Yesterday, I wrote
that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was taking a huge gamble
by presenting health care legislation that included a government
plan. Today, his bill hit a major roadblock when Sen. Joe
Lieberman declared that he would outright support a filibuster of
the proposal.
"I've told Sen. Reid that if the bill stays as it is now I will
vote against cloture," Lieberman said,
according to the Politico.
Without Lieberman's support, Reid won't have the backing of 60
Senators he needs to bring legislation to the floor for a vote.
In addition, Lieberman's stance will take the pressure off
Democrats opposed to the government plan, but torn over whether
to support their party's leadership or represent their
constituents. Those Senators include Mary Landrieu of Louisiana,
Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. If the
bill doesn't have the 60 votes anyway, why would these red state
Senators support a bill and risk a major backlash at home?
Over the past week, the main health care story has been about the
resurgence of the so-called "public option." But this news should
take some air out of that particular balloon.
Either Reid knows something that we don't, or he just made
another colossal blunder counting votes. Last week when he
thought he could get 27 Republicans to support a $247 billion
"doc fix" bill, but ended up
losing 13 Democrats instead.
