Sen. Mary Landrieu said she will decide Thursday about whether to allow the health-care bill to get to the floor for debate in the Senate, according to Politico, effectively putting majority leader Harry Reid either one step closer or one step back to the 60 votes needed to surmount a Republican filibuster.
Regardless of which way she stands, it's sure to draw criticism for the senior Senator in Louisiana. If she votes to topple the filibuster it would anger Republicans in Louisiana, where the GOP has dominated statewide elections over the past couple elections; however, a vote against it would signal her out as one of the few -- perhaps the only -- Democrats to stand against the bill.
Landrieu told Politico that she has been concerned about three elements in the bill: that it drives down costs to small businesses and families, reduces cost for the government, and reforms the current system rather than adding in a public option.
"If we are not careful on this public option piece, you could eliminate private insurance. And that’s not what we want to do," Landrieu told Politico.
Landrieu said until she gets the projected numbers from the Congressional Budget Office, she's staying neutral on the bill. She said the initial reports of the CBO score are what she was expecting to hear. The article was written before the CBO announced the bill would cost $849 billion, so we'll have to wait to hear from Landrieu if that estimate sways her opinion one way or the other.
For a quick look at the numbers in the health-care bill, click here. According to the Wall Street Journal, the bill's cost is under Obama's $900 billion target ceiling, would cut the deficit by $127 billion over the decade, and it would cover 94 percent of Americans.
