Posted on 11/21/2009 12:12:12 PM PST by broken_arrow1
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said she’d deliver the deciding vote to push forward with a sweeping health reform plan in the Senate Saturday, ending days of speculation over whether President Barack Obama’s signature priority would proceed to the floor or suffer a debilitating blow.
As with several centrists before her, Lincoln’s yes vote to start debate came wrapped in series of serious concerns about the current bill – and she said it would require major revisions before she could cast a similar vote in favor of final passage.
"I'm prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration as long as a public option is included," Lincoln said, adding that she specifically would vote against the version of the public option in the current Senate plan.
The final vote is scheduled for 8 p.m., but with Lincoln’s announcement in hand, Senate Majority Harry Reid has the 60 votes he needs to begin debate on the bill after Thanksgiving and break any Republican attempt to hold up debate.
But Lincoln’s remarks and those of the second-to-last holdout, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), showed Reid that his celebration over Saturday’s victory will be short-lived. Landrieu made clear that Reid’s current bill is fatally flawed in her eyes and in the eyes of other moderate colleagues, particularly over its inclusion of a public health insurance plan.
“I believe it is going to be very clear at some point very soon that there are not 60 votes for the current provision in the bill and that the leader and the leadership will have to make a decision, and I trust they will figure out how to do that,” Landrieu said.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
VOTE THEM ALL OUT !!!!!!!!!!!!
“I believe it is going to be very clear at some point very soon that there are not 60 votes for the current provision in the bill and that the leader and the leadership will have to make a decision, and I trust they will figure out how to do that,” Landrieu said.”
they already figured it out...it’s called the nuclear option and we are screwed by you and your lying, thieving cronies in BOTH PARTIES who know very well how this is going to play out...
If Lincoln really felt it was flawed then she wouldn’t vote for a bill that they need 60 votes to have amendments added to it. Her voting Yay is supporting tax payer abortions, the public option etc.
Blanche Lincoln is political road kill. She knows she is toast and now she is maneuvering for a “Golden Parachute”.
Sad day for our old Republic.
these Senators will claim “ I vote against the Health Care Bill”. won’t work this was the only vote that counted.
Oh come on Landrieu. What a lying pig you are. If you do not want this bill; then why did you vote yes on this vote?
Landrieu should know what goes around comes around. It will Landrieu and the great thing is you will do yourself in. I have never seen it fail.
Did Robert Byrd come back to the Senate?
Well, I guess it’s up to us tea bagger radicals to see that Ms. Lincoln’s present stint in the Senate will be her last...and that goes for Landrieu and 95% of the Senate! Whassa matter with these people??? (Never mind, I already know). :(
Slash their pensions and bar them from particapting in any government activities too.
What happened to Leibermann?
God forgive me, but I hate these bastards!
No surprise. The Democrats will all vote for this at the end of the day, regardless of what they say before hand.
“Sad day for our old Republic.”
Indeed!!!
There’s probably some pork for Arkansas in that bill, though/s
Sure Blanche, sure.
Welcome to the party . . . comrade.
Welcome to the party . . . comrade.
Liars and hypocrites. They know that a vote for cloture makes it impossible to stop passage of this bill. Their ‘No’ vote later will be meaningless they just think we’re too stupid to know!
Can we stop this idiotic moral equivalence garbage finally?
EVERY single Republican is voting against this. So how about the usual Freeper squealers just this once actually hold the Democrats accountable for their actions instead of manufacturing yet another STUPID reason to scream at the GOP for what the DEMOCRAT Senators did.
Actually, we became Communists in September of 2008.
Just make sure all (D)incumbants are voted out. I don’t care what state or district. Blue Dogs are first, OUT!
Vote them out? They aren’t all up for re-election. Not to mention the voter fraud that will be involved in 2010 and it’s nearly a year away. Are we waiting to storm the capitol until we lose in 2010? I am powerless because I am one, we need many and we need to move at the same time. We need ten times as many as was in D.C. in September.
I see there is a march planned next September, by then I fear so many of us will be without employment we’ll have to start walking in July to get there. If we just hold hands and wave signs, nothing will get accomplished.
Sorry folks, I’m in a bad mood. Lots of talk and no action as we lose our freedom bit by bit, only faster these days. I’m not a leader and we don’t appear to have one yet that can mobilize us. Obama is killing us by a thousand paper cuts.
