Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing for the first key vote on heath care reform in the Senate on Saturday. Reid needs 60 votes on the measure to avoid a GOP filibuster. All 40 Republicans have said they will oppose the bill; and so Reid needs all of the remaining 60 votes.
It appears that four of the Senators that Democrats need are waivering: Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Democrat Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Democrat Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, and Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.
The health care package includes $850 in spending to expand Medicaid to cover 31 million who are now uninsured. The bill also includes a "public option" that allows states to opt out. On abortion, the bill separates federal funding from private premiums, with the latter funding abortion coverage.
Senator Nelson wants stronger language separating abortion funding from public coverage. Lieberman opposes the public option. While both of these senators indicate that they may oppose future versions of the bill based on these provisions, they also seem to indicate they will vote with Reid on Saturday.
The real wildcards are Lincoln and Landrieu. Politico.com reports that Landrieu will make her decision sometime on Friday. Lincoln, who stands for re-election next year in a state where polls show opposition to Obama's heath plan, is probably the biggest wildcard. A negative vote from Lincoln or any one of the other 3 senators would set back the Democrats' efforts to pass heath care reform significantly.
In voting against the removal of President Andrew Johnson in 1868, Republican Senator Edmund G. Ross took a step that he knew would cost him re-election ... and it did. John Kennedy called this vote a "profile in courage."
Senator Blanche Lincoln has a potentially career-altering decision to make tomorrow: to move President Obama and the Democrat Health Care Reform one step closer to reality, or to save her political career? Will her vote be another profile in courage?
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