Public Option, Medicare Buy-In Could See Senate Floor Fights

<a href=”http://butt-trumpet.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/s-REID-large1.jpg”>Real health care reform is threatening to emerge from the ashes of the Massachusetts special election that exploded the effort in January. A growing movement in the Senate to urge Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to reinsert the public option into a health care reform package that would move through the chamber under majority-only rules depends on just how many votes backers can muster.

“Senator Reid remains a strong supporter of the public option, but it’s always a question of where the votes are,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley told HuffPost.

There’s one tried and true way to find out if the votes are there: Hold a vote.

Because of the rules surrounding budget reconciliation, the process that would allow health care reform to move through with 51 votes, any Senator may bring up an amendment to the package. An opponent of the amendment will then likely make a point of order and argue that the amendment violates the “Byrd Rule” and is out of order. If the parliamentarian sustains the point of order, the amendment would need 60 votes to pass. But if he deems that it complies with the rules of reconciliation — that it has a substantial effect on the budget and is germane to the legislation — then the amendment passes with a majority vote.

via Public Option, Medicare Buy-In Could See Senate Floor Fights.