid and his leadership team have begun searching for a fix on the public option. At least four Democratic Senate moderates made it clear this weekend they would block the final passage if it included the current version of a government-run insurance program.
As Reid needed 60 votes to get the bill on the floor, he'll also need 60 votes to pass it -- every member of his Democratic caucus. But drawing his moderate members into the fold may simultaneously push out liberals.
After Sen. Mary Landrieu gave a speech on Senate floor Saturday voicing her support to start debating the bill, she told a small gaggle of reporters the failure to find a compromise with centrists could "blow up the whole effort."
"I believe it's going to be very clear at some point very soon that there are not 60 votes for the current [public option] provision in the bill," she said. "And that the leader and the leadership are going to have to make a decision. And I trust they will figure out how to do that."
Democratic sources say the leadership has started feeling out the caucus for two possible compromises.
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From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's legislation to dub the day before Thanksgiving "Complaint-Free Wednesday" has flown largely under the radar.
But as the L.A. Times reports this morning, the Missouri Democrat has heard lots of complaining for trying to curb complaining.
"Now, this is a Congress that has given us National Ice Cream Month and found time to praise the plumbing industry," The Times writes. "Surely, then, the notion that on Thanksgiving eve, people might stop whining for just a day, take stock and give thanks would not seem to be a threat to the republic."
More:
"I thought dissent and complaining were patriotic," thundered one reader after some conservative websites printed Cleaver's "Dear Colleague" letter.
"I thought DC had gotten as stupid as they could get and I was wrong," groused another.
Cleaver said that some calls to his office from overwrought respondents went something like this: "I want you to show me where in the Bible it says I shouldn't complain. I haven't seen anything where Jesus asked us not to complain."
(Maybe not Jesus, Cleaver said, but Paul came pretty close in Philippians 4:8.) ...
Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) had offered the same legislation last year but with none of the accompanying political fireworks.
It's another sign of just how partisan our politics have become, where people can't think or speak rationally about almost anything, including, but clearly not limited to, hot-button issues.
I'm not complaining, I'm just sayin'...
“Moderate Senate Democrats threatened Sunday to scuttle health-care legislation if their demands aren't met, while more liberal members warned their party leaders not to bend,” the AP reports. “The dispute among Democrats foretells of a rowdy floor debate next month on legislation that would extend health care coverage to roughly 31 million Americans. Republicans have already made clear they aren't supporting the bill.”
Video:
Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., discuss the debate that awaits the Senate after Democratic health legislation cleared a key hurdle.
The New York Times: “Anxious that Saturday’s party-line Senate vote to open debate on a health care overhaul gives them little maneuvering room, Obama administration officials and their Congressional allies are stepping up overtures to select Senate Republicans” – especially Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins -- in hopes of winning their ultimate support.”
"The contentious public option is one thing that may likely change, Reid acknowledged. He said that Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu, one of the final three Democratic holdouts before tonight’s vote, is working with Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Tom Carper (D-DE) to come up with an 'alternative' public option, one that would be 'acceptable' to all Democrats."
The Washington Post adds, “With less than a year until the 2010 midterm elections -- and with Reid himself facing a potentially tough race at home in Nevada -- senators are eager to vote on health care before Christmas and complete negotiations with the House no later than the end of January, so they can turn their attention to legislation aimed at creating jobs.”
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From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
There's been a lot of talk about the $300 million Medicaid "fix" that Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu got for her home state just before voting in favor of cloture last night, thereby putting the Senate health bill on the floor for conisderation.
Republicans have derisively called this Harry Reid's Louisiana Purchase.
We talked about it this morning on MSNBC.
A clip is below. HERE'S THE FULL DISCUSSION.
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
After tonight’s vote to put a health reform bill on the floor of the U.S. Senate for the first time in American history, Senate Democrats vowed to pass it, but acknowledged there would be changes.
“We can see the finish line, but we’re not there yet,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.
The contentious public option is one thing that may likely change, Reid acknowledged. He said that Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu, one of the final three Democratic holdouts before tonight’s vote, is working with Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Tom Carper (D-DE) to come up with an “alternative” public option, one that would be “acceptable” to all Democrats."
“It’s going to be a long stretch,” Reid said, but he declared, “We have the momentum."
He said that not all 60 Democrats agree on the bill as it is now, “but they agree on the vast majority.” Reid said they agreed on more than 90 percent of the bill.
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From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
After hours of debating whether to allow debate to begin on a health reform bill, the Senate voted in favor of letting that happen tonight along strictly partisan lines, 60-39.
