Who’re you gonna believe, Mitch McConnell, or Max Baucus?
Today, the Senate Minority Leader and the Senate Finance Committee chair offered mutually exclusive prognoses on the fate of health care reform.
Baucus says there’s a “very good chance” that a significant number of Republicans will ultimately support the compromise legislation he’s spent months writing, and which he finally plans to unveil either late tonight or tomorrow morning.
But, based on what he’s read of the plan so far, the Republican Senate leader is doubtful.
“I don’t think that’s a package that very many Republicans will support,” McConnell said today.
Baucus may be a bit over confident, and his definition of bipartisanship may be unviable. But Senate leadership has made it very clear that, for them, bipartisanship means one Republican.
Harry Reid told reporters today that his plan is to get 60 votes (59 Democrats plus Olympia Snowe) and, if that fails, to reroute as much of the package as they can through the filibuster proof reconciliation process.
