Senator Lincoln is making it clear that she will proceed with cloture on this first vote but likely will not if the public option is in a final bill....
As I understand it, reconciliation can only be used for budget related items so it would be difficult to use it to regulate insurance companies, etc....items not directly related to the budget which Sen. Harkin claims makes up most of the pending bill. My question is this...why not pass this current bill without the public option then toss a very strong PO into budget reconciliation after the fact?
Frankly, I'm starting to think the PO is a bit of a red herring....it's being used so conservatives can shoot their righteous wad. It will be magnanimously removed from the bill, only to be reinserted into the budget bill soon after. The fact this option is never openly discussed anywhere makes me think this could ultimately be the plan (or that I have an imaginative conspiracy theory going on in my head.....and believe Dems are smart enough to do this...which I doubt...). If it were openly discussed, conservadems would not go along with this legislation at all. This way they can vote on the bill they like and say they passed healthcare reform but they were screwed by the big, bad liberals on the budget.
Any thoughts?