Six Senate Swing Votes

Senate majority leader banks on 60 votes, infuriates Baucus

(NEWSER) - Harry Reid is preparing to bring a health reform bill that includes a public option to the floor of the Senate, gambling that his 60-member caucus will support the plan if it contains opt-out measures for individual states. The majority leader and other senators met with Barack Obama yesterday to discuss strategy, although the president did not explicitly endorse the approach. Polls show a clear majority supports a public option, and Nancy Pelosi is bringing a bill containing one through the House. More»

Hostile insurance industry pushes Dems to consider grab-bag of proposals

(NEWSER) - The public option, left for dead by the Max Baucus bill that passed the Finance Committee just weeks ago, has a new lease on life in the Senate. Credit goes to a CBO report underwhelmed by that bill's efforts to encourage competition, and a big power play by the insurance industry that backfired. Democrats are considering a raft of possibilities, from the triggered plan favored by GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe to others that would allow states to opt in, or out. “This issue is alive,” Max Baucus tells the Wall Street Journal. More»

Majority leader thinks he's got the support to send bill to the floor

(NEWSER) - Harry Reid is “cautiously optimistic” about the success of his frantic attempts to unite the 60 votes of his caucus behind the Senate health care reform bill. “I think we’re together,” he says. But the majority leader was positively voluble about the bill itself, notes the Washington Post : “Of all the bills we've seen, it'll be the best." More»

Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman are two of them

(NEWSER) - To get the 60 votes he needs just to bring his health care bill to the floor of the Senate, Harry Reid is going to have to rein in some of his caucus' members. Politico surveys the majority leader's biggest challenges.

• Joe Lieberman, Conn. The independent said yesterday he'll join a GOP filibuster if the bill's not changed. He's no fan of either a public option or Olympia Snowe's trigger option—though he might just be posturing.

Landrieu and Lieberman agree not to block opt-out plan

(NEWSER) - Harry Reid closed in on the 60 votes he needs to pass a health reform bill with a public option yesterday, aided by 2 Democratic moderates who pledged not to filibuster the vote. Both Mary Landrieu and Joe Lieberman said they wouldn't block the bill, which offers a public insurance option that states could opt out of. Another Democratic fence-sitter, Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, signaled that he might support the opt-out plan. More»