If you are following the healthcare reform debate in the Senate (especially the abortion angle) and you're not familiar with the inner workings of the Senate, let me suggest to you that you do some research on the term "Manager's Amendment". You're going to need to be aware of it. What is it? The definition from CSPAN is below:
A Manager's Amendment is a package of numerous individual amendments agreed to by both sides in advance. The managers are the majority and the minority member who manage the debate on a bill for their side.
This Manager's Amendment is introduced into the process at the last minute with very little time for substantial debate. It's basically a way for Senators to get what they want in the bill without going through the typical individual amendment process which requires 60 votes. Republican Senator Tom Coburn believes that even if the pro-life healthcare reform amendment offered by Ben Nelson (similiar to the Bart Stupak language in the House) is defeated this week, Coburn believes it will be included in the Senate's Manager's Amendment at the end of this process. Here is what he said at a GOP Press Conference on Monday:
Senator Tom Coburn: "My suspicion is that when we see a manager's amendment, the Stupak language will be in there. They're going to allow a cover vote—that's why they want to hurry up with this vote to allow a cover vote so everyone can state their positions and then say, 'Well, I couldn't control the manager's amendment.'"
Let me try and explain this. You see, Harry Reid needs 60 votes to pass a healthcare reform bill. If Ben Nelson's pro-life language is not in the bill, Nelson says he won't vote for it. That leaves Reid at 59. Independent Joe Lieberman won't vote for the bill if it has a public option in it so now Reid is at 58. To get to 60, Reid has a couple options. First of all, he's going to need to change the public option that is currently in the Senate bill so he could try to forge some sort of compromise in the public option (negotiations are taking place now on that) to the point where Snowe and Lieberman agree to it. That would be 60. Or to get Nelson back on board, he could just put Nelson's pro-life abortion amendment in a larger Manager's Amendment at the end of the process right before a final vote. (yes pro-choicers will hate this but they may have no other choice if they want healthcare reform) If he does that, he gets Nelson and hopes that Lieberman is content enough with the compromise on the "new" version of the so-called public option. That could get Reid to 60 as well.
Here's the bottom line: the abortion amendment in the Senate is joined at the hip with the public option. Why? Well, Ben nelson says he'll filibuster the Senate bill if he doesn't get the pro-life language in the bill BUT his filibuster threat won't matter at all if Reid can convince Lieberman and Snowe to come on board for this possible new version of the public option 9which may not be much of a public option at all after all is said in done)
Oy..I'm exhausted just thinking about it. I don't know what's harder. Explaining all of that or keeping up with the number of affairs Tiger Woods has had.
Stay tuned.