With a straight party line vote (60-39, with Ohio Republican George Voinovich not voting), the U.S. Senate opted to begin debate on health care reform. There was chatter that two Democrat Senators (Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas) would vote "no", thus falling short of the sixty votes required for cloture. That in and of itself is somewhat encouraging that there was a struggle just to begin debate.
The thing worth noting is that Senator Lincoln has gone on the record as saying she will not vote yes on any measure (whether it be cloture to end debate or a health care bill itself) which includes a public option. Don't think her feet won't be held to the fire over that claim.
I wonder if opening debate on such an abomination is necessarily a bad thing. If the public attains even more insight from attempted health care reform, I have to believe doubts would start to creep in to the minds of even more constituents. There could be an uprising similar to 2-1/2 years ago when the Senate tried to push through a potentially disastrous immigration bill.
Either way, health care reform still has quite a ways to go. But the letters and phone calls to our Senators need to continue in earnest!
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