Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen said on MSNBC this morning that he’s still not sure how Democrats will pass health care reform with just 59 votes in the senate — saying “a lot of discussions are taking place.”
“We are discussing all the different options in terms of moving forward with a bill,” he said. “Obviously, we’ve gotta take out some of the most understandably controversial provisions in the senate bill, for example the Nebraska deals, and other deals. Voters are understandably upset about those.”
But making changes to the senate bill would seemingly require the senate to vote on it again — which could be a problem for Democrats in a chamber where they now appear to have only 59 votes.
Getting 60 votes, Van Hollen acknowledged, “requires a bipartisanship from some of the Republicans that we just haven’t seen.”
Van Hollen said passing health care reform through reconciliation was possible, but that “no final decisions have been made” and that “a lot of discussions are taking place.”
Another alternative might ben rather than passing the senate bill as is and then patching it, why not modify the senate bill and then allow them to use other procedures in the senate?”
Here’s the video:
