Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 10:54 pm by Darryl
Sub-mission Accomplished
The Senate health care reform achieved the first of several critical milestones on the road to passage tonight: The bill achieved the 60 votes needed to move forward to debate:
At its core, the legislation would create insurance exchanges beginning in 2014 where individuals, most of them lower income and uninsured, would shop for coverage. The bill sets aside hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits to help those earning up to 400 percent of poverty, $88,200 for a family of four.
The House approved its version of the bill earlier this month on a near party line vote of 220-215, and Reid has said he wants the Senate to follow suit by year’s end. Timing on any final compromise was unclear.
All 58 Senate Democrats and two independents voted to advance the bill. All 39 votes in opposition were cast by Republicans.
Chalk this up as a moderate failure for the Party of No™.
Cloture (i.e. the end of debate) will be a little harder for the Democrats, but the fact that the bill has gotten to debate is a pretty good sign that there will eventually be 60 votes in the Senate.
