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Politico: Dems Have Needed Votes to Pass Health Care Bill

By Philip Klein on 11.7.09 @ 5:38PM

The Politico is reporting that the Democrats are now confident that they have the 218 votes needed to pass the House health care bill. If the bill does end up passing, it seems that the difference maker would be the passage of the Stupak amendment barring taxpayer funding for abortion, which hasn't been voted on yet but is expected to pass. But assuming this turns out to be the case, the big questions are: will Democrats actually defy Planned Parenthood and keep the pro-life language in the final, reconciled bill? And if it gets stripped, then how do the pro-life Democrats end up voting when the merged bill comes up for a vote in the House?

Meanwhile, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor's office counts 33 Democrats who are confirmed "no" votes. That would mean that the maximum number of votes the bill would get would be 225.