And healthcare reform makes it out of Finance. 14-9 with President Snowe voting for the bill.
Yes, the bill sucks. But yes, this is still very historic.
The next step will be to combine it with the HELP bill. This is when we'll know how important the public option -- and passing healthcare reform at all -- is to the Senate. At this point, we know we have around 51 votes for healthcare reform with the public option. The deciding factor for the public option will be whether we have 60 to defeat the Republican filibuster or if doofs like Conrad will vote with the Republicans on cloture.