TAMPA, FL -- What happens in the Senate this weekend will make or break the push for health care reform.
"You'll have a lot of Americans who will think that the health care vote in the Senate tomorrow is the final product, but it's actually the beginning," says University of South Florida political science professor, Dr. Susan MacManus.
MacManus says what will take place in the Senate is known as cloture, or a procedural vote to decide whether or not to bring the health care bill to the floor for debate.
"I will for the motion to proceed to bring the legislation before the Senate, this is a debate that we must have," says Sen. Bill Nelson. (D-FL)
This is where the all important number 60 comes into play. The leadership needs all 58 Democrats, plus 2 other Senators to vote “Yes” for the debate to live on.
Then, MacManus says, it gets much easier. "But once it gets to the floor all it's gonna take to pass it is 51 votes," she says.
Convincing everyday Democrat comes with a lot of expensive price tags, including the one found on page 432 of the Senate bill. On that page, you’ll find a “special adjustment” to the Medicaid funding to certain states recovering from a major disaster.
It’s no secret the democratic senator from Louisiana is on the fence.
"Some would call that pork, some would call it excessive arm twisting, a bribe, others would simply call it politics,” MacManus says.
MacManus suspects other examples of politics could be found throughout the pages.
"Just when you thought it could be bigger than speaker Pelosi’s 1,990 page bill. We got 2,074 pages," says Sen. George LeMieux. (R-FL)