“I’m afraid this war will never end, and I’m afraid it will never start”. Abigail Adams
I don’t think you have to ask God to forgive you, I think God agrees with you......
He was in WVa yesterday. Is he back in D.C.? Did anyone see him on C-Span?
If you're against socialism, there's nothing to debate. Congress just has no right under the Constitution to "do" medical care.
Governor Bredesen(D) Tennessee is totally against this.
I’d like to know why Lieberman is going to vote Yay, especially when the public option won’t be able to be overturned without 60 votes.
RINOS would turn us in. So we ought to settling the score with them, first. They would most likely throw in their chips with the Jackboot Socialists if push really came to shove.
Arkansas, a state that was red in the presidential elections of 2000, 2004 and 2008 (and probably before the Slick Willie era in national politics), still sends two Dims to the Senate: Lincoln and Pryor.
Great PROPHETIC sign.
“EVERY single Republican is voting against this. So how about the usual Freeper squealers just this once actually hold the Democrats accountable for their actions instead of manufacturing yet another STUPID reason to scream at the GOP for what the DEMOCRAT Senators did.”
because we didn’t get here in the last two years...we have failed to hold our respective parties responsible...and screw your calling anyone names...own your shit like a man...
IMO the nuclear option is extremely unlikely. Only provisions related to budget would stay, defeating a lot of things RATS dearly want, like getting rid of exclusions for preexisting conditions.
Also, with nuke option, bill would land with Budget Committee, and the liberals cant stand the thought. Conrad is too moderate for them, and he would no doubt remove the public option.
Disbelieve it if you want, but bill has a LONG way to go.
“Disbelieve it if you want, but bill has a LONG way to go.”
I hope you are right...I think we are about to pay the price for our own sloth...and I am really pissed...thanks for the patience...
<< Can we stop this idiotic moral equivalence garbage finally?
EVERY single Republican is voting against this. So how about the usual Freeper squealers just this once actually hold the Democrats accountable for their actions instead of manufacturing yet another STUPID reason to scream at the GOP for what the DEMOCRAT Senators did. >>
Sorry, but I agree that the Republicans are as much to blame as the Democrats are. After waiting more than half a century for Republicans to finally take over all three branches of the government, they acted like drunken Democrats when they finally did. If they stopped the increase in government spending and closed the borders to illegals when they had the chance, we wouldn’t be in this shape to begin with. We need to start over, so vote ‘em ALL out!
What is it that makes you people absolutely HAVE to manufacture some reason to scream at both parties, or at the GOP but NEVER, EVER hold the Democrat Party accountable for anything?
Did you grow up in a Democrat home and get brainwashed early in lfie to think of the Democrats as "your guys" and just cannot bear to look at the reality of what they are now?
AR has only elected a Republican Senator once since Reconstruction (Tim Hutchinson, 1997-2003).
Believe me my blood is boiling. But I’ve been through this crap enough to know it’s not over till Big Nanny sings.
Look for a senatorial version of "Weekend at Bernie's".
I’d call Landrieu a lying sack of excrement; but I don’t want to insult sacks or excrement.
I hope they're finally beginning to realize what a radical leftist agenda they are supporting when they send all these Dims to Congress. "Conservative Democrat" is from a bygone era, and red states that keep sending Dims to DC are just voting for Obama, Pelosi and Reed.
North and South Dakota, Montana and Louisiana, and West Virginia are also red states that are helping the far left enact policies they probably don't support. Those are places Republicans should realize some gains over the next several years.
Lincoln will need lots of help from ACORN and the Black Panthers come election day.
“What is it with you people that makes you so absolutely incapable of holding the Democrats accountable for their actions? What is it that makes you people absolutely HAVE to manufacture some reason to scream at both parties, or at the GOP but NEVER, EVER hold the Democrat Party accountable for anything?”
You have obviously never read any of my posts, Skippy...what is it that has your eye blind to the stupidity and corruption of the Republican Party? Point to a post where I extol the virtues of DimoCraps...good luck finding one....even ONE...but hey, wake up. The RNC sucks and needs to be completely demolished.
Let’s stop being so blind in the current reign of King O-bumaye and start calling a spade a spade, shall we? Then we might get a Party to be proud of, not this NIMBY, self serving hack-o-rama we have now...is that you, Mr. Steele?
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