Appearing on MSNBC tonight, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) asserted that the Democrats have the votes to break an expected Republican filibuster on health care — with or without Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).
“We have 60 votes without Sen. Snowe, so we can still invoke cloture and move to a vote on the public option,” he said. Some moderate Democrats, he added, might oppose the public option, but they’d still vote for cloture.
On Snowe, he said, “I hope we have her, but we may be able to do it without her.”
Specter, a supporter of the public option, said he’s lukewarm on an opt-out public option.
“I think that might be attractive to some people, but I don’t think that that will be necessary,” he said.
“I think the likelihood is there are 50 plus votes among the Democrats in the Senate to have a robust public option, without an opt out, with a trigger, without any condition. We’ll have to see,” Specter said.
As far as reconciliation, he said: “Only as a last last last resort.”
