Democrats gain key votes: Healthcare bill to jump first Senate hurdle
Based on the news below, Matt Lewis asked on Twitter, “How much money would Mike Huckabee immediately raise were he to announce he was challenging B. Lincoln for Senate?” Oh, how I wish.
From the Wall Street Journal, this afternoon:
Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a centrist Democrat from AR, said Saturday she would vote to move forward with debate on health-care legislation, giving Democrats what appeared to be the 60 votes needed to bring the sweeping bill to the Senate floor for debate….
Sen. Lincoln, who faces a tough reelection battle next year, said it is “important that we begin this debate” and not “simply drop the issue and walk away.” She added a bit later: “I’m not afraid of that debate.”
Her comments came few hours after Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) said she would vote to move forward with debate, and a day after Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) said he, too, would vote to move forward. The 3 senators had all been undecided for weeks, casting doubt on the vote planned for Saturday on whether to proceed.
The vote, likely later Saturday, will be the first test in the full Senate for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who unveiled his bill Wednesday night. He needs the votes of all 58 Senate Democrats, plus 2 independents allied with the party, to overcome a Republican filibuster on the question of whether to proceed with the bill. The legislation would overhaul the nation’s health-care system and extend insurance to 31 million Americans now without coverage.
Earlier Saturday, Sen. Landrieu said she was ready to join in support of debate, giving Mr. Reid much-needed momentum. “I’ve decided that there are enough significant reforms and safeguards in this bill to move forward, but much more work needs to be done,” Sen. Landrieu said.
Sen. Nelson… secured one of several favors that Democratic leaders doled out to win over waverers: He persuaded them to keep out a provision that would repeal the insurance industry’s antitrust exemption, congressional aides said….
Mr. Reid this week also made a strong play for the support of Ms. Landrieu, a centrist Democrat, adding a provision that would steer an estimated $200 million to $250 million in Medicaid funds to her state in fiscal 2011….
Charles Krauthammer is calling these legislative bribes “a new kind of business as usual.”
[Photos of Landrieu and Lincoln via the Associated Press; photo of Reid via the New York Times]

Cheer up, right wingers, the health insurance lobby still has billions to bribe legislators. The president of United Health Care personally made one billion dollars last year, which is 5 times the “bribe” offered to Landrieu.
Everyone sure has their price. I am for term limits.
Lincoln is from Arkansas. A lot of these Democrats are coming out of the South, it seems. Perhaps they’re just the ones in the news, but I can’t help wondering if the South is getting more liberal- I hear and read about liberal legislation on health all of the time.
For the 2010 cycle, UnitedHealth has contributed 65% Democrat and 35% Republican. Bystander is biting the hand that feeds him. Typical liberal.
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.php?cycle=2010&ind=H03
Doesn’t Blanche Lincoln look a tad haggard? Perhaps she’d contemplating election 2010.
Blanche my dear, why would you throw your already precarious reelection chances down the crapper for Obama, who, after 2010 doesn’t give a fat flying about you or any other Democrats who get canned because of this bill? You’ve served your purpose, giving him the power he wants.
Yet I bet you will continue with undying loyalty to “The Party”, i.e. Obama.
The power of the sociopath is mindboggling.
Bystander, Rightwingers are not losing. Those who vote FOR obamacare may soon see that they are voting against themselves. You should already know this: you saw it when you voted for obama.
http://www.impeachobamacampaign.com/