Crossposted from BlueArkansasBlog.com

In a statement, Blanche Lincoln joined Bill Nelson (NE) and Evan Bayh opposing the use of reconciliation to pass a fix to the Senate health care reform bill.

This is really the only way a health care bill could possibly be passed at this point. So, after voting for passage, Lincoln wishes to prevent even the current bill from passing.

The Hill


This option requiring only 51 votes (reconciliation), is the only way a comprehensive health care bill will pass since Democrats would never be able to have another vote and get one Republican to sign on. It is simply fantasy to suggest otherwise. Of course, the current bill passed by the Senate has too many problems that need fixing still. That is why the House refuses to pass it until the Senate agrees to fix the bill. However, that would require another 60 vote threshold that the Senate cannot make. Therefore, the only way to fix the bill is to pass it through reconciliation.

The Hill


Arkansas wants a Public Option and Blanche Lincoln keeps putting words in Arkansans' mouths. A public option could pass the reconciliation process, as it only requires 51 votes or 50 votes and Joe Biden's tiebreaking vote. A Medicare expansion would likely have this much support as well. For more on this, see my post.

Cross posted from BlueArkansasBlog.com

I received a robo call on Wednesday night from a 501 area code number (Little Rock) asking some interesting questions. What was also interesting was that this phone call only asked a total of three questions pertaining to politics. Here they are:

1) Do you view Blanche Lincoln favorably or unfavorably?

2) Do you view Bill Halter favorably or unfavorably?

3) In a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, would you vote for Blanche Lincoln or Bill Halter?

There were a couple of other questions on sex and race.

Seems to me that someone wants to find out just how dangerous a primary may be for Blanche Lincoln. A recent poll shows Blanch Lincoln above 50% in unfavorability ratings and job disapproval in the state.

talkbusiness.net



The consequences of her opposition to the public option among other issues is the likely reason for her favorability among Democrats being only at 61%, extremely low for an incumbent Senator from the Democratic Party. The polls are showing that a primary challenge may not only be a good idea for Bill Halter, but for anyone who wants to keep this Senate seat in Democratic hands in 2010.

Someone here suggested I put my posts into a journal entry so that people may get better exposure to the ideas contained herein.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/20/82...



The point to draw from this, in my opinion, is not that people voted based on Brown's votes, but because of frustration (in part) with not getting things done the way they were promised (not bringing change).

If my calculations are correct, "Obama voters who voted for Brown" represent about 10% of all votes cast in the election. More than enough to make the difference. http://act.boldprogressives.org/cms/sign/m...

85% of "Obama voters who voted for Brown" are independents.
89% of "Obama voters who stayed home" are Democrats.

It is entirely possible that voters voted for Brown or stayed home to punish Democrats for not passing a Public Option.

It is not our job to defend or attack these voters, but it is our job to understand their reasoning, even if we view it as irrational. Doing so will enable us to prevent future losses and decrease voter frustrations.

I propose that in order to relieve these frustrations that we pass a Public Option or extend Medicare. Both of these have shown the ability to pass the House and Senate with a simple majority. Even Conrad is open to using Budget Reconciliation (requires 50+1 votes in the Senate) to change things that the House wants in the final bill.

Now that the Senate has 59 votes, budget reconciliation is the only way many things will get done. The only way that HCR can now get passed is if the House votes for the Senate bill without any changes. The House will not do that, according to people like Weiner, without some things getting changed via reconciliation in the Senate. The House can make a deal with the Senate to pass the HCR bill if the Senate simultaneously passes a Public Option/Medicare extension through budget reconciliation (50+1 votes) along with many of the other changes it seeks.

Some members of the House are already talking about this possibility, although I have yet to hear them mention a medicare extension or a public option.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01...


The members of the House should seize the opportunity to give voters what they are asking for since we would no longer need votes from Nelson, Lieberman, Lincoln, or Brown for that matter. We can get 50+1 votes in the Senate for at least a Medicare expansion to 55 and maybe to 45. The senate almost agreed to this except for Lieberman alone. We could still pass the bill with budget reconciliation with 58 votes and a Medicare expansion.

In this way, we can start to cure what ails us.