Saturday, December 5, 2009

What should Obama say to Democratic Senators?

"We have 58 Democrats, one independent Democrat, and one independent in here.
That is a magical sixty votes. It's unfortunate for some of you, but lucky for me.
I'm going to state this clearly. This Tuesday, we are having a cloture vote to move to end debate and have a final vote on the Health Care legislation. Everyone in this room will vote for this motion. In addition, everyone in this room will allow a vote on the Conference Report coming back from the House. In short, Health Care Reform is passing, this year before the Christmas Break.

There will not be anymore negotiations in terms of the cloture votes. On this issue, it is unconditional. It is a party vote. It is the right thing for this nation that the governing party with 60 votes in his caucus have an up or down vote on his signature domestic item. Now to be clear, this is a one shot deal. I will say so publicly if necessary. This will not be done on Climate Change, Financial Reform, or any other issue. Our administration chose this as our top priority and it will get done more or less our way.

Anyone who obstructs this healthcare bill. The Reid bill. Any bill that the majority leader puts forward. Any conference report. They are declaring themselves to not be within our caucus.
They will be forfeiting chairmanships. They will be forfeiting seniority. They will have trouble with me for at least 3 years and hopefully trouble with me for 7 years.

It dissappoints me that I have to do this, but it is done. This is non-negotiable, but I will work a deal with any Senator who needs one. I will not cheat anyone.

But I want to make it clear, that 60 votes means sixty votes."

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