Scott Brown and the Health Care Debate

Will the health care bill still pass? According to the Wall Street Journal Blog, the key points from the Washington coverage found in the WSJ, Washington Post, New York Times and Politico are as follows:

Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts means the Dems no longer have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. That means Republicans could (and almost certainly would) block any wholesale changes to the Senate health-care bill.

The House could pass the same version of the health-care bill that already passed the Senate, and send it to the President’s desk. Some further tweaks to the health-care overhaul could be made under a process known as reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority in the Senate.

Or House Dems could balk, both because they don’t like some of the provisions in the Senate bill, and because of popular opposition to the health-care overhaul. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Dem who had earlier pushed for a single-payer system, seems to be in this camp. “I don’t think I can vote for the Senate bill, and I don’t think there are the votes in the House for the Senate bill,” he said, according to the WSJ.