A key procedural vote in the wee hours this morning has given Democratic Senate leaders confidence that they've found the 60 votes necessary to pass a health insurance reform bill with no support from Republicans.
The vote followed two weeks of intramural bloodshed among Democrats, and featured the sort of politics which gives politics a bad name.
Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut proved it's possible to do the right thing, even for the wrong reasons, when he went to bat for the hometown insurance industry in refusing to vote for any bill which contained a public option. He won no friends among the Democrats (with whom he caucuses) by refusing to support a trial balloon Medicare "buy-in" for Americans between 55 and 64.
Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska held the Senate hostage on principle, refusing to vote for any measure which did not prohibit the use of any public funds for abortions. In the end, he got some "fig leaf" legislative language punting responsibilities to the states...and some extra Medicaid money for Nebraska.
Apparently a half-dozen key Senators held their votes till they received the same sort of deal, which will provide additional Medicaid subsidies for their states to cover the extra cost of the bill's expansion of Medicaid.
The Senate expects a vote on this "historic" measure by Christmas Eve, so everybody can go home for the holiday.
Then the REAL bloodletting will begin, as negotiators try to reconcile a Senate bill with three others passed by the House. At issue are "irreconcilable" differences on issues like the public option, Medicare cuts, taxes on the rich, taxes on "Cadillac" health plans, and a whole range of funding issues.
Maybe we'll learn a little more about the Senate bill's particulars before they pass it.
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