Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and her Health Care vote

Fellow Common Sense Texans:

You may have heard that Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was one of three opposition senators (along with Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe) to cast a vote against a legislative filibuster on Friday. We contacted Senator Hutchison's office for confirmation and/or an explanation of the reports. We've included all the details below.


Background:

At this point, Harry Reid's health care bill can only be slowed or stopped by the use of senate procedures including the filibuster (procedural block). Harry Reid almost certainly has the 50 votes necessary for passage of the bill. Thus, if the bill gets to a final up-or-down vote on the Senate floor, the bill will almost certainly pass.

At this point, news reports are telling us that Harry Reid has the 60 votes necessary to break any filibuster, but we are still several days away from the final cloture vote, and a lot can happen in a few days.

The conventional wisdom holds that the opponents of the health care bill will have to employ every procedural tool at their disposal to stop or slow this bill. Every vote matters. There is no room for error, division or infighting. It is broadly acknowledged that, if the bill is to be slowed down, and hopefully defeated, a united front will be critical.

Senators opposing the health care bill had imposed a filibuster on pending legislation in order to prevent the health care bill from getting to a final vote before Christmas. As you are aware, given the current makeup of the Senate, a filibuster can only be maintained if the opposition minority holds together and votes consistently as a bloc.


Snowe, Collins and Hutchison Break Ranks:

As noted, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Texas' own Kay Bailey Hutchison joined with Harry Reid and the other proponents of the health care bill in voting to break an opposition filibuster on Friday. (The specific bill under consideration at the time was a spending bill on defense appropriations, but the vote in question related to maintaining the filibuster.)

The breaking of this filibuster moved one more obstacle out of the way and helped the health care bill move another step closer to passage through the Senate.

Erick Erickson of RedState has taken a hard line on Hutchison's vote:
Kay Bailey Hutchison, much maligned for campaigning in Texas during the health care debate, boldly announced that she would go to Washington and stay there to fight health care and kill it dead.

Instead, today she accelerated it getting to the Senate floor in a bit of Senate gamesmanship.
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/12/18/for-kay-bailey-hutchison-staying-in-washington-to-fight-health-care-means-expediting-its-passage/


Sen. Hutchison's Explanation:

We called Senator Hutchison's office to confirm the reports of this vote, and to ask for her side of the story. Senator Hutchison's office confirmed that Hutchison did indeed vote to end the filibuster. Her office explained that the filibuster would have been broken even without Sen. Hutchison's vote, and she considered her vote an expression of 'support for the troops.' (As noted above, the filibuster was delaying the passage of a defense appropriations bill.)


Analysis:

Hutchison's staff is almost certainly correct that the opposition filibuster would have been broken even without Hutchison's vote to break it (60 Democrats and two other Republicans--Snowe and Collins--voted the same way). Further, in terms of chronology, it appears she was the 61st vote for the motion. Thus, she wasn't the 60th 'critical vote.'
More on that here : http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/12/gov-rick-perry-continues-to-pr.html

That said, whatever opinion one may hold on Senator Hutchison's vote, there is some cause for concern that Hutchison's vote with Collins and Snowe may indicate wavering support for the opposition effort to this bill. Snowe and Collins were already known to be wavering in their opposition. Prior to this filibuster vote on Friday, Sen. Hutchison was thought to be solidly in opposition.

As noted above, the opposition effort can fall apart in short order if solidarity is lost.

Fellow Texans, if you oppose this health care bill, we encourage you to contact Senator Hutchison and remind her that WE'RE WATCHING EVERY VOTE.