Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) announced they will vote to start the debate on health care reform, ending days of speculation over whether President Barack Obama’s signature priority would proceed to the floor or suffer a debilitating blow. | AP photo composite by POLITICO Lincoln on board, 60 in hand

Sen. Blanche Lincoln is a yes for debating health reform, but a no for the public option, and she and fellow centrists are making clear they expect Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to scrap his current plan for a government-run insurance program.

Lincoln (D-Ark.) announced Saturday that she’d deliver the deciding vote to push forward with a sweeping health reform plan, ending days of speculation over whether President Barack Obama’s signature priority would proceed to the Senate floor or suffer a debilitating blow.


But Lincoln and fellow moderate Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) also laid down strong objections to the public health insurance plan included in the Senate bill – saying they couldn’t support the bill if it came to the floor in that form.

“I am opposed to a new government administered public health care plan as a part of comprehensive health care reform, and I will not vote in favor of the proposal that has been introduced by Leader Reid as it is written,” Lincoln said.

Lincoln, who is facing a tough-reelection fight in 2010, also put fellow Democrats on notice about the political stakes in her race — saying she’s already faced some $3.3 million in ads trying to sway her vote on the bill, from the left and the right.

And she laid down a laundry list of concerns, most of which also are shared by her fellow centrists – that the bill not increase the deficit, protects seniors on Medicare, makes insurance more affordable for small businesses and enhances competition with private insurers, all without a public option.

The final vote is scheduled for 8 p.m., but with Lincoln’s announcement in hand, Reid has the 60 votes he needs to begin debate on the bill after Thanksgiving and break any Republican attempt to hold up debate. Republicans said they wouldn’t give up the fight.

"The battle has just begun," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters shortly after Lincoln signaled her support for the procedural motion. "We are going to do everything and anything we can to prevent this measure from becoming law."

Reid’s bill would cover 94 percent of all Americans by creating a public health insurance option that gives states a chance to "opt-out" of the program, increasing subsidies for those who can’t afford insurance and requiring individuals to own insurance. But some of the moderates think that goes too far. Landreiu suggested she'd be open to a plan with a "trigger," where the public option would kick if private insurers didn't increase coverage fast enough. Lincoln made no mention of the trigger.

Even if Reid can work out a compromise with moderates on the public option, he still face a difficult fight ahead with the House, which includes a more liberal version of a public option and a millionaires tax to pay for it. The two chambers would have reconcile their bills, and Obama is trying to hold them to a strict year-end deadline to complete work.

Landrieu said she has been in discussions with other centrists, as well as Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), an outspoken advocate of the public option who also served a point man on negotiations with moderates.

“I believe it is going to be very clear at some point very soon that there are not 60 votes for the current provision in the bill and that the leader and the leadership will have to make a decision, and I trust they will figure out how to do that,” Landrieu said.

“Our caucus knows this is a real serious issue for us from the beginning,” Landrieu said. “A third are for the public option, a third are adamantly against and a third are in the middle. I am adamantly against but would consider a principled compromise because I understand this is one of the issues we have to find a solution for or it could blow up the whole effort.”

For a day at least, Reid could breathe a sigh of relief, having passed a major test of his leadership by holding together 58 Democrats and 2 independents on a bill that doesn’t pass muster with many of them.

Two of those planning to vote yes today – Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) have already said they’d join a filibuster of the bill, Nelson to strengthen its abortion restrictions and Lieberman to stop the public option. Lieberman has said he believes other Democrats would do the same, though none warned of that in remarks Saturday.

Landrieu announced her vote earlier in the day. "My vote today to move forward on this important debate should in no way to be construed as . . .an indication of how I might vote as this debate comes to an end," she warned. "It is a vote to move forward. … But much more work needs to be done.”

Some Democrats – including Obama – have signaled a preference for the trigger as a possible way to bridge deep divides in the party between liberals and moderates over the public option. And it has the support of a key Republican, favored by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

Landrieu also was unapologetic in describing how she sought more help for her state in the health-reform negotiations – even saying reports that she got $100 million more in Medicaid dollar for Louisiana were false. It was really $300 million, she said.

“I’m proud to have asked for it. I’m proud to have fought for it, and I will continue to. That is not the reason I’m moving to the debate,” Landrieu said.

Speaking with reporters after her speech, Landrieu said the 72-hour delay between the bill’s introduction and the vote helped secure her support. It gave her time to read through the legislation, talk with Louisiana constituents, and meet with experts, including Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and ally of the White House.

She said her state is “very divided” on health care reform, but decided the debate needed to move forward because the current health system is broken. She reiterated that the bill does not have her support – and she would vote against if it looks the same at the end of the amendment process.

Landrieu’s announcement came as Democrats and Republican kicked off a day-long floor debate Saturday ahead of an 8 p.m. vote. Republicans called the $848 billion bill a budget-busting, tax-raising monstrosity that would hurts seniors, small business and families. Democrats accused them of scare-mongering and said the bill is a sensible and long-overdue fix to a badly broken health care system.

And both sides sparred over the nature of Saturday’s vote – with Democrats saying it’s merely a chance for debate to begin and Republicans saying it’s a back-door endorsement of the $848 billion plan.

“Senators who support this bill have a lot of explaining to do, a lot of explaining to do,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said, in comments seemingly aimed at the wavering moderates Landrieu and Lincoln.

"The Democrat plan would make life harder for the vast majority of Americans. It raises their taxes, it raises their health care premiums, it cuts their Medicare and drives millions off the private insurance they currently have. When fully implemented, this plan would cost $2.5 trillion. That's the equivalent of three failed stimulus bills," McConnell said.

Reid called McConnell’s remarks “Orwellian” – suggesting he was trying to squelch a free and open debate on the merits of health reform.

“All we’re asking today is have, a debate on it. Why would anybody be afraid in the greatest debating society supposedly in the world to debate health care? What are they afraid of?” Reid said.

Landrieu had telegraphed her yes vote today as the week wore on, even telling POLITICO Friday night that she was “leaning towards” voting to open the debate.

But she outlined a long list of concerns with the current bill – including its later start date of 2014 and the inclusion of a public health insurance option, with a chance for states to “opt-out” of that plan. She expressed a preference for a “trigger” option that would allow a public plan to kick in if private insurance couldn’t expand coverage fast enough.

“The key elements of this health care reform bill, I repeat: reduces short-and-long term debt, expands coverage, promotes choice and competition, reforms the insurance market, improves quality of care,” Reid said.

He also said McConnell’s frequent warning about the health bill raising the deficit showed that “my friend, the distinguished Republican leader is living in a different world than everyone else.”

Republicans, however, hammered the theme that the bill would run big taxes and big deficits and not deliver the promised improvements to the health care system.

“The bill is just too much, goes too far, too fast, costs too much. The American people know this. That’s why they oppose this bill,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) “They’re not opposed to reform and progress. They’re opposed to this legislation.”