Senate to take a “test vote” on healthcare reform this Saturday
It is now being reported that Harry Reid will take a “test vote” on healthcare reform this Saturday. He is refusing to predict whether he will gain the 60 votes needed to pass this bill while stating that he will not use reconciliation to pass the bill with a simple majority.
The news that Harry Reid will not use reconciliation, at least not yet, is certainly good news as reconciliation would be an abuse of power. I would almost be willing to bet that Harry Reid does not yet have the sixty votes needed and I would also be willing to bet that he knows that he doesn’t have the votes.
So why is he taking this “test vote?” Well, to test the waters of course. I believe that Harry Reid wants to find out which senators oppose this bill and to get the votes on record. Once he officially knows which senators he needs to persuade he will then have a better grasp on what it will take to pass this monstrosity.
He will then begin negotiating with these senators until he has the votes to pass healthcare reform. I think that vote this vote will provide him the opportunity to see exactly where the bill stands and what he will have to add to or take out of the bill in order to gain passage.
This bill is getting closer and closer to passage every day and Saturday will be a telltale sign of how close the senate is to passing it. It appears as though this bill’s fate lies with just a few senators. If the vote is close enough I predict that instead of negotiating with the dissenting senators Harry Reid will apply pressure and threaten them with reprisals if they do not fall in line.
There are still several Democrats who haven’t made up their minds and then there is Joe Lieberman who says he will filibuster this bill if it includes a public option so the key may lie with the pseudo-Republicans Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and John McCain. If these senators vote in favor of the bill I don’t see where it can be stopped.
Saturday’s vote will be a clear sign on how close this bill is to passing. Hopefully it will go down in flames but it is getting close to critical mass. In the end a healthcare reform bill will pass, and we know that it will be bad, we just have to hope that it will be as less bad as possible.
America's Watchtower 
This is so weird because I just got an email saying Reid was going to cloture on Saturday? I wonder why the 2 different reports?
Anyway, do you ever wish you could wake up from this nightmare and the bill would be dead and this would finally be over?
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I am reading this morning that the actual vote will come on Saturday. I don’t know why the two stories other than to try to throw people off of his scent.
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It will never be over Dominique. Some of the socialist hacks around Obama have waiting since the 60’s for this day. They’re ramming things through as fast as they can because they know that America would never willing submit to this agenda. This is decades in the making.
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Unfortunately you are right, these are hippies who have never grown up and they have found their new great cause.
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If you recall, Nancy Pelosi pulled this same tactic. She first let it be known that there wasn’t going to be a real vote on the House version of health care reform, but lo and behold, there was. Late one Saturday night earlier this month, she slipped it through.
I have heard several times that Harry Reid is a master at this kind of thing, ie. working behind the scenes and negotiating and pressuring until he gets the votes he needs. He is doing just that.
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Yes he is, I am afraid he will buy the votes he needs. This new trend of holding votes on Saturday appears to me to be slick. They want to hold these votes when the fewest amount of people are paying attention, but that doesn’t seem to work on something as big as this plan.
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