What we've learned in the debate on this one: Republicans love Medicare, but hate gubmint-run healthcare. Watching them try to work that one out is very fun. Kent Conrad. Ensign says that government programs become so popular and so important to the American people that Congress shouldn't create them. Grassley doesn't want it because it could work. Conrad, whose interpretation of what he read in T.R. Reid's book continues to be just bizarre, is all over the place on this one, but didn't say right out that he'd vote against it. He said he was voting against Rockefeller because it was tied to Medicare, but this Schumer amendment is not.
And Baucus still can't vote for it because without his vote it won't reach 60 votes and since it won't get 60 votes he can't vote for it.
You can watch on DKTV, C-SPAN3, or the livefeed from Committee.
Update: Picked up Carper and Nelson on that one. If Conrad and Baucus would not hold so firm in their position that the bill can't pass and would vote for it, then it would pass. When they say there aren't the votes for it, it just means that they won't vote for it.
Update 2: They've moved on to an R amendment, since Baucus decided on a 2 and 2 procedure today--2 D amendments and then 2 R ones.