The Senate passed their health care reform cloture vote, 60-39. Republican George Voinovich did not vote. Max Baucus was forced to fly in from Montana where he is tending to his ailing mother and Robert Byrd was wheeled in in a wheelchair. No Republicans voted for cloture. No members of the Democratic caucus voted against it.
It will now take 60 votes to get rid of the opt-out public option that Harry Reid included in the base bill. But, at the same time, both Blanche Lincoln and Mary Landrieu (joining Joe Lieberman) made clear that they will not vote for the opt-out public option. If it remains in the bill, they will vote against the next cloture vote to end debate and move to an up or down vote. This places the Democrats in a quandary. They can’t pass this bill, and they can’t change it without the unanimous support of all 40 Republicans and at least 20 members of the Democratic caucus.
So, before you start celebrating the historic vote to begin debate on health care reform, tell me how the Democrats can get out of this Catch-22 situation.