The outcome had become all but assured earlier today when Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a moderate Democrat from Arkansas, the last Democratic holdout, said she would vote with her caucus.
It is important to realize that this is just the beginning, the opening kickoff if you will. Lincoln, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) have all said they would not vote for a bill that in the end that includes a public option. And more importantly Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has said he would join a Republican filibuster on the back end if a public option is included.
The other wild card: Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME). Snowe, who voted against cloture tonight, is against the "opt out" version of the public option. But, of course, she is in favor of her "Trigger" option.
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From NBC's Ken Strickland
As was expected after Sen. Ben Nelson's (D-NE) statement yesterday explaining what a vote for cloture would mean, he has now released a statement saying that he will vote with Democrats.
His full written statement after the jump:
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From NBC's Ken Strickland
After reading reports that Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) has already told Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) how she'll vote tomorrow on issue of whether to bring the healthcare bill to the floor, Lincoln's office was quick respond.
"No other Senator speaks for Senator Lincoln," Lincoln's spokeswoman told NBC in an email. "She is still reviewing the bill."
Earlier in the day, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat Dick Durbin told several reporters that Lincoln had already made her voting intentions known to Reid.
"She's told Sen. Reid," Durbin said without revealing the substance of the conversation.
A few hours later, Durbin too joined in with clarifying remarks. In a written statement, he said, "In a conversation with reporters earlier today, some of my remarks regarding Sen. Lincoln were unclear and have been incorrectly interpreted.
"Let me be clear: Senator Lincoln has had a number of conversations with Sen. Reid about the health care reform legislation. She has asked important questions and there has been a positive and healthy give and take. But Sen. Lincoln has not yet signaled her intention as to how she will vote on tomorrow's cloture motion. I have worked with Sen. Lincoln for years and know that she will reach a decision that is best for her constituents, her state and the nation."
From NBC's Ken Strickland
At a news conference this morning, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) pre-emptively gave the his answer to the question everyone's been asking over the past few weeks: does Majority Leader Harry Reid have the 60 votes needed to bring the healthcare bill to the floor.
"We're not assuming a thing," Durbin said, "we're working hard to bring all Democrats together for the 60 votes necessary to proceed to this historic debate."
But it's possible Durbin and Reid are playing coy and already know they how the vote will go down Saturday night.
In a gaggle with reporters following the news conference (off-camera), Durbin was asked if he knew how Blanche Lincoln will vote on Saturday. Lincoln has been by far the most tight-lipped of the three Democratic holdouts about how she might vote.
"She's told Senator Reid," Durbin said, but wouldn't answer the obvious follow-up question. "You'll have to ask Senator Reid."
It begs the questions if fellow centrist Democrats Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu have also informed Reid.
Per the Washington Post, the Congressional Budget Office said the public option “opt out” in Reid’s bill “would have relatively little impact on the current system, would charge ‘somewhat higher’ premiums than its private competitors and would draw only about 4 million subscribers. The decision to permit states to opt out of the public plan is partly to blame for the Reid proposal's lack of reach, as it would leave about a third of the people in the country without access to the program, according to the CBO's calculation. But even the national plan approved by the House this month would attract only about 6 million people, the nonpartisan group has said, primarily because it would lack the tools to keep costs and premiums down.”
The New York Times looks at the abortion issue in the Senate bill. "Under the House bill, federal money could not be used 'to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion,' except in case of rape or incest or if the life of a pregnant woman was in danger. Thus, a plan that received federal subsidies for low- and moderate-income people could not offer abortion coverage. Under the Senate bill, insurers would not be required or forbidden to cover abortion. But, the measure says, in every part of the country, the government would have to ensure that there is at least one plan that covers abortion and at least one that does not."
More: "The secretary of health and human services would decide whether a proposed new government insurance plan would cover abortion. In general, if insurers cover abortion, they could not use federal money to pay for the procedure. They could use only subscriber premiums and would have to keep the money separate from subsidies received from the federal government."
The New York Times covers yesterday’s congressional hearing looking at the Fort Hood shootings. “A Senate committee on Thursday opened the first public hearings into the Fort Hood shootings, with several legislators asserting that the incident in which 13 people were killed was a terrorist attack by a homegrown extremist who may have slipped past law enforcement and military authorities. Hours later at a Pentagon news conference, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced that former Army Secretary Togo West and a former chief of naval operations, Vernon Clark, would lead a broad Pentagon review of the circumstances surrounding the shootings in which 13 people were killed and 43 were injured.”
