ObamaCare Lacks 60 Senate Votes

The ObamaCare bill in the Senate right now lacks the 60 votes needed to pass it. Keep in mind that this may change as the details in the bill change, but that’s the way things are right now. In a surprise move, Senator Lieberman… who is an independent who votes with the Democrats on most things… has said he cannot support any ObamaCare bill that contains a public option.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28788.html

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill.

Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health care bill that includes a government-run insurance program — even if it includes a provision allowing states to opt out of the program, as Reid’s has said the Senate bill will.

"We're trying to do too much at once," Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now."

Lieberman added that he’d vote against a public option plan “even with an opt-out because it still creates a whole new government entitlement program for which taxpayers will be on the line."

His comments confirmed that Reid is short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill out of the Senate, even after Reid included the opt-out provision. Several other moderate Democrats expressed skepticism at the proposal as well, but most of the wavering Democratic senators did not go as far as Lieberman Tuesday, saying they were waiting to see the details.

And it doesn’t look like Reid will get the only Republican to so far indicate any willingness to vote in favor of this monstrosity, Senator Olympia Snowe. She just said that she will not support the “optional public option”… only a trigger.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/64981-senator-lieberman-not-backing-public-option

Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), the only Republican to vote for the Senate Finance Committee’s healthcare bill, said Tueday that she would vote against bringing up a bill that included a government-run insurance program unless the implementation of such a program were set to a trigger.

As things stand now, passage is unlikely without getting some Republican votes… which is also unlikely.

This means that as things now stand, Democrats will not have enough votes to pass healthcare reform with a so-called public option unless Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) can pick up unexpected GOP votes.

Don’t get too excited, but right now it doesn’t look good for government-run health care… and that is an incredibly good thing.

Look for a lot more wrangling and deal-making to try and convince Senators to support it… and look for the threats to be levied against the moderate Democrats who are right now opposed to it.

Don’t give up, people… keep letting your Congressmen know what you think about this abysmal ObamaCare proposal.