After watching several hours of the floor debate on the House’s healthcare reform bill two weeks ago I had no interest in putting myself through that again on today’s motion to invoke cloture in the Senate, especially since the big news was settled early on. Conservative Democrats Landrieu and Lincoln announced they would vote for the motion to proceed before by 11 o’ clock local time.
The vote was just held and succeeded 60-39. All Democrats and Independents voted in favor of proceeding, all Republicans opposed. After Thanksgiving we will all have the privilege of hearing debate on the bill, or as I consider it, the same talking points we have been hearing for months already. Since the bill seems very likely to pass in the Senate at this point, it makes sense to speed along debate and get to a vote if any hopes of getting a bill signed into law before the end of the year are to be realized. Compromises in Conference and another round of voting in both chambers could very easily drag the process into 2010.
