Delaware's Ted Kaufman s the 34th Senator to voice support for passing the public option through reconciliation (see the entire list of supporters).
"I'm for a public option, if there's some way that it can get done," he said. "If it qualified under reconciliation, then I would," he said, when asked if he'd vote for it on the floor.
Kaufman is the 34th Senator to commit to supporting the public option through reconciliation. Two others -- Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) -- are public option supporters but have not committed to passing it through reconciliation.
With their support, public option backers would be 14 votes short of victory; White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said recently he doesn't think there is enough "political support" for the public option in the Senate. Reconciliation allows the majority to pass budget-related legislation with 50 votes plus a tie-breaker from Vice President Joe Biden.
Additionally, Sherrod Brown says he'll push for a separate public option amendment, if it's not included in the reconcilaition package.
Brown, a liberal Democrat, told reporters that he hopes that Democratic leaders include a public plan in the current package but said that he would "absolutely" try to cobble together a different proposal if it is not.
"If we don't get it on this. I still hope we get it on this. If we don't get it on this, we can give it a try," he said. Asked if that meant passing separate legislation, he answered "Absolutely, absolutely, oh yeah."
We have heard months' worth of assurances from Brown that the public option would be in Senate bill and/or included in the final bill after conference. There is no reason not to have this vote, however, now that a large majority of the Democratic Senate caucus (and 120 House members) have said they want it.
At the very least, this enduringly popular piece of the reform package should get an up or down vote.